How old is that chick? Honestly, she looks like she’s 10. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though, typical Lakers fan, getting her ass beat  by a 10 year old girl.

PS

How about that bald guy just taking it all on. Guy didn’t even flinch. Like get out of my way girls I’m trying to check out the Luvabulls.

Yahoo Sports has reported that forward Brian Scalabrine, who spent the last five seasons with the Celtics, has agreed to a non-guaranteed contract with the Chicago Bulls.

Scalabrine, 32, averaged 9.1 minutes a game last season, but played only one playoff game. His career scoring average is 3.3.

In Chicago, Scalabrine re-joins former Celtics assistant coach Tom Thibodeau, who is now the Bulls’ head coach. According to the Yahoo report’s sources, Scalabrine was a “good bet” to make the team.

Did you guys think I was talking about Melo? Fuck no, that guy is way over-rated. I’m talking about that ginger glue that will hold together the Bulls Nucleus.

Brian Scalabrine is in the house and all that guy does is win championships, plain and simple.

Tracy McGrady spoke like he was already a member of the Chicago Bulls when he addressed reporters Monday, using the word “we” as he described the team’s prospects for next season.

“I think we can be really good,” McGrady said, “I really do.”

But McGrady hasn’t completely sold the Bulls and might not get the contract offer he wants and expects, according to sources with knowledge of Chicago’s thinking.

After the workout at the Bulls’ practice facility in Deerfield, Ill. — in a manner that made it sound as though his signing was a virtual formality — McGrady confirmed to the assembled media that going to Chicago is his first choice in free agency.

“This was a great team, a pretty good team, without adding myself and Carlos Boozer, and some of the key players that they added this offseason,” McGrady said.

Yet McGrady, when asked about coming off the bench, seemed to suggest that he expects to be more than a role player in Chicago.

“I won’t have a problem, but that’s not what I’m really shooting for,” McGrady said. “I think, yeah, if I was the player that I was in a Knicks uniform [at the end of last season], I would have no problem coming off the bench. But I’ve worked extremely hard and I’m far from being that player. Trust me.

“It’s up to me in training camp,” McGrady continued, “to prove I’m a starter.”

Tracy McGrady had two things he had to do to get a contract from the Bulls. 1) Not look absolutely terrible in practice and 2) Say the right things. Looks like he failed miserably with that second point. Way to go T-Mac.

I guess it works out better for the Bulls though. T-Mac’s inability to take a good hard look in the mirror and see that he is a shell of his former self hopefully saved the Bulls the headache of an over the hill star causing problems in the locker room. If I were the Bulls I would run and run fast. T-Mac basically said he thinks he is a starter and at this point whatever backtracking he may do is not enough to convince me that come mid-january when he is getting 10 minutes a game he won’t start moping and acting like a baby. Time to look elsewhere.

The Bulls are prepared to sign Tracy McGrady if he proves to be sufficiently healthy in a workout Monday and can convince the team he is willing to accept a bench role, one source familiar with Chicago’s thinking said Sunday.

“Nothing is done until it’s done, but I expect the Bulls to sign McGrady later this week,” the source said.

Another unknown is what kind of contract McGrady can command from the Bulls. But McGrady has said money and years are not priorities after earning nearly $23 million last season with Houston and New York.

Although he has expressed interest in snagging one of the spots on Miami’s bench in support of the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh triumvirate and he auditioned for the Los Angeles Clippers last week, Chicago is undeniably where McGrady has been hoping to wind up.

McGrady made his desires evident in several recent messages on his Twitter feed, including his pronouncements Saturday that he has “unfinished business” with the Bulls and that it “could be fate this time round” with Chicago after drawing serious interest from the Bulls in the 1997 draft and again during free agency in 2000.

So clearly this deal isn’t done because figuring out if Tracy McGrady is healthy enough to play is virtually impossible, but by signing T-Mac the Bulls are making yet another solid move in an offseason of good signings.

If he agrees to come off the bench, which he would have to if he wants a contract from the Bulls, T-Mac is exactly the type of player that a young team needs. He provides leadership and can carry the bench scoring load. Yeah he sucked real bad last year, but everyone on the Knicks sucks so I wouldnt call his career over just yet.

At the end of the day there really is no downside to signing T-Mac. If he is bad you can cut him, if he plays well off the bench you just added another piece to the puzzle at a fairly cheap price. Besides, if you want to win the East now you have to build depth, the one weakness those assclowns in Miami will surely have.  Lets just hope T-Mac gets that first round stink off him in time for the playoffs.

I love this move by the Bulls. Love it. If you watched even a half a dozen Bulls games last year you would know that one of their biggest weaknesses was shooting the three. Yeah Hinrich could get hot from time to time and of course everyone’s favorite bench player Pargo has never seen a shot he doesnt love but they didnt have a true 3 point shooter. Now they have one, possibly two if the Magic don’t match the offer sheet the Bulls sent to Redick.

Like I said earlier this week it sucks the Bulls didnt get one of the big time free agents but the goal of every offseason is to get better and they have certainly done that. A starting 5 of Rose, Korver, Deng (until he gets injured in the 3rd game), Boozer, and Noah is an extremely balanced team that will be top 3 in defense and be able to beat you in multiple ways on offense. Have to tip your hat to Paxson and Forman for not panicking and coming up with a solid backup plan to Wade, Bosh, and Lebron.

Now bring on that unbalanced team of prima-donnas, they don’t scare me one bit. Not when Kyle Korver is raining drops from Jupiter in your grill piece!!!

Carlos Boozer is the latest domino to fall, agreeing to a five-year, $80 million contract with the Chicago Bulls, a source close to the negotiations told ESPN The Magazine’s Ric Bucher on Wednesday.

Boozer follows agreements by premier free agents Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, Amare Stoudemire with the Knicks and Joe Johnson in Atlanta.

The Bulls are still in the running for LeBron James, who is going to make an announcement Thursday on ESPN. But Chicago would have to do some creative financing to fit the superstar under the cap after this deal.

Boozer average 19.5 points and 11.2 rebounds per game for the Utah Jazz last season, his sixth with the team. In his eight-year career, he has averaged 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per contest.

Seems like this signing is all about the Bulls suddenly realizing there was a very good possibility they could be left out in the cold in the summer of ’10. Its clear that as soon as the news broke about Wade and Bosh this morning the Bulls went into full attack mode for C-Boo. Boozer coming to Chicago does 2 things. 1) It still gives the Bulls an outside chance of signing Lebron and 2) It makes the Bulls a contender in the East for the time being. I say for the time being because if Lebron goes to Miami, everyone in the NBA is fucked.

All in all Paxson and Gar Forman had to make this move. Ending up with just David Lee would have been unacceptable and a Boozer, Noah frontcourt will be able to bang with any team in the playoffs.

Now we just sit and wait for Lebron to have his ego stroked in front of a national audience tomorrow night. If the words Chicago Bulls don’t come out of his mouth at least Bull’s fans know they got better, and that is exactly what you need to do during the offseason, find a way to get better.

The Chicago Bulls have a deal in place that would move Kirk Hinrich and the 17th pick to the Washington Wizards, freeing up enough cap space to pursue two maximum-salary players in this summer’s free-agent market, sources with knowledge of the Bulls’ plans said Thursday.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Washington would send to Chicago in the trade.

The deal can’t be officially consummated until July 8, when the Wizards will have room under the salary cap to absorb Hinrich’s $9 million contract without having to send back anything of similar value.

Since it’s a good-faith deal for the time being, there remains a chance it could fall apart. But according to one source, the Sacramento Kings are prepared to make a similar deal with the Bulls in the Wizards’ stead if that were to happen.

Either way, moving Hinrich and the pick would push Chicago’s space under the cap from $20 million to more than $30 million. That puts the Bulls on equal footing with the Miami Heat in pursuing not just one but two members of a free-agent class that is expected to include LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Amare Stoudemire and Joe Johnson.

Looks like New York and Miami ain’t the only team with ass-loads of cash. The Bulls are looking pretty nice no matter how the chips fall, even a consolation prize of Joe Johnson and Carlos Boozer would be a 50 win team. I’m just so pumped for July 1. Like I love the NBA and this whole Lebron sweepstake has had me at half mast for the past 2 weeks straight. I just cant get enough of the intrigue, the drama, the backroom dealings. I need more rumors, I need more links to Worldwide Wes. For once I dont hate ESPN for absolutely killing a story (i.e. Brett Favre). Someone get me a 24/7 Free Agent channel, I would watch the shit out of that.

PS

I love the idea of a good faith deal, like what does that even mean? Aren’t all these guys scumbags? If I was a GM I’d be making thousands of good faith deals then be like just kidding you just got ZAPPED!!!!

Well it seems like the Bulls finally got one right. They basically went out and found the exact opposite of VDN. When Vinny was hired everyone was thoroughly confused why the Bulls would pick a coach with no actual coaching experience. That certainly can not be said with Thibodeau, if anything he deserved a starting gig 2 years ago after the Celtics won the championship. Thibodeau has more than enough coaching experience, he has been  in the NBA since 1989 and has helped his team’s finish top 10 in team defense an impressive 15 times. He’s a coach who will come to Chicago with a plan, and execute from there, a departure from the fly by the seat of your pants VDN era.

No one will argue that this was a great hire, Thibodeau was clearly the best available coach on the open market. What people now are wondering is the all important question, what does this mean for Lebron?

There have been many rumors floating around that Thibodeau and Lebron are somehow linked, the main support behind this being the fact that Thibodeau was never mentioned for the job until 3 days ago and got it within 72 hours. Whether there is some back office wheeling and dealing going or that the Bulls just fell in love fast only a few people know. What is clear though is that the Bulls aren’t going to completely cater to an incoming free agent, letting that player pick a coach which then immediately undermines the coach-team relationship.

This was a savvy move, you pick the best available guy and let the free agents come to you, no need to get on your hands and knees and make one player more important than the team before they even arrive. Maybe the conspiracy theorists are right and this was Lebron’s choice, but bottom line is the Bulls got a good coach and kept the appearance that they did not have to compromise to do so.

Well that certainly wasn’t how the Cavs had drawn it up. Their early exit leaves the Lebron-sweepstakes WIDE open and now we’ll all have to listen to Skip Bayless and Woody Paige talk their balls blue about Lebron for the next 2 months.

All I really care about is whether he is coming to Chicago or not and if we assume Lebron cares most about winning then the Bulls are the absolute no-brainer. After playing with inferior teammates for his entire career Lebron now has the chance to play with a top 5 point guard and solid supporting cast if he comes to Chicago. Add that with the sign and trade potential (Deng or Hinrich) and getting to pick a coach, and Lebron could be looking at contending for a title every single year for the next decade. No more of this dancing around and winning the most games in the regular season bullshit. In Chicago, he would be legitimately contending year in and year out.

Now what I don’t understand is why so many people in this city are so opposed to Lebron coming here. Like all I hear on the radio is blowhards calling in saying they don’t want him. What the fuck is that all about? Dude is still the best player in the league and its not even close. And I get the whole MJ thing, that its his city and Lebron needs to find his own, but does anyone really think Lebron will be the next Michael Jordan anymore? Would Michael Jordan have played like that in Game 5? Fuck no. Lebron is an exceptional player and a physical freak, but he doesnt want to win like Michael, which means he never will win like Michael. There will never ever be another Michael Jordan, that’s just a fact, so anyone who is concerned about Lebron coming into Michael’s city and stealing his thunder is a moron.

If anything this whole free agency will tell us everything we ever needed to know about Lebron and what he values the most. Money and notoriety, he goes to New York. Loyalty and family, he stays in Cleveland. Winning championships, he’ll be a Bull come July 8th.

Now let the endless Lebron talk begin. Its going to be so bad you’ll be begging for Brett Favre come mid-july.

Oh Vinny we were just getting to know you man. Sad sad day to see you go. I think more than anything I’ll remember Vinny’s incredible talent to never have a good inbound play or crunch time offensive set drawn up. It was like Vinny thought that playing 1 half was the only thing in his job description and being prepared for changes in the game was too much to ask for.

Although VDN took the Bulls to back to back playoff appearances I still contend he may have been one of the worst hirings in history. When the Bulls signed him up 2 years ago he had no coaching experience at any level, just a remarkable pick to lead a young talented team that needed guidance and an education in basketball. I mean did anyone actually think he was going to work out? It was a mission doomed to fail from day 1, and his little dust up with John Paxson during this season just further proved that the front office had made a rash decision in hiring a guy that didn’t fit with the direction the Bulls were headed.

My all time favorite Vinny moment was when he yelled at Quentin Richardson from the bench trying to get him to miss a 3 pointer. It sort of perfectly summed up the VDN era. He clearly had a passion for basketball and competition but he really had no clue how to handle himself as a coach and leader of young men.

Now send that suitcase of money up to East Lansing and get that little Fireball down here asap.