http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribu ... les-s.html
The gutless Bulls veterans who launched their palace coup over rookie Joakim Noah and had their wishes carried out by their puppet leader were facing their biggest must-win of the season Tuesday in Orlando. I mean, the Bulls can't embarrass themselves on and off the court the way they did last weekend and then not believe they were compelled to show they weren't spineless.
But oops. Most of those veterans apparently embraced the challenge by voting not to play the third quarter.
And oops. Some of those veterans were caught on camera yukking it up as they were getting humiliated by 22 points in that third quarter -- specifically Ben Wallace and Joe Smith. OK, maybe it was out of context, even for a Hall-of-Fame hypocrite such as Wallace.
But no. It wasn't out of context. In fact, it was evidence of Wallace as the poster child for this gutless team. And it apparently got worse in the postgame locker room, where Noah complained about attitude on the bench and got into an argument with Wallace before Luol Deng had to step between them. The big man just reeks of leadership, doesn't he?
Well, he reeks, anyway.
To recap: Wallace is the big phony who turned down the chance to be a captain this season because he thought it was time for the young guys to step up, and then he convenes a meeting of co-conspirators to force an additional suspension of Noah. Then he answers critics by being unable to stay in a game against Dwight Howard for more than five minutes without getting into foul trouble. And then he's all har-de-har-har on the bench during a monstrous pantsing and doesn't like getting called out for his juvenile ways by a teammate. Isn't that super? Sixty-million dollars, and the only guy Wallace can shut down is Noah.
Another thing: Tuesday was the biggest must-win of the season for Bulls interim maitre d' Jim Boylan, too. If you're going to claim to be a coach, even if no one believes it, then you'd better have something going. Instead, you had nothing. Your players had nothing.
'We're letting teams have their way with us," Boylan said. "The defense is soft. The offense is anemic at times. We just seem to be casual with the ball. We have to change the way we're playing. I don't have any magic dust to sprinkle over anyone."
No, you don't have any magic dust. You don't have any answers. You don't have any authority, and I can't imagine you have any respect or integrity either after this last week. You and your players who laugh their way through slaughters are a laughingstock. The players don't have to give maximum effort because they don't fear you. No, they own you. You can't handle the responsibilities of coaching on or off the court. I mean, there are times when I'm not sure you could handle a two-house paper route.
Here's the deal: John Paxson needs to fire interim maitre d' Jim Boylan right now. Before the shootaround in Miami today and certainly no later than tipoff tonight. And Paxson needs to bench Wallace for the rest of the season -- bench him only if he can't deport him or have him arrested for fraud. Paxson knows he can't trade Wallace and that ridiculous contract and even more ridiculous attitude. He also knows he not only cannot win with Wallace, but runs the risk of losing the faint hope and focus of the few good players he might want to keep around (Deng, Smith, Andres Nocioni, Aaron Gray, Thabo Sefolosha, and Noah) if there's any hope of winning something important in the next two years.
No, wait. All the people who get on me for being negative -- gee, what's to be negative about with this team comprised of Hallmark moments? -- will point out that the Bulls are still only a handful of games out of the last playoff spot in the East. Oh, goody. And if they can sneak into sixth place, they could have the chance to be vaporized four times in one week by these same Orlando Magic. Fun, no? Yeah, I should look for the positive side more often.
I guess Rosen is no less angry than we guys here.....
Who knew.
