Chicago Bulls vs. Sacramento Kings

Ahh, already the NBA season just started and I am already a few games behind. Well the Bulls defeated the Sacramento Kings on Dec. 29 with the final score of 108-98. The Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day in a thriller with the final score of 88-87. The Bulls then lost the following evening to the Golden State Warriors 99-91. The Bulls are now 2-1 on the young season and will look to continue their success against the up and coming Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 30 in L.A. The Bulls came out strong against Sacramento and then the Bulls got a little lackadaisical and let Sacramento creep back into the contest. The Bulls really struggled with fouls in this contest as Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah each had five fouls in this game, Omer Asik had four fouls as well in the game. The Bulls finished with 27 personal fouls in the game and Sacramento finished with 19. The Bulls went 16-21 from the free throw line as Sacramento went 20-34. If Sacramento would have knocked down all of their free throws, the Bulls may have not won this game. The Kings really gave the Bulls fits at times, but once again the Bulls bench shined through in this game. Ronnie Brewer led the bench mob with 12 points after going 5-5 from the field. C.J. Watson had eight points and nine assists, Kyle Korver and Taj Gibson each chipped in six points. Derrick Rose led the way for the Bulls with 19 points. Carlos Boozer had a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds, Richard Hamilton had 16 points in this game too. The Bulls had 25 assists in this game as opposed to only 13 by Sacramento. The Kings leading guy in assists was Jimmer Fredette and Chuck Hayes each with three assists. That is one thing that really benefited the Bulls in this game. The Kings got the ball in their hands and they were looking to score everytime, they were not looking to pass the ball. At the end of the day, basketball is a team game, you are not going to win when you try to play a one man game. The Bulls won this game by ten, but they will need to clean up their fouls. They cannot give up more free throws than they get if they want to win games in the future against better teams. The Bulls will finish up this road trip against Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and the Clippers on Friday night. The Bulls will then return home for the home opener against the Grizzlies on Sunday.

Is There Any Loyalty In Sports Anymore?

It seems that all of professional sports have insisted that is not about the money and that is about winning and winning championships. That definitely does not seem to be the case anymore around professional sports as teams will leave their teams that they played for from the start, just because they can go make some more money somewhere else. Starting with the latest development today, Albert Pujols signed a ten year $254 million deal to go to the Los Angeles Angels. Pujols has played on the St. Louis Cardinals ever since he started in the MLB in 2001. He has become the face of that franchise and even the face of that city for so many years as he has become, arguably, the best player in baseball. I never took Pujols for a guy that wanted the cash, but he proved it here by taking the money to play in Los Angeles. The Miami Marlins offered Pujols somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million and he rejected it. I could understand that because they do not have that great of a team even with signing Buerhle and Reyes. What was wrong with returning to St. Louis though for Pujols, they just won a World Series. I never expected him to leave St. Louis, but he did and he will now be playing for the L.A. Angels for the next ten years. This is somewhat similar to what LeBron James did, he left the city that was his hometown and a place that he played for many years. I know that Cleveland was not that great of a team and he left and formed a super team down in Miami with Wade and Bosh at his side, but once again he left a team that wanted him back and he gave the fans of Cleveland the biggest slap in the face after his one hour 'decision' on ESPN. Pujols' deal comes as a huge shock to the whole MLB and so did LeBron James' move. Both of those guys left their respective teams after playing for them for so long. These moves were completely unexpected, and these guys have shown no loyalty for their teams. One guy that was completely loyal was Kerry Wood. Wood took a big paycut to play for the Chicago Cubs who he played for for so many years. This is the kind of sports player that is dedicated and loyal to his team, because he started out playing for them and he wants to end playing for them. For Pujols and LeBron though it is true what they say, "Money is the root of all evil."

Chicago Bulls Free Agent Targets

So once again I have been very slow on getting these articles written and I am trying to keep up to date with all of the happenings in the sporting world, especially the NBA. As you all know the NBA is back and there is a great slate of games that are scheduled to kick off the NBA season on Christmas Day. On Dec. 9, the training camps will open and the free agent frenzy will be underway. One of the new things that was included in the latest collective bargaining agreement is the "amnesty rule," where each team is granted a way to release a multi-million dollar contract. Just like that, a bad situation is released from your team. This is a really good thing for a team that realizes they made a mistake on paying players a ton of money. Let's take Albert Haynesworth for example here, or actually lets not, I bet everyone is wishing they never signed him. The Chicago Bulls have been rumored to pick up a lot of solid names either through free agency, trade or this new amnesty clause. One player the Chicago Bulls have been rumored to be acquiring is Brandon Roy. He would have to be released and would be one of those bad contracts that the Portland Trail Blazers would be trying to get rid of. He has had injury struggles in the past and honestly, I like him, but the Bulls don't need a liability on their team, they need a scorer. Other options include Michael Redd, Rip Hamilton (through trade), Courtney Lee or Aaron Afflalo. Each one of those players would be an upgrade from Keith Bogans as far as scoring goes. Out of that group, Afflalo seems to be the most logical because of the fact that he is a young guy and could provide great scoring and he is a good three point shooter as well. Redd is coming off major knee injuries in which he played very little the past two seasons. Hamilton is getting older and he is still good, but I'm not sure if the Bulls have the pieces that they would be willing to give up to get Rip. Courtney Lee would be a very minor upgrade from Keith Bogans and honestly the Bulls shouldn't even think twice about going to get him. The one guy that is an unrestricted free agent and the Bulls would love to have is Jason Richardson from the Orlando Magic. He has played for the Phoenix Suns and the Charlotte Bobcats before and he is a magnificent player. He plays tremendous offensively and is able to contribute to the play even without the basketball in his hands. He is deadly from the three point line and it looks like Richardson would be a great compliment to the current MVP Derrick Rose. Jason Richardson has said that he would be willing to take a pay cut to go to a contending team and he can definitely find that in Chicago. I personally would love to see Jason Richardson wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey this upcoming season. He would be a fantastic acquisition to the Bulls organization. He seems to be a solid player as well as a great guy off the court. We will see what happens and how much money Richardson is willing to take and see if he would be okay with coming to Chicago for say $5 million a season instead of $10 million a year. I would really love to see Jason come to Chicago and be that great number-2 guy beside Derrick Rose.