Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Ben Johnson

I really don’t know where to start. I know this had to happen, but I am still shocked. With what I will be saying here shortly may put me in the minority, but that’s fine. Today, I was reminded why the Bulls are still, an inept organization from ownership all the way down to the players. Even the trainers and doctors suck too as we have heard. I pray what happened today signals an overhaul of this entire franchise, but even I am not that stupid.

Derrick Rose, Justin Holiday and a second round pick for next year go to the Knickerbockers for Robin Lopez, Jerian Grant and Jose Calderon. First, Holiday was an alright player and usually, second round picks in the NBA do nothing. The Bulls get back Lopez, who is a decent center and replaces Joakim Noah (good riddance). Jose Calderon was a pretty good point guard a few years ago and can still be pretty good. Jerian Grant must have been thrown in the trade just for the fact that he is the nephew of one, Horace Grant. I’d say the Bulls won this trade.

Now, on to Rose. At the beginning, it was a blessing. Getting a text message from someone telling me the Bulls got the number one pick in the draft that year just made me some damn excited. I think every fan was. Just seeing the dude run all over the court and how freakishly athletic he was made us all tuned into the TV.

Then, the wheels fell off.

The Bulls decide to hire a lifelong assistant coach by the name of Tom Thibodeau. From the beginning, I knew this was a problem. The Bulls were kicking the shit out of teams in their wins. They were winning by 15, 20 and even 30 points at times. The problem with that? The starters were still in games late instead of the bench players. So we saw players like Rose and Deng out there in 30-point blowouts playing 40 minutes.

This proved costly in the playoffs when, in the first year of ThomASS, the Bulls somehow made it the Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat. I can just remember my head twisting with the question of why Derrick Rose wasn’t sitting out a few minutes in Games 3 and 4 of that year. He needed to rest. In Game 4, the Bulls had a chance to win late in the 4th and then, in overtime. Unfortunately, Derrick Rose ran out of gas and couldn’t make any shots. He must had played well over 40 minutes in that game. The Bulls were then put away in Game 5 after blowing a 12-point lead with just over four minutes to go.

In 2012, the proverbial knife to the chest happened. The Bulls were playing the 76ers in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs. The Bulls, up double-digits with under two minutes go, were all but done with this one. Thibodeau, who I’d bitched about countless times on this same, shitty website, for leaving starters in way too long before this game, decided to repeat his stupidity. Derrick Rose drives to the basketball and the rest is history. “Derrick Rose is hurt…Derrick Rose is hurt” is what Stacey King said on TV. Rose tears his ACL playing in a meaningless final two minutes of a playoff game. Fuck.

We knew Derrick Rose wasn’t a bright individual off the court, but that was masked by his play on the court. When he was sitting out, all of the awful comments, stories about his idiotic brother controlling his decisions and whatever else asinine came to light. I don’t have the energy to get into all of that, but needless to say, it affected his play on the court. And we can’t forget about the countless injuries that were spread out through this entire fire. Meniscus tears, sore knees, bad neck, whatever else it was, it happened to Derrick Rose.

The destruction of this man was a collective effort. It started with himself, of course. Then, it went to his virgin brother and trickled all the way down to the players, coaches and management. I still would like to think ThomASS was the fucking culprit of all it, though. ThomASS was the main reason why Derrick Rose self-destructed. If that injury happens while the game was close, then I guess it’s not. But that fact it wasn’t, still pisses me off to this day.

Nobody doubted Thibodeau’s skill of coaching. Even I said many times that he is a good X’s and O’s coach. But actually handling a team and making sure they are healthy? The absolute worst. Those 60 wins meant nothing because most of us logical fans knew that they would eventually run out of gas in the playoffs. Mark my words, the Timberwolves will do very well in the regular season eventually. That’s what teams coached by ThomASS do. When it gets to the playoffs, Thibodeau will defeat that team.

As the last couple of seasons went, ThomASS was shown the door and Fred Hoiberg was brought in. Rumors came about with Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose not getting along. I didn’t understand it either. I also felt ThomASS had a lot to do with that because he got into Butler’s head about being a great player. The humble and shy guy that came out of Marquette became egotistical. Well, he’s still with the Bulls for another four years. Derrick Rose is now gone.

So while many others are happy Rose is gone, I’ll say that I was really pulling for the guy to do well. I was praying the guy would grow up. Nearly eight years after the day he was drafted, he is now gone. And as I said earlier, I understand. But it’s time the Chicago Bulls grow up as a franchise. Tearing this whole team down from management all the way to the players, trainers and doctors needs to happen. Let this be the start.

Take out the trash.

My opinion on LeBron James had been well-documented on this awful website over the years. Some would argue with me and others against, which was fine.

All of those years, I will argue he was an immature and selfish player. I felt as if he believed the world revolved around him. In high school, he was becoming this rising celebrity. The whole ordeal with his mom buying a Hummer, to him taking gifts from a store at that time and everything else before getting to the NBA, disliking him became very easy.

Then, of course, all of the years with Cleveland during the first run just made me really despise the basketball player. I felt the whole “Decision” ordeal was the final straw for most. It was easy to root against LeBron James.

Two years ago, something changed. It was almost as if he had grown up. I think he even admitted the “Decision” was a bit over the top. And it was. He decided to come back to Cleveland and help the city win a title.

What started to sell me was watching the ESPN 30 for 30 about Cleveland just being a miserable city both for sports and in general. I swear, that whole documentary can just make you cry your eyes out. All of the failures in sports and shitty economy made me think of my teams and how bad they have been in history. I felt I could relate so much to these people. I pretty much told myself, “I hated the Cavaliers growing up, but damn. Just give them the title once in their lives.”

Down 3-1 to what was supposed to be the greatest NBA team in history, raise your hand if you thought the Cavaliers were going to come back. Don’t worry, I didn’t either. Game 5 arrives and I text one of my friends during the game basically saying “LeBron is just throwing up shots like there is no tomorrow”. And that was true. I could not believe what I was watching. The dude puts up 41 points and they force a Game 6. Then, he repeats the performance by netting 40. He even blocks a shot from Curry during that game and says a few things to him after. I couldn’t help but cheer and laugh at that. I was turning into a believer.

And now, it’s Game 7. WWE has a pay-per-view on at the same time, so I have the TV on for Game 7 and pay-per-view on the laptop. Most of my focus was on the game. I just couldn’t believe what I saw in the last two games. Myself and I am certain everyone else started asking: “Can LeBron do it one more time”?

Game 7 was a classic. I thought the last two games were heavyweight fights with punch and counterpunch continuously. The scores may not be reflective of that, but watching the actual game tells you differently. Game 7 went the distance. The last five minutes made me so intrigued and had me really pulling for the Cavaliers to seal this deal and give the fans not what they want, but what they need. Kyrie Irving hits a huge three, the Warriors go scoreless, due in large part to LeBron. That amazing block towards the end just showed how bad he wanted to win. I thought the shoe was going to fall off when LeBron went for that dunk and landed on the floor hard. I was thinking “broken wrist”. He gets up, misses the first free throw but drains the second one to make it a two-possession game. LeBron finishes with a triple-double.

The Cavaliers bring the first title in sports for Cleveland in 52 years. They deserved it. We as Chicago fans know what it’s like to have teams stab us in the hearts while twisting the knife. Let them have this.

The floor is yours.

Another person in sports has left us. I’ve lost count already this year.

This time, it was former Chicago Bear Bryan Robinson. And that name is familiar with a bunch of us.

In the 90’s, the Bears were awful. In fact, they’re still awful. It felt like a lifetime between victories against the Packers. Growing up in a town that was nearly split down the middle with Bears/Packers fans, it made it even worse.

The year was 1999. The Bears were so bad, God couldn’t even watch. Walter Payton had passed during the week before the game. The Bears went to Lambeau to play the Packers. The day before, there was a ceremony at Lambeau remembering Payton. As I mentioned in the previous thread with Gordie Howe and Blackhawks fans, I think Packers fans would say that the only Bear they could never hate would be Walter Payton. So needless to say, it was a very emotional time for both teams.

The game begins and the Bears, to everyone’s surprise, including themselves, are actually playing in a close game. A 13-year old me is watching this game in the living room. Looking back, the Bears actually being up on the Packers was so rare in my childhood, that I remember these games well. I just remember Jim Miller throwing interceptions in this game. Cade McNown had a knee injury early in the game. As I type this, my eyes are ready to bleed just reminiscing about Cade McNown doing some type of bootleg. Fuck.

Moving on, the Bears take the lead in the 3rd quarter on a Bobby Engram touchdown thrown from Miller. I just researched the box score. Miller threw three interceptions in this game. In the 4th quarter, Chris fucking Boniol missed a field goal that would have put the Bears up 17-13 with just under 6:00 minutes to go. So Brett Favre, who was sending dick pictures with Polaroids to reporters during this time due to cell phone cameras not yet being invented, drove the Packers down the field in typical Brett Favre fashion. As a Bears fan, I am sure everyone was thinking, “not this again”.

Favre takes the Packers down to around the 10-yard line with just a few seconds to go. Ryan Longwell, who was a pretty damn good kicker, just had to make a chip shot right in the middle of the field for the win. On this day, the Bears pulled one out of their asses thanks to one man: Bryan Robinson.

Bryan, thank you for this memory.

If you are a Blackhawks fan, this is probably the only Red Wing you could never hate, even if you tried.

Well, it became a little interesting, but the Earth’s axis is finally rotating back to normal. The St. Louis Blues have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Sharks disposed of them in six games and some of those games weren’t even close. The Blues were full of players that probably nobody outside of their fan base likes. All of those players can now pick fights on the golf course with others now that they are no longer playing hockey until September.

This post is very similar to one I wrote in 2011 after the Vancouver Canucks pissed all over themselves against the Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Fuck St. Louis and their shitty fans. They deserve that team. Their football team, that wasn’t their football team to begin with, left town. They haven’t had a basketball franchise since Gerald Ford was president. It’s no wonder nobody wants to be there. It is one the shittiest cities in America. In fact, it’s probably one of the shittiest cities in the world.

And sure, maybe I am a bit frustrated that the Blackhawks couldn’t get their fourth Cup in my lifetime because they were eliminated in seven by these turds last month. Whenever the Blackhawks do lose, at least I can tell myself: “Hey. At least I am not from St. Louis”.

Fans of St. Louis: If you are reading this, oh, fuck. Who am I kidding? You idiots can’t read.

Congratulations to the San Jose Sharks. I don’t have any beef with the remaining teams, but it would be nice to see the Sharks win because it would be their first Cup in franchise history. Knowing how it felt for the first 24 years of my life thinking the Blackhawks would never win really sucks. As I’ve said before on here, I am so lucky and happy to have seen my team win on three different occasions. The Lightning and Penguins have won Cups. I want San Jose to win one.

From Wikipedia:

Ted Phillips is an American businessman and the President and CEO of the National Football League’s Chicago Bears and has been a part of the organization since 1984 (1983 according to the bottom of the page). He is only the fourth president of the 90-year-old organization, the others being Michael McCaskey, George Halas Jr., and “Papa Bear” George Halas. Phillips is one of only two individuals in the NFL to serve on both the NFL Working Club Executive committee and the NFL Senior Club Executive committee, whose mission is to analyze both the financial and football operations aspects of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Wow. This asshole has been working for this franchise for 33 years? The last 17 has been as the president. I fucking hate this dis-organization.

Happy Friday.

Your thoughts on the Bears’ draft picks are welcome. And if someone can tell me why the Bears cut Matt Slauson, feel free. In a time where the Bears need as many lineman as possible, they get rid of someone who can still play another year or two.

List of draft picks:

Leonard Floyd – Linebacker (Georgia)

Cody Whitehair (by cracky) – Offensive lineman (Kansas State)

Jonathan Bullard – Defensive end (Florida)

Nick Kwiatkowski – Linebacker (West Virginia)

Deon Bush (by cracky) – Safety (Miami)

Deiondre Hall – Cornerback/Safety (Northern Iowa)

Jordan Howard – Running back (Indiana)

DeAndre Houston-Carson – Safety (William & Mary)

Daniel Braverman – Wide receiver (Western Michigan)

I am a bit late to the party, but I just had to chime in with the news that the Timberwolves decided that they wanted to be the next franchise that ThomASS will end up ruining.

I am not sure if other franchises see what goes on in Chicago with our sports teams, because once teams here fire someone, another team is just waiting in line to give them a job. We’ve seen it with the likes of Lovie Smith and Marc Trestman. Does anybody else learn? If it doesn’t work here, it probably won’t work somewhere else.

I can just see it happening right now. It’s not a matter of if, but when, injuries will pile up for the Timberwolves. I don’t know many people are fans of that team, but I feel bad for them. The Timberwolves have three up and coming starts in Zach Levine, Andrew Wiggins and Karl Anthony-Towns. I believe Anthony-Towns would have been a top-ten player in the NBA but now, not likely. ThomASS will drive all three of those guys and others into the ground.

We’ve seen it here. I have never really been a Joakim Noah fan, but his career was toast before ThomASS came into the fold. Now, he’s more than finished. And do we really have to go in-depth with Derrick Rose? The guy was an idiot before all of the injuries but now, he’s damaged goods. He will be forever known as Grant Hill, minus the brain.

Minnesota, Tom Thibodeau is all yours. Enjoy being like the Bulls for the next decade: Irrelevant.