And it can be found here.
Haugh writes making the following assumptions:
1) The outcome of one game in a 7 game playoff series means everything.
2) Lebron James has never seen a Chicago basketball crowd.
3) You can ignore the Bulls almost blowing a 21 point lead. If the last second half-court shot goes in, then his article makes absolutely no sense. Not that it does.
This article is so bad though, I feel bad parsing it. Here's some happy music thoughts: wouldn't it be nice for the Gorillaz to play Lollapalooza sometime soon? They're fairy young, fairly relevant, fairly good and I wouldn't leave early go find some cheaper place to drink. So here's "Feel Good Inc." live from Coachella. Enjoy. But then read the parsing of the Haugh article. It deserves it.
Bulls give James a taste of what they can be
By David Haugh
In The Wake Of The News
Sensing an opening only he saw, Luol Deng dribbled behind the back, beat LeBron James along the baseline and niftily banked in a reverse layup.
So you're starting out with a Luol Deng highlight? Against Lebron James. It happened once, so might as well make it your lead.
It was the game's signature play from an unlikely author, an impossible shot in an improbable victory that was bigger than any other this season.
Signature play? The Bulls had a 21 point lead at one point-- the real signature was Lebron guarding Rose. But stick with Luol getting a layup....
For now, we know no team in NBA playoff history ever has rallied from an 0-3 deficit to win a series and the Bulls responded as if coach Vinny Del Negro mentioned that statistic every timeout. When a .500 team in the regular-season holds off a fourth-quarter charge from the No. 1 seed led by the game's best closer, tenacity plays as big of a role as talent.
Alright guys! There's less than a minute left. Ignore trying to guard the 6'9" athletic beast out there. Don't worry about defensive strategies. Don't worry about running our stuff. Remember: if we lose this game, we'll be down 3-0. And no team has ever come back from that. [players look at coach like he's not wearing pants]
The Bulls played a good game at home. This isn't entirely unpredictable-- they've played well at home before. A lot of teams do. There's this concept of "home court advantage." Which teams play better at home. I know its difficult to comprehend, but this does allow a worser team to win a game in a 7 game series.
Battle the Bulls have, being outscored by only seven overall in the series since the first quarter of Game 1. You know it's a good night for the Bulls when the post-game debate revolves around whetherKirk Hinrich's 27 points or Deng's 20 were more clutch.
I love arguments about "clutch." Especially when they involve just looking at a box score and not watching a game. Didn't Kirk (Kurt if you're Vinny) miss two free throws as the game closed? Wouldn't that be part of clutch. And me, being all cynical (and having watched the game) would've talked about the Bulls almost blowing the lead post-game.
Give Derrick Rose credit for carrying the Bulls with 31 points without a turnover, praise Taj Gibson and Noah for holding their ground in the paint and give Hinrich his due for going 4-of-4 from 3-point range. But without Deng taking a charge from James with 1 minute 12 seconds left or stealing the ball from The King on the next key possession, the Cavs likely would have pulled off another fourth-quarter comeback.
He's going to use this one game to mean more than it is. Why not take one play and overemphasize it? The Deng charge was a bad call. But even it wasn't, you've seen Deng enough to know he's not better than James. And he had a good 1 minute stretch-- which, as a Bulls fan, I did enjoy.
Oh, and thanks for giving credit to D. Rose. You know, for being the best player on the Bulls. Almost forgot that.
As a result, the Bulls still believe they are now in position to "shock the world,'' as Noah says.
Why include this quote? They won one f*cking game. "Held serve at home" to use the cliche.
I wouldn't go that far. The inspired victory doesn't necessarily mean the Bulls will win the series. It may not even mean they will win another game if the Cavs get angry enough watching the tape of this and respond like any 61-victory team should.
Good. That'd just be a bad sports thought. But why if you think one win wouldn't mean more for a series-- why would it mean more to the Bulls future like you write here:
But, in the bigger picture, the effort gave the Bulls basis for believing maybe, just maybe they can win over James in July. I'll take that over false playoff hope any day.
Wait, what? One win means Lebron is gonna be a Bull? Thank your representative God and/or Lord and/or Deity. Glad that three didn't go in-- we'd have no chance.
If the result of this bonus postseason is showing James first-hand that the Bulls are one player away from becoming a contender in the East — and he ponders even momentarily whether he is that player — it will be worth every Shaq elbow. It also would go down as the Bulls' most significant postseason since the Jordan Era.
Once again, here's the assumption Lebron doesn't know the Bulls' roster. He's met D. Rose before. They were at an all-star game together. He knows that Rose exists.
And Lebron knows that the Bulls are one player away from contending. You know why? Cause he knows that whatever team he goes to, he'll be the one player that makes him a contender. And no one will remember this postseason if Lebron signs-- cause they'll be worrying about the ones where they're trying to win a title.
Sure, this was Game 3 of the Eastern Conference playoffs on the schedule. But it also was Day 1 of NBA free-agency on the calendar as far as Bulls fans are concerned. This was a two-hour infomercial at the United Centeron the suddenly new and improving Bulls for James.
So you're going to negate your premise? And then press it out to say that its an advertisement for James? Here's all he needs to know about the Bulls: Full boat (not as much as Cleveland can offer), Derrick Rose, Noah, and a major market. One playoff game doesn't matter either way.
The Air's throne is ready for you, King. It may have taken awhile to notice thanks to traffic and a 6 p.m. weeknight start that left thousands of seats empty at tipoff, but the place came alive. And when the place on 1901 W. Madison St. comes alive during the NBA playoffs, few venues around the league are any better. James knows that now.
So now he was late for tipoff? Wait, you're insulting the crowd. The same crowd that was part of the infomercial you were talking about before. If this was really the basketball crazed city that's selling itself to James, wouldn't the ticket holders have set a Google Calender reminder that game was an early 6pm tipoff? Or is that not part of the narrative.
And few venues are better? I just saw the OKC crowd going crazy tying the Lakers in their series. So stop kissing Chicago fans' asses and have an objective thought.
The longer this series goes on, the more the Cavs look like a one-man show, the 1989 Bulls. The longer that trend continues, the more unpredictable James' decision may be come July.
Um, the Bulls WON ONE GAME. Not the series. James' decision might teeter on winning a championship or not-- not how much the first round team hangs around.
You had to wonder what was going through James' mind as Anthony Parker took the 42-foot potential game-winning shot at the buzzer instead of him. You had to wonder what he was thinking in the second quarter after an aging Shaq, who apparently ran out of fuel in Game 1, missed a dunk and Noah sprinted down the other end to convert the fast-break layup.
What was going through his head? I'm guessing something along the lines of "Please go in." And he was thinking-- "Give me what you can Shaq. Then I'll try and win it. Or we have Z and Jameson. We have options." The Bulls are kind of the spring training of the playoffs.
The Cavs clearly are built to win now. This Bulls' season always has been about winning later.
Bulls aren't actually built to win yet. They still need some talent. If you need a team that'll be winning later- check out Durant and the Thunder.
But a funny thing happened on their way to the draft lottery: the Bulls eked into the playoffs due to the way the core of Rose, Noah, Gibson and Deng progressed.
Um, ok. If the Bulls could've gotten a top 2 pick, I would've taken that talent.
Put those four players around James in 2010-11 and that starting five immediately makes the Bulls one of the three best teams in the East. No other potential free-agent suitor of James can say that.
I said it before: Lebron is the player that makes a team a contender. And the four starters you have-- you don't have a real 2 guard. I guess you'd want Lebron to play there. Which would be fine-- for the pure fact that you'd have Lebron James.
Beating James and the Cavs guaranteed the Bulls will be going back to Cleveland for at least one more game. But as a dejected James took the podium late Thursday night, it's where the Bulls may be headed after this series that captured the imagination.
I knew it. This series was the work of Disney Imagineers. It can't be real. Nor can this column. The inferior team won a game. Nothing new was learned. Chicago has sold out games for the last few years. Post-Jordan. The fan base is good. There's 2 good players locked up. So the outcome of one game doesn't mean anything. Nothing at all.
The biggest problem: This was an "In The Wake Of The News" column. It has a history of great sports writers: without this sucking up to fans to think that everything's being done just right. No greater meaning of a playoff win. Its a poorly written, poorly thought up column. You can talk about Rose's development or Noah's improved work ethic or Jerome James being athletically gifted but having no idea what he's doing on the court. But this blatant pandering is lazy, bad writing. I just expected more from the World's Greatest Newspaper.
This took way too long to parse. I prefer nice articles where I can take a paragraph or two and make fun of. This I had to copy and paste a whole article. Because it was just that bad. If you made it this far, I thank you. I don't know if I would've.
Go Bulls. Go Hawks. Still fire Vinny
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