No Longer the Baby Bulls

When I woke up this morning I half expected the world to be awash in flames, asteroids landing everywhere, and the Earth cracking open like Paris Hilton's legs in front of a video camera.

Why?

The Bulls are going to the playoffs for the second straight season thanks to a 117-93 victory in Miami Sunday afternoon.

Growing up this would have meant absolutely nothing. In the late 80's and 90's when MJ was patrolling the floors of the old Chicago Stadium and the United Center the playoffs were the season. The regular season was just a tune up, an extended pre season.

But then MJ left, and Jerry Krause got rid of anything resembling a championship basketball team and for years Bulls fans suffered through something resembling professional basketball. Though it only seemed to be a distant cousin.

It even caused me to lose interest in the NBA, though not entirely. I still watched Bulls games occasionally, but not with the fervor I was used to. It used to be an event in this city. Hell my mom watched Bulls games then, and I'd have friends over and everything to watch it. It got to the point where I didn't have to explain anything that was happening to my mom either. She knew. Me and my friends would be watching feverishly when from behind us would boom the female voice of my mother.

"What a shitty call!!!! That isn't a foul, he got all ball!"

For those who don't know my mother, the fact she was able to make a coherent statement about a sporting event without assistance from me, or asking "What's happening?" was a mind blowing experience for me and my friends.

But that's the way it was. The Bulls were so big in Chicago my mom was an expert. In the Chicago of the 90's the Bulls were like cocaine was in the 80's.

Everybody was doing it.

When they were going through the Dark Ages I couldn't watch. It was like seeing your first girlfriend, your first true love who you shared so much of your adolescence with and you adored, a few weeks after you just broke up lying in an alley with a needle sticking out of her arm.

You cared, but at the same time this wasn't how you wanted to remember them.

So I stopped caring so much. I let all my sporting interest go towards college sports (basketball and football anyway) the Bears, and the White Sox. Hell the Blackhawks, who had long been a disappointment garnered more attention and affection from me.

Then a combination of things happened to get me interested again.

• Jerry Krause was "fired"
• Jim Paxson was hired
• We drafted Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, and Luol Deng
• The NHL killed itself

From the moment Jim Paxson stepped in everything seemed different. There was the first sign of light that we hadn't seen in a while. Paxson hired Scott Skiles to replace Bill Cartwright as coach, and immediately you could see a difference in the team. Paxson then drafted Hinrich, and I wasn't happy with it at first. Not cuz I didn't like Hinrich, (Actually I hated Hinrich in college. I'm not exactly a big Kansas fan.) but cuz I wanted Dwayne Wade. The Miami Heat unexpectedly drafted him right in front of us though, and I was pissed. Pat Riley already had a roster full of guards, and now he stole our new hometown hero from us. Part of me was certain it was nothing more than sour grapes over our dominating him while he was in New York.

Hinrich's play though won me over. I never though he was a bad player, I just don't like Kansas basketball. I knew that Captain Kirk would never be a superstar, but you could see that he would be a more than capable point/2 guard. Then we added Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, and Chris Duhon.

Those three along with the signing of Andres Nocioni of Argentina gave this team a personality to match its coach. In 2004-05 they finished 4th in the Eastern Conference and made the playoffs for the first time since MJ left.

I was watching too. There was no more NHL, and well the time I would have spent watching hockey had now gone back to the Bulls, and they were winning me over.

There have been a lot more smiles around the United Center lately

Now this year has been more of a struggle for the Bulls because the rest of the NBA is aware of them now. The key to the Bulls is that they are the hardest working team in the NBA. No ifs ands or buts about it.

They have to be. It's the only way they can win.

They have no superstar. In fact their leading scorer is Ben Gordon and he only averages a little over 16 points a game, while coming off the bench for the majority of the season. They just run harder, try harder, and do everything with more energy than their opponents. Andres Nocioni is quickly becoming one of the most hated men in the NBA by opponents. Josh Childress of Atlanta was ejected from a game last week for taking a swing at him.

Why does everybody hate him? For the same reasons his fellow Bulls, coach and fans love him. He never stops going 100%. He goes after every rebound, every loose ball, makes every key shot. He routinely has to play in the power forward spot despite the fact he is only 6'7 and 225 pounds. Yet it's his job to keep 6'10 guys off the boards and stop them from scoring.

And he always does. He just had a recent streak of 8 consecutive double doubles in points and rebounds.

Then there is Luol Deng, the lanky slasher who generally seems to be the only guy on the court with fresh legs. Like Nocioni, he never takes a play off. Deng probably has the most upside of any one on the current Bulls roster. While the others have a ceiling to what they'll probably ever be able to accomplish, we just don't know with Deng. He just turned 21 yesterday, and has plenty of time to grow.

The firestarter is Ben Gordon. Nobody need look past his performance against the Washington Wizards last week. He outdueled Gilbert Arenas and scored 32 points on 9-9 shooting from 3 point range. As he did so many times last season Gordon put the entire team on his shoulders and carried them to that win. It really was Jordan-esque.

All the credit for this team should go to Scott Skiles though. In my opinion he is the Coach of the Year. Take this team, and give them any other coach and you don't get much more than 30 wins. In my opinion when voting for league MVP you vote for the guy who's team would be the worst off without him (Hence the reason that even though I hate him I think Kobe is the MVP) and I think coaches should be judged off the same criteria.

It's his hard nosed approach to everything that is molding these players into winners. That's the reason Tim Thomas was banished to the end of the Bulls bench. He is released and goes to Phoenix and scores 20 points a game and people wanna know how the hell Skiles could bench him in Chicago. Especially since interior offense is our weakness.

Well Thomas didn't want to practice. The Bulls probably hold the hardest played practices in the league, and Tim Thomas didn't like it. So basically Skiles told him "Fine. We don't need you." Skiles approach has led to the Bulls to be the best defense (based on opponents field goal percentage, 42.65%) in the NBA. A lot of talk has been about how hot the New Jersey Nets and Orlando Magic have gotten to end this season.

Nobody seems to notice that in their last 12 games(Since March 24th) the Bulls are 10-2, and have gone from 10th in the Eastern Conference to a tie for the 6th seed.

A lot of people in Chicago though seem to think that it would have been best for the Bulls to not make the playoffs. That is quite simply one of the stupidest things I have ever heard a sports fan say. The argument is that since we have the Knicks pick (Thanks Isaiah!) we would get 2 lottery picks in the draft this year.

That's nice. We've had lottery picks the last 8 years, and well until now it hasn't resulted in many wins has it? Besides who is in the NBA draft this year that really makes anyone say "Wow"?

The playoffs are where teams learn how to win. If the Bulls are going to return to their glorious form of old, they have to get the experience necessary to do it. A lot of us seem to forget that the Bulls of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were eliminated from quite a few playoff series before finally finding their stride.

Also if the Bulls can win out, they could end up as a 5 seed. That's not exactly hard to imagine as we have 2 games left against Orlando and Toronto. Two teams with absolutely nothing left to play for right now. Plus with the momentum they've had over the last few weeks, if they can dodge Miami and Detroit in the first round, a possible trip to the second round is not a crazy thought.

I know, I can't believe I typed that either.

This Bulls run has also gotten me to reconsider my wish to add a Paul Pierce like guy. I still want one yes, but not at the cost of Gordon and Deng. If you think about it, say the Bulls package some draft picks, along with Gordon and Deng and send them to Minnesota for Kevin Garnett. How would the Bulls be in any different a state than that of the Timberwolves right now? I'm starting to fall more inline with the theory that this team is still growing, and hasn't even reached it's full potential yet.

Plus we still have the Knicks first round pick this year, and possibly next year too.

If the Bulls go into the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed and get swatted away by the Pistons or Heat, this season won't be a disappointment.

I really think that this team's future is very bright, and for the first time in a while there's that feeling of electricity in my veins while I watch the Chicago Bulls.

Now I haven't fallen back in love with the NBA yet. Not by a long shot. There are still a lot of things about the league that turn me off of it. The biggest thing being the officiating is absolutely terrible.

Guards have absolute free reign over the league right now. You cannot touch a guard without a whistle blowing. On the other end of that coin, you can do absolutely anything to a center short of going off like Dick Cheney and unloading a shotgun in his face, and not get called for a foul. (Unless your name is Tyson Chandler. Then you can get a foul called on you just for blinking.)

Look at the scoring leaders this year.

1. Kobe Bryant-35.4
2. Allen Iverson-33.0
3. LeBron James-31.4
4. Gilbert Arenas-29.3
5. Dwyane Wade-27.2

They're all guards. All any of them have to do is run towards the hoop and jump into a big guy. The big guy gets called for a foul, and little guy goes to the free throw line and racks up the points. If you're looking for a low post player you have to go all the way to 11th with Elton Brand(24.8).

It's gotten to the point that I think the Bulls figured out a brand new way to play the perfect defense against these guys.

Don't play any at all.

On a couple occasions when Gilbert Arenas drove to the rim last week the Bulls defense parted like the Red Sea and gave him a clear lane. This led to complete confusion for Arenas, who then proceeded to flail in mid air and scream like he got shot while throwing up the ugliest of layups. Of course there was nobody within 3 feet of him.

It's just that it's become robotic for guards these days. Anytime in which Tim Duncan does not lead the Spurs in scoring (18.7 to Tony Parkers 19.0) there is something wrong with the NBA.

Until some changes are made I will still see the college game the superior style of basketball. Sure the talent in college isn't the same as the pros, but at least they're playing basketball in college, not just isolation drills.

That's another part of the reason I like this Bulls team so much. They really do remind me of a college team. Tyson Chandler is the only big guy on the team, and he's a toothpick. Our starting center is Mike Sweetney, and he's 6'8. Nocioni is 6'7 and our best rebounder.

Everything about this team is charming, and they've got my attention.

Hopefully in the playoffs they'll get everybody elses too.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• How about Albert Pujols? He will now be getting the Barry Bonds treatment from this point on. Sunday he hit three home runs, including a walk off shot in the 9th, to defeat the Cincinnati Reds. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Albert Pujols is my favorite non-White Sox player and will retire as the greatest hitter any of us ever saw. Oh and he's only 26 years old, yet has 996 career hits, and 209 home runs. I say the over under is 130 walks this season for Pujols.
• I wanted to do a piece on the Cubs and Carlos Zambrano, just to make sure I keep my coverage of Chicago baseball fair. Then I read this column by Rick Telander, in which he says everything I wanted to say and I didn't feel I could say it any better. I still stand by my prediction he'll win the NL Cy Young this season. If I'm a Cub fan though I still have to be pretty happy with the teams start. They're 7-4 in second and they start a west coast trip in LA tonight.
• The NHL playoffs start this week and I'm holding out the hope that playoff hockey may help me enjoy the sport again. I wouldn't hold your breath though.
• Mark Buehrle is going to be fined for having fun at a baseball game.
• Rudy Gay is going to enter the NBA Draft. Nobody knows if he'll disappear before he's selected. LSU freshman forward Tyrus Thomas will be joining him there.