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Bulls Fri Mar 11 2011
Boozer's Injury Leads Busy Week for Bulls
Bulls power forward Carlos Boozer sprained his ankle in Wednesday's win in Charlotte, but nothing's broken and he's now listed as day-to-day. Taj Gibson will again step in as Boozer's replacement, and coach Tom Thibodeau has few worries about how he'll perform.
"Taj started a majority of the season last year and played great," Thibodeau said. "We had the (hand) injury to Carlos early on in the season and he started (15 games) then. He's very comfortable starting. Whenever he has gotten extended minutes, he has played extremely well."
Little to say here, because we've already been down this road a few times this year. Rest up, big guy, the biggest games are yet to come.
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Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf pulled a half-hearted Rex Ryan impression, telling the Sun-Times that with the nucleus the team has now, "at least four championships" are possible.
"We have an outstanding coach, an outstanding bunch of players, the team is deep, and if we stay healthy we have an awfully good chance of winning at least four championships."
Ugh. OK, folks. I suppose it was inevitable, and perhaps we deserve a pat on the back for doing a very good job of not getting ahead of ourselves. A six-game win streak here, seven there, a legitimate MVP contender -- yet even still, most Bulls fans and observers kept their cool. "They've got no shooting guard," we said. "There are too many injuries", we said. "Good lord, why is Keith Bogans starting?!" we said.
We faithfully doubted, excited by the Bulls' precocious accomplishments but nervous about their youth and potential vulnerabilities. But with 19 games left, 1 1/2 games out of first place in the East, the Central Division title assured and a sweep of the Heat completed, I suppose it's time to go over the falls, for better or for worse.
But four? Let's focus on one for now, Jerry. A lot can happen over four years, as former Bulls No. 2 overall pick Jason/Jay Williams knows all too sadly.
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Barack Obama watched the Bulls' win against Charlotte. He took his support on the road too, ribbing Doc Rivers about Thibodeau's move from Boston to Chicago.
Whatever your political leanings, isn't it great to see someone stick with the home team no matter how famous he gets? Then again, it's not like the 16-47 Wizards were any threat to steal Obama's heart.
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G.O.A.T. Michael Jordan says Derrick Rose is his 2011 MVP.
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Finally, the Bulls close the week with home games Friday against Atlanta and Saturday against Utah. They'll honor their 20th anniversary 1991 championship team at halftime of the Jazz game.
Reading some of the quotes from past players, it's fascinating to see how much that first one still means to them. Never mind the fact that it was the first of a three-peat, or that another trio came later -- getting over the hump counted for a hell of a lot to those players because of how hard it was to accomplish. Here's a page of clips from the Bulls championship video from that year if you want to get a head start on the walk down memory lane.
Or you could just enjoy this totally unrelated video making fun of Chris Bosh:
