Man Crush of April 2010: Chicago Bulls

Runners-Up: Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man 2), Mickey Rourke (Iron Man 2), Joss Whedon (The Avengers)
What? Another sports-related winner? That's right! When last year I only had a passing fancy for b-ball, I've been glued to the web this year when it came to the Chicago Bulls. But before I get to that, let's go through this month's runners-up.

No big surprise here. Robert Downey Jr has been a runner-up for the past couple of months because of Iron Man 2. So I, nor should any of you, would not be surprised if he finally wins the top honor when the movie is finally released this week. Mickey Rourke became a runner-up as well for Iron Man 2 because I finally did research on the Whiplash character he plays. That's right. My knowledge of Iron Man mythos is quite limited. I know about the Mandarin and Fin Fang Foom, but that's about it when it comes to his rogues gallery. Joss Whedon gets a nod as well because I heard he's going to direct the upcoming Avengers movie. Oh, quick sad story. The Doc won two free tickets from the radio (KS95) to see Iron Man 2 this Saturday. The sad part is that we are going to Wisconsin to visit her parents this weekend and the tickets she won are only good for a specific theater and time. We can't even give them/sell them because it's one of those things where she can only pick the tickets up at the theater and needs to show the proper identification. Ultra lame. But suggesting that we skip the parental visit did not seem to bode well with her. Oh well. Maybe tickets in no-where Wisconsin will be so cheap that it'll feel like they're free when compared to the ticket prices in Minneapolis.

But back to the crush-worthy winners. I wanted to keep these winners to be to an individual, but the team overall has impressed me and kept me glued to my seat until the end of the season. I guess I was more ho-hum last year because they had pretty much locked up their playoff tickets before the month even started due to lack of competition. This year, it was down to the very last game. It was a two team race for the last spot for the Easter Conference bracket: The Bulls and the Toronto Raptors. Both weren't haven't stellar seasons. The Raptors had the tiebreaker and were a couple games ahead of the Bulls at the beginning mainly because the Bulls suffered a ten-game losing streak where players were getting injured and the teams they were playing against were either the cream of the crop or just exploited the holes or match-up advantages. The sigh-of-relief here came when Chris Bosh and the Raptors just couldn't seem to win when they needed to. It went to a point where the Bulls were finally able to start winning games and were tied in the standings with the Raptors at the time they were supposed to play against each other. I was really anxious about this game because earlier in the season, the Raptors beat the Bulls during most of their meetings (thus why they earned the tie-breaker). But the Bulls handed the Raptors their own asses because Chris Bosh was out with a face injury and Hedo Turkoglu (the Raptors big free agent pick up last summer) was a major dud. AFter that game, the Bulls were ahead and either needed to win one of their games against teams with winning records (the Boston Celtics and the Charlotte Bobcats) and the Raptors lose at least one of their games against sub-.500 teams. So, long story short, the odds were against the Bulls. As expected, the Raptors won both of their games, meaning the Bulls had to win both of their games as well. The game against the Celtics wasn't going to be easy because even though they were already in the playoffs, they were playing for positioning which would matter a lot to them. But thankfully, the Bulls dominated them and even confused Rasheed Wallace (big ticket Celtics free agency pickup) to score some points for the Bulls. Then came the game with the Charlotte Bobcats. By then, the Bobcats were set in their position (couldn't go up or down), but their coach, Larry Brown, went into the game claiming he wasn't going to let up on the Bulls just because they had nothing to play for. He didn't want to disappoint the fans. Into the first quarter, after the Bulls were playing great and some of the Bobcats players went down with injuries, Brown quickly pulled out his starters and handed the game to the Bulls. Man that was exciting.

The Bulls played an inspiring group of games that just kept me excited. Derrick Rose, the athletic point guard that the Bulls somehow lucked into drafting two years ago, has become a major player and an All-Star. Joakim Noah, the flamboyant and unconventional big man, grew into the emotional and vocal leader of the group after years of being reprimanded for his unusual ways. Luol Deng, the subtle Englishman who was hampered by injuries for the past couple of years, became a steady contributor. Kirk Hinrich, the captain of the team, became a defensive stopper and "glue guy". And the surprise of the year, Taj Gibson, the 26th pick of the 2009 draft, became a great power forward. I remember on draft day, with the 26th pick, I was hoping the Bulls would take Wayne Ellington from North Carolina because he was a decent shooting guard and, after losing Ben Gordon to free agency, I thought he was the sensible choice. Then the Bulls chose Taj Gibson. I had never heard of Taj before that night. What confounded me more was that they had already picked a power forward with their 16th pick. Also, if they were going to choose a power forward, Dejuan Blair was still available and even though he didn't have any ACLs, it was beast on the boards. But Taj actually excelled beyond the 16th pick player (James Johnson) and has made people wonder if they Bulls should have picked someone else with the 16th pick since Taj has been dominant (he was elected to be in the All-Rookie First Team). To be honest, I would have chosen Ty Lawson with the 16th pick as a backup guard if I was planning on using the 26th on Taj Gibson. But hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

All season long, the number goal, as it seemed, for the Bulls was the Free Agency Class of 2010 (LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, and more). The Bulls removed some decent players this year (John Salmons, Tyrus Thomas) to get expiring contracts to get enough cap space to offer a maximum deal to one of those players. But instead of forfeiting the season, the Bulls were still able to make the playoffs and give a selling point that they already have great pieces (Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah) that will help support the new coming player in the upcoming season. The New York Knicks have enough space for 2 maximum players, but were in a death spiral all year and can't say like the Bulls can that they have great supporting players already in place. Miami, Wade's team, has enough room for another max player to help Wade, but after having to suffer through the playoffs that felt like it was just him versus the entire Boston Celtics team, frustration may be enough to entice him to look at his hometown Chicago Bulls (his children also live in the Chicago area). When the Bulls made the playoffs, they were up against the monstruous Cleveland Cavaliers team with Lebron James. I knew the Bulls had no chance of winning the series, but they were able to showcase their growing skills against the Number One team in the NBA and even win a game against them.

Now that their season has ended, I've been digging through the web for mock drafts. They have the 18th pick on the 2010 draft and many think that depending on who they pick, may be a sign as to who they may be shooting for the most in free agency. If they pick a shooting guard, they'll be aiming for a power forward in free agency (Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, David Lee). If they pick a power forward, they'll be aiming for a shooting guard in free agency (Dwayne Wade, Joe Johnson, Monta Ellis, Ray Allen). Or they may do something completely unexpected like trade down into the draft to get an extra pick and fill in both positions or outright trade the pick for a future pick with a bad team in order to get a shot at the 2011 lottery. I'm excited about the options, if you can't tell. My dream would be for the Bulls to get Dwayne Wade because Taj Gibson has been serviceable as the starting power forward. If we can't get Wade, I'd actually be okay with getting 2 mid-level guys like David Lee and Ray Allen. Joe Johnson has been said to be major target, but he hasn't really shown me that he can take over like Dwayne Wade or even like Derrick Rose has. A lot of people on the Bulls blog site seem to be in love with Chris Bosh, but he's more of a stat guy to me and not much of a star guy, if you know what I mean. Some players can give a team an invisible 20 points/10 rebounds a game and then there are some players that can give you the magical 10-20 points your team needs to win a game.

But anyway, that entire month, I've been enamored with the Chicago Bulls and how can I not be? They kept me at the edge of my seat all month and accomplished what they had to do. Now I just have to wait and see what they do next... whatever I can do to make it so I stop thinking about those lost Iron Man 2 tickets...