As the First Half Comes to a Close

Dark Wednesday is upon us once again. The day after the MLB All-Star Game.

No baseball. No basketball. No football. No hockey. Pro-am day for golf, qualifying day for NASCAR. All that's left is analysis of the All-Star Game, which will be pretty straightforward today: the American League got their butts thoroughly kicked by the National League.

Black Wednesday does hold a special place as the virtual halfway point in the calendar year, and as such, gives us a chance to look back at the first half of the year in sports. Especially since, you know, nothing else is going on.

The crowning of the king

Two years ago, we wanted to crown their asses, and we finally crowned them in June. The Miami Heat won their championship, and LeBron James finally got the ring that was preordained for him upon his entrance into the league nine years ago. For many NBA fans (this writer included), this was to be the apocalypse come early. LeBron's famous "Decision" went against all we held dear about the NBA: legendary gladiators entering the arena against other larger-than-life figures. Russell vs. Wilt, Kareem against Walton, Magic and Bird, Jordan and Shaq.

LeBron distorted that stained-glass memorial to the greatest NBA past when he decided to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Basketball is the sport of personal pride and achievement more than any other, where you work to be better than the man in front of you for 48 minutes. James couldn't beat the other guys, so he joined them, and unlike the playground, there was no reshooting for teams.

Ultimately, the super-stacked team won after a surprising loss, and at the final buzzer, the world did not tilt off its axis. Life has gone on. The moral of the story? The Heat may have won this year, but next year is not a given. Just like the Bulls of the '90s, the target is squarely on Miami's back. And make no mistake: the guns are loaded.

Thanks for nothing, Justin

The MLB All-Star Game was decided early, as Justin Verlander gave up five runs in the first inning en route to an 8-0 victory for the National League. After years of AL dominance, the senior circuit has won the last three Midsummer Classics. I can't say it's Ron Washington's fault even though he's managed the last two games; at some point, the AL hitters have live up to those lofty batting averages.

Who I can definitely fault is Verlander and Detroit. The Tigers were supposed to run away with the AL Central Division this year following the acquisitions of Prince Fielder and underrated pitcher Doug Fister, but have instead floundered to a 44-42 record at the break, 3.5 games behind the White Sox. No starter besides Verlander has an ERA under four, and the Tigers are in the bottom half of the league in team ERA and fielding percentage. You know the adage: pitching and defense win championships.

It'll be an exciting second-half in the Central. The White Sox still have to prove they are more than a first-half surprise and hold off the Tigers and Indians, both of whom are within striking distance of the top. Still, no matter which AL team makes it to the World Series, they can thank Justin Verlander for their disadvantage. Should have started Chris Sale, Wash!

Second-Half Hitmen

Speaking of the boys in black and white pinstripes, the White Sox might have finally figured it out. They rode a wave of momentum into the break, splitting four games with the red-hot Yankees in New York, sweeping the Rangers at home and finally winning a series against their personal kryptonite, the Toronto Blue Jays (and coming within a clutch hit of sweeping them). The Tigers have started to get it together a bit, but the Sox have maintained a good lead. Kevin Youkilis has become an instant hero, Jose Quintana is the latest underrated young hurler, and Robin Ventura has made everyone except me forget about Ozzie Guillen following in LeBron's footsteps. If it weren't for the Nationals and Pirates, the Sox would be the story of the year.

Now comes the difficult part of the year. 16 of their next 19 games are on the road, including three with Detroit. The Sox survived the nationwide heat wave, but the worst of July and August lie ahead. John Danks and Phil Humber need to come back and Paul Konerko must regain his early-season stroke for the Sox to win the division. The (Paper) Tigers won't stay down for too long.

Wilted Rose

The crushing reality of Derrick Rose's fourth-quarter injury in Game 1 of the NBA playoff season has become an itchy scab for most Chicagoans by now. Reports surfaced last week via TMZ that Rozay was spotted coming out of an LA club early in the morning. For any other high-flying 23-year-old, this is not news, but for an injured hometown superstar, it was akin to Marion Berry smoking crack. "HOW COULD DERRICK GO TO THE CLUB BUT NOT RUN UP AND DOWN THE FLOOR ON A TORN ACL????" was the crazed thought floating through the minds of Bulls fans.

Listen: Rose is injured and very doubtful for this coming season. At most, he'll play the last month of the year and the playoffs. Worst case scenario: he's held out for the entire year and Chicago will have to watch Miami defend their title without the chance to knock the South Be-aches off their pedestal. I know it hurts, but this is the way it has to be. We went through awful injuries on the Bears and Blackhawks last year that killed all our playoff dreams, but such is life. Rose will be back and with proper time to heal, he will be stronger. All we have to do is support the Bulls until the Legend of Murray Playground returns to the court.

Here we go...

Only six and a half hours of Dark Wednesday are left, sports fans. Tomorrow is a full slate of baseball and  more prep for the Summer Olympics. Go outside and make your own sports memories today; tomorrow, we're back to it.

See you in the cheap seats.

JS

The Kevin Durant Problem

Hold on, let me get my calculator...

Hip-hop and basketball are inextricably linked. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when this marriage of culture and sport occurred, but it's a known fact that basketball's Golden Era of the 1980s-early '90s intersected with the birth of hip-hop as a musical genre.

When young Bird and Magic began their long war of the hardwood in the 1979 NCAA Championship Game, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambataa and Kool DJ Kurt (aka Kurtis Blow) were already spinning records in the boogie down Bronx. But it was at the height of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry/Michael Jordan's rise that hip-hop began to take off. Now, the two cannot be separated, which is why it's hard to hear Rakim's "Don't Sweat the Technique" without picturing an NBA highlight tape going with it.

Wait, what, they actually did that? I had NO idea.

All the anthropology aside, both forms have given to each other over their histories. Basketball players dress like the rappers they listen to, while hip-hoppers wear throwback jerseys of the players they love. The oddest trait shared by basketball and hip-hop, however, lies in it's slang; specifically, the slang for what is considered "good".

In layman's terms, if something's bad, it's good. A nasty dunk, a sick pass, an ill crossover. Shots are deadly or cold-blooded. Countless times, I've said that Derrick Rose is disgusting. LeBron James' beard is disrespectful. (Sorry, that last one is true.)

The faces ballplayers and fans alike will make after a crazy dunk or shot are legendary: expressions of horror, disgust, or as Bill Simmons put it in his Book of Basketball: "A dunk that makes every African-American fan in the building stand up and make the face like they just smelled an extremely bad fart."

Yes, Joakim, that's the face I mean.

So it should not get lost in translation when I tell you the number one fact of the 2012 NBA season:

KEVIN DURANT IS A PROBLEM.

Making it rain among the Thunder

At some point last year, a question was asked in passing on ESPN: would you rather have Kobe Bryant or Kevin Durant?

The runaway answer, of course, was Kobe. KD was in his third season and while he was the leader of a good young Thunder team, he hadn't proven himself.

This year, however, Durant is proving himself, each and every game.

The numbers:

-Per game: 27.9 points, 8.4 rebounds (career high), 3.4 assists (career high), 1.2 blocks (career high), 51.3 FG% (career high)

-51 points in an overtime win against Denver

-36 points in West's 152-149 All-Star Game win

-Averaging 1.5 points per game more on the road

The greatest difficulty for MVP voters? All these numbers are either identical or comparable to the other front-runner, LeBron James.

A "heated" argument

While the animosity of "The Decision" and the Heat's coalescence has lessened immensely, people still don't like LeBron. He had big buckets late in the ASG, but cost his team with two late turnovers. Derrick Rose indirectly disapproved of LBJ's pre-game dance routine at the All-Star game. And people are still wondering what's up with his beard.

LeBron will always draw ire for leaving Cleveland for Miami. It was a move condemned by media, fans and players alike. But he's always scrutinized for being so incredibly good as well. His skill set has only been possessed by a handful of players ever, and hardly any of them have LeBron's size and speed. The only consistent knock has been his three-point shooting, and this year he's averaging a ridiculous 47 percent from beyond the arc. While Dwyane Wade's been injured, James has carried the Heat through stretches, albeit with some help from glue man Chris Bosh. Kevin Durant can't say the same, as he's had Russell Westbrook all season to play Robin to his Batman.

The main thing hurting LeBron's MVP campaign is that he's won before. The prevailing opinion is that writers will go with a first-timer to create a new story. This was one of the ideas presented for Derrick Rose's win last season when other players had considerably better numbers. The simmering hatred for LeBron is another possible reason he would lose out.

None of those should matter this year, though. LeBron is the frontman in this year's race. For how long remains to be seen.

The best in the business

Oklahoma City and Miami have been jockeying for the best record in the league all year. The Bulls are footsteps behind, but Derrick Rose has missed games and the Bulls are 9-3 without him in the lineup. Good odds say he won't be considered. This leaves James, Durant, Kobe Bryant, Tony Parker, Chris Paul, and Jeremy Lin.

All right, you've stopped chuckling, now back to reality. Tony Parker and Chris Paul are long shots, due to Rose's win last year and the writers' hesitancy to reward another point guard. Kobe's having another great season along with a beautiful ad campaign, but the Lakers are stuck with a bad bench and an underachieving third man. Plus, "Black Mamba" is a really stupid nickname.

This leaves James and Durant, and that's a numbers/crunch-time race. The award goes to whoever's team finishes with a better record and whoever measures up against conference opponents (Lakers, Grizzlies, Spurs, Clippers for Durant; Bulls, Magic, Celtics, Pacers, Knicks for James), barring injury. But the fact that it's a race in itself has thrown a monkey wrench into the plans of the basketball writers.

This was supposed to be LeBron's year. He was hungry to erase the memories of last season's defeat to the surprising Mavericks and outright flatten anyone who stood in his way. It was supposed to be a non-contest.

Kevin Durant has just been too much of a problem to ignore.

A nasty problem.

See you in the cheap seats.

JS

It's Luol Deng...to the Rescue?, Part 2

Luol Deng is a grown-ass man.

This phrase is not to be taken lightly. Men grow older every day, but as women are fond of saying, not all of them grow up.

Luol Deng used to be one of these childish men. He was soft, content to shoot jump shots and stay out of the lane. He was moody, a sullen figure on the bench in street clothes after his latest injury.

Somewhere in the midst of the 2010 playoffs, Lu grew up.

The Bulls were hopelessly outmatched by the Cavaliers that season, but Lu gallantly went toe-to-toe with an adamant LeBron James. He bodied James, he drove on him, he made plays. I finally stopped yelling obscenities at my television when he touched the ball.

Then, Tom Thibodeau was hired, the Bulls went on their determined run last year, and Luol Deng became the man. He was that most revered of sports terms: the glue. Deng was the indispensable player; the guy that holds the team together, the guy who fills in the gaps.

It was said that Derrick Rose was the MVP of the league, but Luol Deng was the MVP of the Bulls.

Luol Deng is a grown-ass man.

Pacing yourself


When Deng went down with a wrist injury last week, it was the latest in a rash of maladies that had affected the Bulls' roster. Rose had a sprained toe, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah had sustained sprained ankles, Rip Hamilton's groin, CJ Watson's bad elbow. Aside from the astounding fact that Carlos Boozer had remained healthy through all this, the Bulls were severely banged up...but kept winning.

Then Deng went down in a blowout victory, and the injury was revealed to be more than a minor bump: a torn ligament in his non-shooting wrist.

The glue was gone.

The defense became shakier, as the Bulls started giving up big individual games and allowing teams to top the century mark. The offensive options were limited with Hamilton still on the shelf.

The Bulls' steady Winnebago that had been carving a path of destruction across the NBA landscape had become a Yugo, ready to shake itself to pieces at any moment.

The Indiana Pacers knew this, and Frank Vogel's chip-on-the-shoulder upstarts managed to deal the Bulls their first home loss of the season, as Chicago shot 40 percent for the game and scored only 16 points in the fourth quarter. The absence of Luol Deng loomed large as Danny Granger got loose late for several offensive rebounds.

The Last Jedi of (South) Sudan


The Bulls have their early-season marquee matchup tomorrow with the vaunted Miami Heat. Wade has returned from his own injury, LeBron is in usual form (though he still can't consistently hit a three), Shane Battier has given the Heat even more of a defensive presence and Norris Cole is all he was touted to be.

The Bulls would have had a tough matchup to begin with. But with no Deng, LeBron will have a much easier time to work. He might even record a field goal in the fourth quarter.

Proof that kings really hail from the motherland.

The Bulls have shown they can win without Deng, without Rose, shoot, they've shown they can win without half the active roster. But against a Miami Heat team at full strength, they will need every hand on deck, from  Derrick Rose to Mike James. Carlos Boozer will be better than he was last year against Chris Bosh. Joakim Noah will be better. Rip Hamilton will provide scoring and vision much better than Keith Bogans. But a major piece will be most likely be missing tomorrow, and it may be the most important one.

Help us, Luol Deng. You may be our only hope.

See you in the cheap seats.

JS

Who's Killing the NBA Season?

Last night, the Chicago Bulls and Dallas Mavericks opened the NBA season in one of the most anticipated matchups of the year. The reigning champs had all their stars back on the court and the Bulls, defeated by the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, were hungry to show they had taken the next step.

It was a classic opening night battle. "Dizzy" Dirk Nowitzki made his usual flurry of awkward fadeaways, turnaround jumpers and hopsteps to the hole; Derrick Rose swooped and spun his way faster than DeShawn Stevenson could talk trash; Rick Carlisle's part was skillfully played by his body-double, Jim Carrey; and in a stunning move, Tom Thibodeau lost his voice before the game even started after one of his kids nearly ran out into traffic.

Seriously, I can't make this up.

The game was tied at 94-all with two minutes left in the fourth quarter. The fans in Dallas had whited-out the entire building; no one had been sitting since the start of the final stanza. Reggie Miller and Steve Kerr were fighting over the seat next to Marv Albert so they could do color for every D. Rose play. Caron Butler was still ugly, but shooting up a storm.

The stage was set: twenty seconds to go. Dallas with the ball, and Taj Gibson guarding the German. Carlos Boozer on the bench with his leg wrapped like a mummy (he got injured on the jump ball because his shoes were untied), screaming encouragement...

...while Joakim Noah and Mark Cuban were trading insults about each other's mothers.

Suddenly, the ball's in Dirk's hands. 10 seconds on the clock. Low post, one on one with Taj. No fouls to give, seven seconds. Dirk turns right, he turns left, six. Fakes right again, five, steps back, Taj steps with him, four, leans back and falls away, three, the shot goes up in an impossible arc, two, floats to the rim, one. And as the buzzer sounds, the ball touches the front rim...

Then I woke up. Another cloudy day in a basketball-free world.

I want myyyyyy, I want my N-B-A....

Last season was the best for the NBA since 2007-08. Not too long of a time span for sure, but you have to understand: that the season the Celtics created the first "Semi-Artificial Nucleus" in the history of the League (being that only one of the players was drafted by that team), leading to the Celtics and Lakers meeting in the Finals for the first time since 1987.

The two teams did not disappoint, even though the Celtics blew out Los Angeles in Game 6, as the series was a solid fight between storied franchises. The highlight was Paul Pierce faking his way to legendary status in Beantown after returning from a leg injury in Game 1. Oops, did I say faking? My fault, let Kenny and Charles say it for me:

"Oh, is this the fake Willis Reed moment?"

That Finals put the NBA solidly at the forefront of professional winter sports. Hockey will continue to jockey (ooh, rhyme) with the hardwood for prominence, but the NBA was back. Then last season, You-Know-Who took his talents to South Beach and put the bullseye on Miami for years to come, and that was before a raucous playoffs that saw:

-A #8 seed defeat a #1 seed for only the fourth time in history (Grizzlies over the Spurs);

-The Nuggets reach the playoffs without Carmelo;

-The Mavericks, long regarded as "soft", finally win their elusive ring;

-The Bulls-Heat begin what should be a long battle for Eastern dominance;

-The Hawks pull off a surprising victory over the Magic, fueling reports that Dwight may leave town;

-The possible final death knell of the Kobe Bryant-era in Lakerland after an embarrassing defeat to Dallas.

All that meant this season of the National Basketball Association was going to be rife with storylines, headlines and for once, not many punchlines (mostly how long Mike Brown was going to stay in L.A.). Forget the teams I named above: Ricky Rubio was finally coming to Minnesota, Blake Griffin had to following his ridiculous rookie season, the Cavs had Kyrie Irving and a small shot at redemption, the Pacers turned heads last year and New York would have 'Melo, Amare and Chauncey for a full season.

This season was going to be YUGE. An absolute financial waterfall for the money men involved. Then, someone turned off the faucet. The question is, who?

The unusual suspects

For once, I can't blame David Stern for this one. He's the commissioner, yes, and he does have final say, but I doubt King David is throwing a wrench into these labor talks. However, the possible culprits are out there.

The owners

'Woe is me' is the call from the lofty perch of NBA ownership. According to the espn.com synopsis of the work stoppage, the owners say they're losing money due to high player salaries and a soft salary cap. I'm not one for business sense at all, but it seems to me that sports franchise owners are the ones who started this trend of paying ridiculous amounts of money for players to come to their teams (George Steinbrenner, rest in peace). That's my opinion, though, and the owners want a hard cap to stop their money losses. Seeing as they don't play the game and usually are earning capital outside of their franchises (see: Jay-Z/Mikhail Prokhorov, Jerry Reinsdorf, Clayton Bennett), the owners have no problem standing pat until a solution is reached—even if the season has to be cancelled.

The NBPA (the players union)

The players say the owners get enough cash from ticket and TV revenues and that revenue sharing would solve many teams problems. They also want a short collective bargaining agreement (the owners want 10 years; the players want less).

Now, if you think of the NBA as America, specifically this "1% vs. the 99%" argument, the 99% of players earn less than $500,000 dollars a year, give or take. Many of these guys are rookies, backups, 10th-and-11th men, or career D-leaguers. The 1% are your Kobes, LBJs, D-Wades, Steve Nashes, D-Roses and so on. The problem is all of those guys really do love basketball and are hurting themselves by not playing. A few have gone overseas (check the video below of Brian Scalabrine tearing up the Italian league), but the majority are working out and killing time. NBPA president Derek Fisher is taking the hard line on this issue, but the players seemingly have more at stake.

The NFL

Didn't see this one coming, did you? Not only was the NFL lockout during the same period as the NBA labor trouble, it was more newsworthy when football finally did return. I wrote that it was disgusting how fans just forgave and forgot since their beloved NFL was back, but a side effect of it was that people didn't seem to really care about no basketball. With fans firmly set in their armchairs for a considerably weak football season, the NBA will take a backseat on the sports pages and in the minds of fans around the country.

The culprit is....

Really, all three are to blame. Derrick Rose has said that it's silly for players and owners to be arguing over millions of dollars during the U.S. economic hardship, and he's right. For both sides to be contending over this much money really is silly, especially when both will benefit no matter what. The days of owners shorting players so badly they have to get second jobs in the offseason are long gone.

The first two weeks of the season have been cancelled, and the lockout has no end in sight. With the Blackhawks stumbling out of the gate and the Bears mediocre once again, it would be very nice to watch D-Rose and Co. flying up and down the court each night. So, someone, please, end the lockout. I think I've run out of Bulls clips to watch on YouTube...

Okay, now I have.

See you in the cheap seats.

JS

The Top Five Rivalries in the Game Today...

I've talked about how I realize that sports is a business many times in the space, and I've talked about how I hate that fact. I wish sports was completely pure and free of external complications of contracts, agents and dollars. But spectator sports are what they are because of spectators, and we spectators don't come to watch a game. We come to watch drama play out. We pack buildings and stadiums to watch an age-old drama unfold: the idea of "our good versus their evil."

Nowhere is this more present than in rivalry games. Sometimes they are defined by physical proximity.  Sometimes they are defined by one side having what the other side wants. Sometimes, they're sparked in one fiery instant of passion.

No matter the case, rivalries take sports to another level. It takes athletes from a "both teams played hard"-mentality to the level of "we didn't want to just beat them, we wanted to humiliate them"-mindset. The fans get into it, the players get into it, the announcers get into it. That's when sports become more than sports.

So who claims the greatest rivalry right now? It's tough, since in the age of ESPN almost everyone who plays each other can claim to be a rival, but some bragging rights games just have more significance than others. These are my best current rivalries in U.S. sports.

Honorable Mention: Florida State-Florida, Ohio State-Michigan, Ravens-Steelers, White Sox-Tigers, Reds-Cardinals, Lakers-Mavericks.

5. The Rock-John Cena

This wouldn't have made the list if it wasn't for Dwayne Johnson. Anyone who's ever watched professional wrestling knows The Rock's skill on the microphone. He's a legend among fans for his charisma, wrestling ability and knack for dissing other wrestlers before (and during) matches.

This rivalry was built back in 2006, when John Cena had an interview to promote his movie "12 Rounds". In the interview, Cena dissed The Rock for saying he was never going to leave the WWE and then going "Hollywood". In the years following, Cena has become a polarizing figure for wrestling fans in the so-called "PG era": newer, younger fans rally around his image and merchandise, while older wrestling fans (veterans of the "Attitude" era") decry him for his limited moveset and constant holding of one of the major WWE championships.

The buzz has been going for years on a Rock-Cena match, and finally, Vince McMahon brought The Rock back and granted the fans' wish. Rock cost Cena the championship at Wrestlemania and the next night, the two men set a match for next year's Wrestlemania. In the meantime, the Rock delivered some epic promos, including this doozy below (NSFW):

Sports entertainment or not, this is going to be a great buildup to a hopefully great match. Tip for fans: order this year's Survivor Series for an appetizer.

4. Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao

I know I've already covered this in "The Fight That Never Comes". Still, it's worth mentioning because of the hype that has been built not by promoters or the fighters themselves, but by the people. Everyone who loves boxing wants this fight, and I don't think they care if they get it in 2012 or 2022. I'll say again: "Money" controlled his fight with Victor Ortiz before the controversial knockout and he's never been a patsy in the ring. Fight fans can say all they want about Manny cleaning him up, this will be a great fight—if it ever happens.

3. Tampa Bay Rays-Boston Red Sox

Oh no, you thought I was going to say Red Sox-Yankees, didn't you? Well, too bad. That rivalry's going on the next list (trust me, anyone who hates seeing Derek Jeter on Sunday Night Baseball all summer is going to love that list). This is a much fresher and much more interesting rivalry for baseball.

The (Devil) Rays were once a floundering team who looked as if they'd never move past "expansion" status. Then they changed their name, their uniforms, stopped picking up veterans at the end of their careers and acquired some talented draft picks. It was only a matter of time before they began barking with the big boys in the AL East, and the bully on the block happened to be the BoSox. It started with a James Shields haymaker that came sooooo close to knocking out CoCo Crisp in 2008 and most recently, the Rays landed the shot that knocked Boston out of the playoffs. If that weren't enough, the Rays came back from nine games back in the standings to push out the Carmines.

These teams are incredibly talented on both sides of the ball and are perennial favorites for the AL East crown and the American League Wild Card. I'm excited to watch these squads go at it. Unlike the perpetual Yankees-Red Sox yawners jammed down our throats.

2. New York Jets-New England Patriots

I didn't give New York vs. New England any play in Major League Baseball, but NYC and Boston will never been anything but adversaries. Since the colonial days when the nation's capital hopped between them, the two cities have never seen eye-to-eye. Now they have another great rivalry to clash over. Last year, the Patriots humiliated the Jets (along with nearly everyone else) on their march to the playoffs and it seemed natural they'd do it again in the divisional playoffs.

And then Mark Skywalker and Bart "Lando Calrissian" Scott defeated the Evil Empire in a shocking win. Wes Welker's "foot-in-mouth" pregame interview was trumped by Scott's "CAN'T WAIT!" spot. Never mind all the smack talk: this is a solid rivalry and one that should be that way for years to come.

All I can say about this one...

And now, the top rivalry in U.S. professional sports today....

1. Chicago Bulls-Miami Heat

Damn you, David Stern. Damn you, NBA owners. Damn you, NBA players' union. How can you let the NBA season slide away and take this budding donnybrook away from us? All the elements of a classic NBA rivalry are here in this one: high flyers against tough defenders; pedigreed champs versus up-and-comers; the glitz and glamor of South Beach versus the tough and gritty kids from Madison Street.

The Bulls were the surprise of the East last year and the Heat was everyone's favorite dartboard target, so it was natural that they should have some great games. I don't think anyone expected the three regular season classics that we were left with last year (three games decided by a total margin of eight points), not to mention the Heat's responding victory in the conference finals. The upstart Bulls were humbled by Miami in the Conference Finals, which still reminds me of the Detroit-Chicago tangles of the late-'80s. With Miami's loss to the Mavericks in the championship, both teams would have been hungry for redemption in the spring. Hopefully this lockout ends and we'll have a chance to see D-Rose and Co. lock horns with Wade, LBJ and that other dude.

Coming soon: The Five Worst Sports Rivalries.

Oh, yeah. Red Sox-Yankees is definitely making that list.

See you in the cheap seats.

JS

A Necessary Evil

We needed Darth Vader.

(Yes, another Star Wars reference. I swear I don't love the franchise this much, it just comes in handy for analogies. But I digress.)

We needed Darth Vader. We needed him to chop Luke's arm off. We needed him to crush the Rebel Alliance.

We needed the Evil Empire.

Just as the New York Post suggested, the ultimate triumph of good against evil would not have been possible without, well, evil. For the Jets to overcome, the Patriots had to exist as the personification of decadence and dominance. And they absolutely had to humiliate the Jets like they did in November.

So all Chicago Bulls fans still stinging after the loss to Miami, listen to me.

We need LeBron James.

Hurdles

A few minutes after the Bulls surrendered a 12-point fourth-quarter lead to Miami in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, I fought the oncoming catatonic state that was taking over my body and made a pointed Facebook status.

It read:

"1988. 1989. 1990. We will return."

The generation of Bulls fans who remember the days prior to the Jordan Renaissance is growing more scant every day, but they're still out there. They remember when red, white and black wasn't the premier color scheme for any Nike shoe. They remember when Converse and Adidas reigned and there was no such thing as an Air Jordan. When Chicago Stadium was a drafty old barn that hadn't seen a championship since Bobby Hull.

The days when, as Sam Smith says in his book The Jordan Rules, the late Johnny "Red" Kerr would have to call the Chicago papers to spell players' names after games for the box score.

Save for a few close years in the mid-'70s, the Bulls were an afterthought before Jordan. And even after he did jump-start the Bulls, glory did not come easy.

Off the hardwood, sportswriters said a team with no star center or distributing point guard could ever win a championship. On the court, the Detroit Pistons were doing their best to prove the critics right.

Those three years mark the successive seasons in which the Pistons knocked the Bulls out of the playoffs. First in five games, then six, then a heartbreaking seven-game series at the turn of the decade. Detroit had Chicago's number, and they knew it.

This was the mental hurdle the Bulls—and Jordan—had to clear. He had famously broken the Cleveland Cavaliers with "The Shot" in 1989 (Smith writes in Rules that the Cavs would not beat the Bulls once until Jordan's first retirement), and the Celtics' dominance was at an end. The Pistons and their "Bad Boy" tactics stood in Jordan's way for three straight years.

Until the breakthrough.

One distinct play may have sealed it, but the Bulls finally defeated Detroit in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals. The rest is, of course, history.

New enemies

Twenty years later, the Bulls are once again trying to climb the mountain after 14 years of relative anonymity. Save for one year in the mid-2000s, Chicago had not made it to the second round of the playoffs since the last year of the Dynasty.

This would be the year the Bulls would finally revisit the mountaintop.

They had seemingly disheartened the faux-triumvirate in Miami after three nail-biting regular season victories. They had the top seed in the playoffs. They played hard-nosed defense at every position and they had the Most Valuable Player.

But the Heat would have the last laugh, and Chicago would be sent packing.

People forget that Jordan and the Bulls did have their moments of regular season triumph against Detroit, only to go down swinging come springtime. Same was true for the Cavs before the breakthrough in '89. Just as sportscasters say shooters need to see one go in before they can start hitting shots, the Bulls needed to see an enemy defeated before they could start running through the league with regularity.

These Miami Heat are not those Detroit Pistons. (A more fitting Miami team would be that of the late '90s: Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, P.J. Brown. Those guys could throw shots with the best of them.) But they are standing in the way of the Bulls, and if Miami wins the chip this year, they will be the team to beat for the coming future. The Bulls will have no choice but to gameplan for them every year.

(Ed. note: Interestingly enough, the roles have almost been completely reversed (from a Chicago fan's perspective) from that of the old Bulls-Pistons rivalry. The Bulls are now the hard-nosed defensive team led by their star point guard and other adept role players, while the Heat are the finesse guys with two top stars and an unsung shooter (who'd have thought Chris Bosh could ever be connected with John Paxson?) and a "doberman" defense anchored by Wade and James.)

The face of the franchise

As the Bulls' 15-point lead dwindled away in Game 5, it was LeBron James leading the charge, hitting shot after shot. Remember those faces Knicks fans always made when Jordan (and sometimes, Reggie Miller) made deficits disappear against New York in the '90s? Those were the faces we were all making at the end of that game.

All because of LeBron James.

It's not so much the Heat the Bulls will have to defeat. Dwyane Wade is and will be a great player for his career and Chris Bosh will contribute under the radar. But it is James (who knocked the Bulls out last year with Cleveland with another cold-blooded performance) whom Chicago will have to eliminate in order to get ahead.

Luke needed Darth Vader in order to triumph. Our own young "skywalker" needs LeBron James.

See you in the cheap seats.

JS

MLK and LBJ

"...Where a man will be judged not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character."

It is the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 82nd birthday, and as such, it's important to remember those words he spoke 48 years ago on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. While he was speaking on behalf of a particular group of people in African-Americans, those words apply to everyone, no matter who they are and what they look like. The best and only way to truly know the measure of someone is by finding their true colors.

The content of their character.

With that in mind, and the Miami Heat coming into Chicago tomorrow night, I want you to consider the main reason the "Heatles" will not win the NBA title this season.
LeBron James is a punk.

Keep dreaming, Cleveland

It probably seems like an eternity now, but July was only six months ago. Back then, everyone wanted LeBron. There were ad campaigns, websites, an endless amount of talk show hours and water-cooler discussions devoted to the subject.

Where was LeBron going?

My college friend K-Mac is from the Cleveland area, and the whole LBJ saga had him strung wire-tight. He went from "There's no way he's leaving" (April) to "I hope he doesn't, but he'll probably end up with the Clippers" (June). The night of "The Decision", I texted him to express my condolences.

My condolences, for goodness' sake. Like his favorite uncle had died or something. He texted back, "I'm at a bar, crying into my beer right now."

Don't get me wrong; as a Chicagoan, I'm inclined to hate Cleveland sports. The Indians are perennial challengers to the White Sox, the Cavs have a long rivalry with the Bulls, and the Browns' fans are just weird. (What is a Brown anyway? And what does it have to do with the "Dawg Pound"?) But I understand that Cleveland has been waiting a long time for any kind of a champion. Basketball, baseball, competitive eating, something relevant that'll end up on ESPN.

With the departure of LeBron, it was the proverbial "slap in the face". You remember the scene in "The Family Man" where Nicolas Cage turns around and gets on the airplane, leaving Tea Leoni standing there sobbing?

Yeah, I know you haven't. Either way, Cleveland is Tea Leoni. And for the franchise player and hometown hero to dip like that, after saying he wasn't leaving until the Cavaliers won a chip?

Punk.

Tweet, tweet

Let's keep that "callous dumping of your girlfriend" analogy from the last paragraph going:

Say Nic Cage breaks up with Tea Leoni right at the airport, after they'd been dating all four years of college. He says he wants to further his career, but since it's completely unexpected, she's upset. She throws out some of his stuff that's at her place, burns some of it, smashes some of it. It's cathartic, therapeutic.

Meanwhile, Tea's dad hears about the whole thing and writes a scathing letter about Nic's character, calling him all sorts of names and saying that she'll be happy and find someone long before he does. He sees it, and instead of responding to him or her, he puts a response online, saying something to the tune "everything comes back around."
Remember, he dumped her, but now he's acting the part of the dumped.

Fast forward a few months. Nic's doing pretty well for himself after a rough start at his new job, even though all of his and Tea's friends from college absolutely hate him. He flips on the TV back home one night to find out Tea got in a fight with her new boyfriend and caught a terrible beating. In front of a bunch of people, no less.

What does Nic do? He goes online again. "You know you had it coming, right?" he says.

Any part of this sound a little out of the ordinary? Wrong, even? LIKE A PUNK MOVE, PERHAPS?

Switch "LeBron" with "Nic Cage", "the Cavs" with "Tea Leoni" and "the Lakers" with "new boyfriend" and you have the events of the last week. Kicking them when they're down. That's always a classy move.

Game recognize game

Things like this have happened before. Early 2000s Kobe Bryant ('Fro Kobe, for those older readers) was a petulant asshole, period. The statutory rape case proved that. But he's matured since then. It was the same for Jordan before him, and Magic before him.

LeBron is still young, but I don't see him growing beyond his current state. His previous on-court behavior and the shots he took in his commercial and last week's Twitter post suggest a lack of respect and humility. I won't say he needs those things to win a championship, but he'll need them to win more than one. Odds are there will a carousel of players revolving around Miami's triumvirate, and one of the players or coaches that LeBron disrespects this year or in the future could be on his team or his staff soon.

I think Bill Simmons said it best in The Book of Basketball when discussing the Bill Russell-Wilt Chamberlain debate: "Wilt was traded twice in his prime. Red [Auerbach] wouldn't think of trading Russ. Period." This is LeBron's second team in seven years. What are the chances he'll make it to a third?

Think about that this MLK weekend as the Bulls mix it up with the Heat. Whether he's on the floor or in street clothes nursing the ankle, LeBron James will never be more than what he is right now: a punk.

I don't know if Dr. King cared about basketball, but I don't think LBJ was part of his dream.

JS