Tyrus Thomas Won't Be Reminiscing With Ben Wallace Tonight

Ben Wallace will be returning to the United Center tonight for the first time since he was traded to Cleveland. As Mariotti instructed you all to do in his column today, I strongly suggest you boo the hell out of him if you're attending the game. Oh, and sneak in a sniper rifle and take out LeBron James too while you're at it. Give the team a real homecourt advantage.

In the few weeks that have passed since Ben left town, I can't say I've missed him. Sure, the Bulls still suck, but at least they're a little more fun to watch as they play a much faster pace without him.

Still, one of the things that did worry me when the Bulls made those deadline day trades was that they traded away all their veterans.

It creates a void in the leadership department, which tends to lead to things like this.

In an untimely development as the Bulls attempt a late-season playoff push (Editor's Note: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA), Tyrus Thomas missed Wednesday's practice and general manager John Paxson suspended the second-year forward two games for the unexcused absence.

Thomas will miss Thursday's home game against the Cavaliers and Friday's game in Boston.

Efforts to reach Thomas for comment were unsuccessful and Paxson declined to comment. Reached late Wednesday, Brian Elfus, one of Thomas' two representatives, also declined to comment other than Thomas' absence was for "personal reasons."

Since neither Tyrus nor his agent could be reached, noone is really sure why he missed practice yesterday. I tend to think, though, that if it was a personal emergency, Tyrus would have at least called the team and let them know he wasn't going to be able to make it.

That he didn't call leads me to believe that he skipped practice out of anger, perhaps over the fact he's barely been getting any playing time the last few games, despite Ben Wallace and Joe Smith no longer in front of him in the rotation.

I can't help but wonder if things would have been different if one of those guys (or Adrian Griffin) was still around to get in his ear and explain to him that skipping practice is not how you earn playing time.

I'm still hopeful Tyrus Thomas can mature into a well-rounded basketball player - he's recently added a 15-foot jump shot to his game to go along with his high flying acrobatics - but I'm not sure the team is going to be patient enough to wait for him to grow up as a person. Tyrus is still only 21 years old, so you have to remember you're dealing with a college-aged kid here, but at the same time the NBA is a professional league. It doesn't matter how old you are, you're getting paid just like everybody else, and at the end of the day it is a job.

There are plenty of times where I'm unhappy with something at my job, but I still go in everyday and get it done. And they're not paying me $3.5 million to do it either.