DEERFIELD, Ill. -- The swimsuit model faked left and used her right hand against Derrick Rose. She was thinner than Tayshaun Prince but surprisingly skilled. As Marisa Miller drove by for a two-handed layup off the glass, Rose nodded with a smile to the small audience watching from the three-point line.
The Chicago Bulls' NBA-record 72-win season is a seemingly unapproachable mark. Since the Bulls accomplished the feat in 1995-96, only three teams have reached 67 wins and only one, the '96-97 Bulls, has cracked 69.
Luol Deng's life has been turbulent, filled with drama and extremes beyond any turning points a basketball game, season or career can bring.
It starts as a crack. It develops into a chink, grows into a hole, and pretty soon, it's a crater. Basketball season is fast approaching, but so is another of winter's traditions: pothole season.
September is by far the dullest month on the NBA calendar. It's the time of year when most contracts have been signed, most trades have been made and every team, from the Lakers to the Nets, is expressing optimism about the upcoming season. But when I survey the landscape, I see several teams with serious issues going into training camp. In no particular order, here are my top three:
I was 24, Michael Jordan was 23. He was sitting on a padded table in the trainer's room at the Chicago Bulls' practice facility in 1986, a few days before he would score an NBA-record 63 points in a playoff game at Boston.
Pardon fans of the Chicago Bulls if they view Luol Deng's decision not to play for Great Britain's national team this summer as something less than an NBA offseason-defining development for their preferred club.
You don't have to be a weatherman to know which way Ricky Rubio is blowing, but it helps. The sensational teenaged point guard from Spain officially hasn't explained what appears to be his reluctance to join the Minnesota Timberwolves, the NBA team that grabbed him with the No. 5 pick in the June 25 draft. Others -- his father Esteve Rubio and Wolves exec David Kahn -- have done most of the talking for him, and at this point it still isn't clear whether Rubio cannot get to Minnesota for the 2009-10 season (a tricky and expensive buyout to negotiate with his Euroleague team, DKV Joventut Badalona) or simply will not (doesn't want to come).
Every graduating class brims with hopes and dreams, as full of promise as so many of its members are full of themselves. In the NBA, in terms of thrilling, game-deciding big shots, the Class of 2009 has to rank among the best.
Here we are, a few days into the second round of the NBA postseason, and already I'm pining for the first round. And I don't just mean Boston-Chicago. Even Atlanta-Miami would do.
DEERFIELD, Ill. -- The swimsuit model faked left and used her right hand against Derrick Rose. She was thinner than Tayshaun Prince but surprisingly skilled. As Marisa Miller drove by for a two-handed layup off the glass, Rose nodded with a smile to the small audience watching from the three-point line.
The Chicago Bulls' NBA-record 72-win season is a seemingly unapproachable mark. Since the Bulls accomplished the feat in 1995-96, only three teams have reached 67 wins and only one, the '96-97 Bulls, has cracked 69.
Luol Deng's life has been turbulent, filled with drama and extremes beyond any turning points a basketball game, season or career can bring.
It starts as a crack. It develops into a chink, grows into a hole, and pretty soon, it's a crater. Basketball season is fast approaching, but so is another of winter's traditions: pothole season.
September is by far the dullest month on the NBA calendar. It's the time of year when most contracts have been signed, most trades have been made and every team, from the Lakers to the Nets, is expressing optimism about the upcoming season. But when I survey the landscape, I see several teams with serious issues going into training camp. In no particular order, here are my top three:
I was 24, Michael Jordan was 23. He was sitting on a padded table in the trainer's room at the Chicago Bulls' practice facility in 1986, a few days before he would score an NBA-record 63 points in a playoff game at Boston.
Pardon fans of the Chicago Bulls if they view Luol Deng's decision not to play for Great Britain's national team this summer as something less than an NBA offseason-defining development for their preferred club.
You don't have to be a weatherman to know which way Ricky Rubio is blowing, but it helps. The sensational teenaged point guard from Spain officially hasn't explained what appears to be his reluctance to join the Minnesota Timberwolves, the NBA team that grabbed him with the No. 5 pick in the June 25 draft. Others -- his father Esteve Rubio and Wolves exec David Kahn -- have done most of the talking for him, and at this point it still isn't clear whether Rubio cannot get to Minnesota for the 2009-10 season (a tricky and expensive buyout to negotiate with his Euroleague team, DKV Joventut Badalona) or simply will not (doesn't want to come).
Every graduating class brims with hopes and dreams, as full of promise as so many of its members are full of themselves. In the NBA, in terms of thrilling, game-deciding big shots, the Class of 2009 has to rank among the best.
Here we are, a few days into the second round of the NBA postseason, and already I'm pining for the first round. And I don't just mean Boston-Chicago. Even Atlanta-Miami would do.
BOSTON -- His feet wore flip-flops, his knees were wrapped in ice and his nostril was stitched like Jack Nicholson's in Chinatown as Paul Pierce exhaled. It was a long breath noticeable for the absence of cigar smoke. For there was nothing to celebrate.
BOSTON -- How have the Chicago Bulls succeeded in pushing the champion Celtics to a Game 7? For help on this question as well as a preview of the winner-take-all game here Saturday night, I sought the advice of an NBA advance scout who is expert on both teams.
Rather than joining in the parade of people tripping over themselves to stamp just the right superlative on this first-round Eastern Conference playoff series between the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls -- stunning, epic, incredible, exhausting, stupid and a hundred other adjectives that pale next to the videotape and memories still too wet to touch -- we'll stick with numbers, not words.
We look ahead to Game 7 of the Celtics-Bulls saga happy, for the first time, that the NBA chose years ago to extend the opening round from its former best-of-five format.
The Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics will contest a deciding Game 7 on Saturday after a first round playoff series which many commentators are describing as the greatest in basketball history.
SI.com NBA writers Chris Mannix, Steve Aschburner and Scott Howard-Cooper assess Chicago's 128-127 triple-overtime victory against Boston in Game 6 on Thursday (RECAP | BOX) and look ahead to Game 7 of this riveting first-round series. For analysis from Ian Thomsen, click here.
Here are five thoughts on the latest too-good-to-be-true installment of the Celtics-Bulls series, along with a couple of other Game 6s that were rumored to be taking place Thursday.
Sadly, all good serials must end someday. The Godfather trilogy. The Sopranos HBO drama. The Celtics-Bulls opening-round series. Maybe Paul Pierce will hit a shot at the buzzer of Game 6 on Thursday and the season will go blank on the Chicago Bulls, from hysteria to nothingness, just like that.
This story appears in the May 4, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Have so many injuries, fouls and missed free throws ever created so much theater? First of all, we should thank Paul Pierce and Ray Allen for missing the free throws at the ends of Games 1 and 4 that might have finished off this series ruthlessly and succinctly.
Five NBA playoff observations on a night in which the Celtics and Bulls gave us another thriller.
The first-round playoff matchup between the Celtics and Bulls has become a possession-by-possession dogfight. How have the two teams reached this point and what's ahead? Here's a breakdown leading into Tuesday's Game 5.
Decisions, decisions. Can't live with 'em, can't thrive without 'em.
Observations and analysis of the NBA playoffs, which is all the Cleveland Cavaliers figure to be doing, too, for a few days now:
CHICAGO -- Paul Pierce told us we hadn't seen his "A" game yet. He told us we hadn't seen his "B" game, either. His "C" game? That we had seen a lot of.
SI.com NBA writers analyze the latest news and address hot topics from around the league each week.
Observations and analysis as the NBA playoffs get under way ...
SI.com NBA writers analyze the latest news and address hot topics from around the league each week. (All records are through Tuesday.)
Which teams can declare victory after the NBA's trading deadline passed Thursday? Which teams have executives who are hurling their phones against the wall in defeat? Let's examine.
Call it the Coach of the Year jinx.
For the second straight year, Gordon enters the season in search of a new contract. Unable to negotiate a long-term deal with Chicago last summer after rejecting the Bulls' offer of $58 million over six years, the shooting guard signed a one-year, $6.4 million qualifying offer that will make him an unrestricted free agent next summer. At that time, the Bulls may be able to parlay a sign-and-trade with another team; until then, Gordon appears stuck in Chicago because his contract status makes him virtually untradable.
The Celtics-Cavs and Lakers-Blazers weren't the only games on the NBA's opening night schedule Tuesday. The Bucks-Bulls contest might not have been shown on national TV, but it featured two pretty tasty storylines in the debut of No. 1 overall pick Derrick Rose and the return of former Bulls coach Scott Skiles. Here are five quick observations from Chicago's 108-95 victory:
SI.com's NBA writers offer six different views on what they're most looking forward to this season.
CHICAGO -- It's not often that the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft enters the season as the fourth guy on many preseason ballots for Rookie of the Year, but that might be the case for Bulls point guard Derrick Rose.
SI.com will analyze each of the NBA's 30 teams as regular-season tip-off approaches. For a complete list of team-by-team breakdowns, click here. The information in the "Go figure" category below is provided by Roland Beech of 82games.com.
It's only fitting that new Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro spent the Labor Day weekend back in Phoenix with his wife, packing up belongings for the move to their new residence in Chicago. Since his surprise hiring in June as the Bulls' new coach, the former NBA guard and Suns assistant GM has barely stopped moving as he goes about getting ready for his first season as a coach at any level.
It has been a mostly quiet offseason for the Celtics. Other than the loss of reserve forward James Posey to free agency (Hornets), the defending champs have pretty much stood pat. But Boston did make one move recently that has the rest of the NBA taking notice.
(Editor's note: This column was updated after the Nuggets re-signed J.R. Smith on Friday.)
With the NBA in full summer mode, it's a good time to take a look at how teams stack up right now. First up is a snapshot of the Eastern Conference, followed by the West later this week.
Josh Smith and Andre Iguodala aren't the only big-name restricted free agents stuck in limbo these days. Bulls guard Ben Gordon also is waiting for a new contract. With Chicago apparently unwilling to go over the luxury tax, and no other suitors left that have any salary-cap space, he might be a Sitting Bull for a while.
After methodically, nay, painstakingly rounding up suspects both usual and unusual in the search for their next head coach, the Bulls settled on Vinny Del Negro after 52 days, which was only 39 more than the Kennedys needed to avert the Cuban Missile Crisis and 50 days longer than it took the cardinal electors to go from black smoke to Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Or MMV, if you prefer.
For many NBA fans, the lasting image of Doug Collins with the Bulls is of a frizzy-haired coach frantically running around the court looking for somebody to hug after Michael Jordan hit The Shot against the Cavaliers in the 1989 playoffs.
NEW YORK -- On a raw New York morning, eight hours before the annual spitting of the lottery balls in Secaucus, N.J., Mike D'Antoni sipped a Starbucks latte in midtown Manhattan and insisted that he had "absolutely, positively" no second thoughts about accepting the head coaching job of the New York Knicks instead of holding out for an offer from the Chicago Bulls. Had the offer come -- and most insiders believed the Bulls would've eventually made it official -- it would not have matched the $24 million he will get over four years from the Knicks. But it would've been attractive, especially given the Bulls' roster, a decent match for D'Antoni's fast-break system.
Now that Mike D'Antoni has signed on to coach the Knicks, the Bulls have moved to Plan B.
Remember when teams used to hire coaches based on X's and O's?
Rick Carlisle appears headed to Dallas. Mike D'Antoni or Avery Johnson might end up in Chicago. And Mark Jackson remains the front-runner in New York.
First the Pacers, and now the Bulls: It's as if an emerging virus is spreading through the Central Division, ruining contenders before they peak.
In one final blockbuster before the trade deadline, the Cavaliers, Bulls and SuperSonics completed an 11-player trade Thursday. The Cavs received Ben Wallace, Joe Smith and a second-round pick from the Bulls and Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West from the Sonics. The Bulls got Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown from the Cavs. The Sonics picked up Donyell Marshall and Ira Newble from the Cavs and Adrian Griffin from the Bulls.
Also in this column: • Karl wouldn't sign off on Artest deal
While Vince Carter, Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal and Andre Miller are among the bigger names still available, there are other players who could be on the move before Thursday's trade deadline. Here's a look at some of them, in addition to other deadline notes:
The NBA All-Star Game may be a time to celebrate some of the world's greatest athletes, but we've always been a glass-half-empty sort of fellow. With that in mind, let's take a look at the NBA's Anti-All-Star team, or 12 players who have distinguished themselves for all the wrong reasons.
In a recent British survey, one in four respondents said Winston Churchill never existed, assuming him to be a fictitious character along with Florence Nightingale and Sir Walter Raleigh. And yet many of those surveyed believe that Sherlock Holmes, Eleanor Rigby and the Three Musketeers were real historical figures.
Also in this column: • Blazers learning to win on the road • Pippen's puzzling critique of Bulls
The strains of Auld Lang Syne have wafted away. The confetti has been cleaned up. The hangover cures have run their course. Yes, it's back-to-work time.
Your first inclination is to second-guess Chicago Bulls general manager John Paxson for not naming himself as Scott Skiles' coaching successor.
The Patriots aren't the only team from New England shooting for history. The Celtics won again Thursday night, defeating the Sonics to improve to 24-3. That's a win percentage of .888 for those keeping score at home, which projects to 72 wins.
Kobe Bryant didn't get an earful of "Ko-be!" "Ko-be!" Ko-be!" in his first visit to the Windy City since his trade demand last offseason. But the Lakers' star did hear some recruiting pitches from the local fans.
Is there a bigger tease in the NBA than the Atlanta Hawks?
As the Chicago Bulls, gloom enshrouding them like a cold Lake Michigan fog, pack their bags for an 11-day, six-game road trip that begins on Thursday in Phoenix, coach Scott Skiles should consider bringing a psychiatrist on the team plane. For the Bulls are scheduled to spend Friday through Sunday in Los Angeles, a place that can make anyone crazy in the best of times, never mind anyone subjected to endless mentions of the name Kobe Bryant.
Building a team is like putting together a puzzle, with each piece complementing the other to form one collective unit.
Also in this column: • Is Magic tampering in TNT role? • Win-win trade for Wolves, Spurs
Last year the Central Division was the best in the East, with three teams (Pistons, Cavs, Bulls) finishing among the top five in the final regular-season standings. A fourth club, the Bucks, could well have made the playoffs were it not for a ridiculous spate of injuries. Even the Pacers had their moments before falling apart down the stretch.
With the arrival of Kevin Garnett in a blockbuster trade, Boston is back on the NBA map. More important, the Celtics suddenly look like prime contenders in the Eastern Conference. Depending on how quickly Boston can mesh the All-Star talents of Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen -- and restock its depleted bench -- it should be right at the top in a so-so East field that lacks a clear front-runner.
Editor's note: We asked SI.com writers to share their memories from the best game they've ever seen. Here are their stories:
The Portland Trail Blazers settled months of debate when they chose Greg Oden over Kevin Durant with the No. 1 pick in a highly anticipated NBA draft.
Bulls fans are buzzing these days -- and, no, we're not talking about those rumors of a big Chris Duhon trade.
SECAUCUS, N.J. -- Strange, the situations you can find yourself in by wandering around the halls at the mini-circus that is the NBA draft lottery. In a cramped waiting room outside the TV studio set, for example, with Patrick Ewing leaning against a wall near a coffee machine and Larry Bird sitting atop a counter next to a water cooler. Almost like you stumbled upon the filming of an episode of The Office, recast with members of the original Dream Team.
The Boston Celtics can claim they are cursed after tumbling in the lottery for the second time in a decade. But the truth, confirmed yet again by Tuesday's miserable result, is that they never should have traded for Sebastian Telfair.
The names have changed, but the dynamic of the Eastern Conference finals is every bit as intriguing as it was nearly two decades ago when another prodigious number 23 was trying to take down the Detroit Pistons, then in the midst of a run that included three straight trips to the Finals and back-to-back championships. It took Michael Jordan four straight postseason meetings before he learned how to beat Detroit; the question today is whether LeBron James can acquire that knowledge in half the time.
No, the Utah Jazz has not disbanded since John Stockton and Karl Malone took their short shorts and their pick-and-roll precision into retirement. Quite the contrary. The Jazz has reached the Western Conference finals, its furthest incursion into the postseason since 1998, when S&M lost to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the Finals.
Forget the playoffs. For fans of the Grizzlies, Celtics, Bucks, Hawks and most of the other NBA also-rans, the moment they have been waiting for since the end of the regular season has finally arrived.
So close and yet maybe not so far. Such is the lot in life of the NBA's second-round losers. But the task facing the Nets, Warriors, Bulls and Suns is a delicate one. On one hand, you need to keep the general structure of a club that reached the second round; on the other, you need to tweak -- perhaps in a significant way -- the roster enough to win an extra two or three games.
CHICAGO -- Bulls center Ben Wallace threw a white baseball cap over his bushy afro, turned it around backward and actually smiled a little.
When Phoenix's Boris Diaw leaped off the bench after teammate Steve Nash was hip-checked to the floor in the waning seconds of Game 4 on Monday night, he was more likely to be delivering croissants than seeking retribution against San Antonio's Robert Horry, the player who committed the foul on Nash.
Scott Skiles is pretty firmly entrenched as the Chicago Bulls' coach for the foreseeable future. He acts as an extension of GM John Paxson while working from courtside, and he has the attention of the team's fan base after three straight trips to the playoffs. Skiles also has the respect of Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf after going toe-to-toe with the team owner during contract negotiations two years ago.
Rasheed Wallace, the self-appointed deejay of the Detroit Pistons' locker room, had a tough time settling on his musical mood on Sunday at Chicago's United Center. To prepare for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals -- and an expected sweep of the Bulls -- he first selected a high-energy Nas tune, but after nodding to the beat for several measures, he abruptly switched to a mellower cut. Then, following the Pistons' 102-87 loss, Sheed cranked up Chaka Khan singing Tell Me Something Good to ear-splitting decibel levels, only to emerge from the shower and switch to the Lipps Inc. classic Funkytown, shaking his booty to the bass line.
CHICAGO -- For Bulls center Ben Wallace, the first three games of his team's playoff series against the Pistons were anything but hair-raising.
After getting blown out in the first two games of their Eastern Conference playoff series against the Pistons, the Bulls talked about doing all the little things for Thursday night's Game 3.
Eva Longoria is hands on when it comes to planning her wedding with fiancé Tony Parker. While Parker is busy with the NBA Playoffs, Longoria has been busy working on every detail imaginable for their July 7 ceremony, right down to how the couple will consummate the marriage.
NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Guard Brandon Roy of the Portland Trail Blazers and forward Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors headline the NBA All-Rookie Team, which was announced on Tuesday.
I got a kick out of Peyton Manning's Mastercard commerical where the guy serving coffee gets knocked over by a blast of steam in the face and Manning urges him to "rub some dirt on it." In this age of pitch counts and other bubblewrap training techniques and long preventative shut-downs, it can be hard to believe that the athlete's credo once resembled the black knight who loses assorted limbs in Monty Python & The Holy Grail and keeps fighting while insisting, "Come on, it's only a flesh wound!"
Welcome to the NBA Finals. The league has thoughtfully fast-tracked its premier event to end the drama a month earlier than usual. Lord knows it's not to beat the heat (or, for that matter, the Heat, which is already beat), because this potential championship series is being contested in the high-mercury venues of Phoenix and San Antonio. But given the level of play in Sunday's opener between the Suns and the Spurs, it sure seems as if the eventual champion will come out of their Western Conference semifinal.
Larry Hughes doesn't say much, which is his strength. He thinks before he speaks, and he grieves in private. When the Cavaliers offered him a bigger assignment in early March, they approached Hughes on his terms.
There's a difference between being a "playoff upset victim" and a "playoff disappointment." As the first top seed to lose a seven-game first-rounder to an eighth seed, the Dallas Mavericks, obviously, are both. But they are much more disappointment than upset victim.
The NBA has released its list of early-entry candidates for the draft, and that means it's time to crunch some numbers.
Carmelo Anthony never rebounds, Allen Iverson never passes, Kenyon Martin never plays, J.R. Smith won't be seen until October, the team makes too much money and coach George Karl is too volatile to be trusted with a pro club.
MIAMI -- On the subject of size, the news is not good. Its importance has shrunk.
There's just something about a 6-9, weepy millionaire that turns the rest of us into pop psychologists. I'm sure I'm not the only one who spent the first week of the playoffs wondering why Utah's Andrei Kirilenko was so frustrated, and why his play has been so off for most of 2006-07. AK's team is flourishing, finally, but his production has tailed off: he established career-lows in points, rebounds, and steals in his sixth season, playing his third-lowest minutes per game mark (29.1).
MIAMI -- Faith in the defending champions was based on the premise that the East stinks this season. Because of that stench, it was thought, the Miami Heat could overcome their own distracted start to this season as well as subsequent injuries to Shaquille O'Neal, coach Pat Riley and Dwyane Wade.
Had Pat Riley seen a preview of the evening's box score, he might have imagined the cities had been typographically reversed. The team that missed 19 free throws, failed to exploit turnovers and wasted a game-high 12-point lead in the third quarter wasn't the young visitors from Chicago. The wilters were the defending champions from Miami, who now trail 3-0 in their first-round series after Friday's 104-96 collapse against the Bulls.
Hang on to your mouth guard, Kirk Hinrich.
No team with a better chance of winning the championship is more ignored or less appreciated than the Pistons. Which is OK with Detroit president Joe Dumars, who has assembled the longest-contending group this side of San Antonio.
CHICAGO -- Bulls forward Andres Nocioni buried the 3-pointer to beat the first-quarter horn, turned toward the Heat bench and windmilled his right arm while letting out a triumphant scream.
CHICAGO -- A 2006 NBA championship ring, flanked by giant matching cuff links, was on display in the locker stall of Heat forward Antoine Walker before Game 1 of Miami's playoff meeting with the Bulls.
In pondering the likelihood of playoff upsets, one must first ponder exactly what constitutes upset. A 5 seed beating a 4, for example, does not necessarily scream upset, particularly since home court skews the whole thing. Division winner Miami is a 4 yet begins its quest for a second straight title on the road, at No. 5 Chicago, so who is, in fact, the underdog?
With the six-month "preseason'' complete, we now enter the two-month real season: Sixteen teams, as many as 105 games, and the best basketball on the planet. Here are a few things to watch for as spring approaches summer:
PHILADELPHIA -- There is no pizzazz in being a reserve. Your name is not announced in a blaze of pyrotechnics. Rarely do you share in the glory. For most reserves, your role is to get your team through the second and third quarters without coughing up too much of the lead. You are a placeholder, a grunt, a member of a supporting cast.
The 2006-07 regular season ends Wednesday night, and there is plenty at stake. The Warriors and Clippers are battling it out for one playoff spot in the West. The Bulls and Cavs are fighting for the all-important No. 2 seed in the East. And there are two playoff previews (Spurs-Nuggets, Rockets-Jazz) just for good measure.
With apologies to John Lennon: Imagine there's no conference/It's easy if you try.... In such a world, NBA playoff teams would be seeded 1 through 16 without regard to conference affiliation, meaning that the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks could meet the Phoenix Suns or the San Antonio Spurs (the second and third seeds, respectively) for the NBA championship. In such a world, we would not have to concern ourselves with the likes of the New Jersey Nets and the Orlando Magic, the bottom-feeders of the (L)Eastern Conference bracket.
1. Were the Bulls smart to not make a midseason trade?
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