For instance, here’s what he said in response to being asked how it feels to be the Bulls’ first All-Star since MJ: “It’s cool. (Smiles) It’s cool. After I’m long and gone with the Bulls [players] after me or whatever, people will say that I was an All Star for the Chicago Bulls. I’m from Chicago. That’s a big thing.”

Another thing people are going to be saying after Rose is “long and gone” is how very lucky the Bulls organization was on that fateful day they won the 2008 NBA Draft lottery. Rose started the year off slowly because of an ankle injury, and many people — myself included — temporarily forgot what a special player he is. Well, Rose has spent the last month or so reminding us and serving notice to the rest of the league that Bulls opponents are going to be seeing this kid in their nightmares for years to come.

Here’s video of Friedell’s interview:

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Most importantly, though, Deng said he should be ready to return to the Bulls by the preseason. Said Deng: “I feel like the team has given me a lot and I want to give that back. The way I treat pressure is I always work hard and try and show that I’m deserving of it. The beauty of it is that I have another season to go out there and prove myself and love the game I play.”

And wouldn’t the Bulls and their fans love for Deng to do just that? With Ben Gordon launching jumpers in Detroit this season, it’s critical for Deng to be healthy and live up to his potential. And I probably don’t need to remind you that, last summer, the team believed Deng had $78 million worth of potential.

Deng has been on my mind lately because if for some reason he’s not ready to begin the season, or if he gets hurt again, Vinny Del Negro will probably have to move John Salmons back to small forward. That would (I’m guessing) make Kirk Hinrich the starting shooting guard and force Jannero Pargo to backup the one and two spots. So minus a healthy Deng, our frontcourt and backcourt depth will be compromised. No pressure, though.

Deng also discussed what it was like to watch last season’s Bulls-Celtics playoff series from the sidelines: “Being out there and not playing, it was still a proud moment and a proud series — but I can’t tell you how tough it is to watch one of the best series in history go on and to be in the roster but not be able to play. So that was tough but as a team I think it will help us go forward in the new season.”

Oh, and apparently Deng wants to jump right back into the thick of things by taking on guys like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. “Both are great scorers, both are great leaders. I think Kobe has been there longer and LeBron is getting there faster than anyone — but to have both of them in the same league it just makes you want to step up your own game.” Wow. Isn’t that kind of like an injured runner coming back and immediately running a marathon?

Here’s Deng on CNN’s “The Lowdown.”

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Brian Hanley of the Chicago Sun-Times had an interesting and rather revealing little Q&A with Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. (And the interview continues here.) I highly suggest reading the whole thing, but here are a few quick hits:

Ben Gordon no longer fit in with the Bulls:“Now, fast forward to the end of [last season], we have [John] Salmons and we have a hell of a three-guard rotation with [Kirk] Hinrich and Derrick [Rose]. Ben wasn’t going to get a whole lot of playing time. [It] was going to be diminished. So Ben really no longer fit. Ben’s a terrific player. But Ben needs minutes. He would not have been happy with the minutes he was going to get.”

Signing Ben Wallace back in 2006 was a oopsie:“But the only way you can avoid making a mistake is not to make a decision. Even Jerry West has made mistakes, and he’s probably the best in the business. Even [Red] Auerbach made mistakes. Was Ben Wallace a mistake? Probably. Because what we didn’t think about is Ben needs to play alongside somebody who can score a lot of points. But I don’t think it’s about Ben Wallace that makes us be careful. It’s the thought that when you make a mistake, you own that mistake. So we’ve got to be careful.”

The Bulls did not want Pau Gasol:“Gasol, we didn’t move slowly, we said, ‘No.’ We were prepared to give [Memphis] players. What they wanted to do was to basically dump stuff on us and we’d be immobilized; we wouldn’t have been able to improve our team. Gasol made sense for the Lakers because he is their third-best player, probably. He would have been, at that time, our best player. It would have been a wrong role for him. John and Gar decided they didn’t want Gasol under those circumstances, where he would have been the last piece and we would have been immobilized because of the [salary] cap.”

He planned to win the draft lottery last year…seriously:“But I knew right along we were going to get Derrick. John [Paxson] can tell you. John said several months before the draft, ‘We really need a point guard.’ I said: ‘We’ll win the lottery and take Derrick Rose.’ Honest to God, I said that. I was acting silly, and it worked out.”

He’s not a miserly old cheapskate…seriously: “I don’t mind [paying] the tax if it’s an intelligent expenditure. I don’t care what the tax would be; if we had a guy who was going to put us over the top and put us in the Finals, I’d pay the tax. I wouldn’t hesitate.”

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