Thursday, October 25th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Trying to Figure Out Which NBA Team to Follow - Bulls Edition
I’ve always had a little bit more than a passing interest in basketball, but Pittsburgh’s lack of a team has prevented me from having a natural group of players to follow. This season, however, I am trying to follow a sport that I don’t understand nearly as well as the other three of the “Big Four” despite it being my first love (that Michael Jordan pushoff shot . . . I reenacted that about a hundred times on the playground in third grade). Alas, the Bulls no longer have Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippin, Luc Longley, Toni Kukoc, Dennis Rodman, or any of the other legends of my youth, but they are still on my shortlist to make “my team” this season.
To their advantage, the Bulls have an abnormally high amount of young talent. They have one of the strongest emerging inside men in the game in Tyrus Thomas, the athletic freak they picked second overall in the 2006 draft (okay, he was taken fourth and traded for LaMarcus Aldridge, which makes him drafted second). Thomas is one of those players who could go either way, developing into an absolute monster inside or simply falling off of the radar. Ben Gordon, drafted in the first round of the 2004 draft, has developed into one of the best scorers in the league, able to put a highlight reel of shots up any night he so chooses. Meanwhile, Luol Deng has become one of the best young players in basketball, averaging 18.8 points-per-game last season.
Add Ben Wallace, Joakim Noah, Andres Nocioni, Kirk Hinric, and Chris Duhon to that mix plus extremely intense coach Scott Skiles and there is suddenly a brewing storm in the Second City.
More importantly, though, is the interest that the Bulls have shown in Kobe Bryant, as they appear to be the front-runner for the preeminent superstar in today’s basketball. The Kobe story in Chicago, with Skiles who fined Ben Wallace $10,000 for wearing a headband as coach, could be even more interesting than the Kobe story in Los Angeles. The Bulls are a team that can expect to contend this year, but they would inevitably have to give up some of the young talent (Gordon, Hinrich, Thomas? Nocioni?) to get Bryant. This would make them less intriguing from a watch young talent grow standpoint, but more interesting from the standpoint of having the storyline of basketball on their team.
Also, the Bulls have ex-Pitt star Aaron Gray and any team that has Frankenstein’s Monster down low is worth rooting for.
On the down side, the Bulls seem to disappoint, they are one time zone away which would make rooting for them a pain, I hate Kobe with a passion, and I am already dealing with one team’s bipolarity. If I feel like I can handle the ups and downs of another young team, then I may choose them. If not, I will pick another one of the teams on my list.
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