From Flickr via NSNewsflash
We at Bulls by the Horns realize that you’re busy and don’t have the time to go searching through website after website for some interesting, NBA related reads. So, from time to time, we’ll gather the articles we’ve found interesting and put them together for you in one place.
Today, we’ll start right here in Chicago as the Bulls made a blockbuster trade last night dealing Luol Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Andrew Bynum and three draft picks. Brian Windhorst broke the story late last night and has quotes from both Gar Forman and Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant. In his story, Windhorst makes mention of the trade rumors involving Bynum and the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as why the Lakers could not form a package that could compare to the Bulls deal. Our own Avi Saini assessed the impact of the trade early this morning. Be sure to keep your eye out on Bulls By The Horns all day for more coverage of the trade.
Though trading a player as talented as Luol Deng isn’t always ideal, it can sometimes be necessary with free agency looming. Another team in a similar situation is the New York Knicks with their star Carmelo Anthony. Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck detailed why he believes it is time for the Knicks to do the exact same thing the Bulls did and trade Anthony before the trade deadline. The terrible moves the Knicks have made has left the cupboard pretty barren and Beck believes the best way for the Knicks to start over is to trade Anthony and shot-blocking extraordinaire Tyson Chandler for young players or draft picks.
Like the Knicks, the Bucks are struggling mightily this season, but do not have an attractive star player to trade away. Instead, they have center Larry Sanders, who recently signed a large contract and even more recently started a fight in the Bucks locker room. No full story was written about the incident, but Jeremy Schmidt at Bucksketball compiled some of the tweets from the night and put together a picture of the scene. He went on to wonder if Larry Sanders is a problem or if he is just a victim of his circumstances in Milwaukee.
While Larry Sanders has become a pariah in the media, Giannis Antetokounmpo has become a media darling. Along with his insane potential, Antetokounmpo willingly flashes a smile and seems to be a teenager genuinely enjoying being in the NBA. Since the season started, Antetokounmpo has been writing blog posts for NBA Greece and a Greek commenter at BrewHoop has been nice enough to translate his posts into English. In his most recent post, he wrote about starting games in the NBA, recording his first career double-double, and wandering around NBA cities with Sanders or fellow rookie Nate Wolters.
Another great surprise this season has been the Portland Trail Blazers. Before the season, many saw the Blazers as a fringe playoff team in the Western Conference, but no one saw them being the best team in the league and Jordan Conn of Grantland went to Portland to figure out if the Blazers are “for real”. Conn found out that being “for real” might not actually be a real thing. He wrote how the three main keys to this team (Terry Stotts, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Damian Lillard) have all dealt with question marks throughout their time in Portland, but have never stopped working towards their goal of putting a winning team on the floor.
On Friday night, Ryan Anderson got into a collision with Gerald Green and hit the floor hard in Boston. He laid motionless for a few minutes before being taken off the court on a stretcher. The Pelicans announced Tuesday that Anderson suffered a herniated disk and will be out indefinitely. They weren’t willing to speculate whether or not he would be able to return this season. This is just another tough break for the Pelicans as they just can’t manage to stay healthy this season.
One of the weirdest stories of the last year is former Bull Dennis Rodman’s continuing friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un and it just continues to get weirder. Rodman recently took seven former NBA players as well as four “streetball” players to North Korea to put on a basketball game for the leader’s birthday and one of those players, Charles Smith, is feeling remorseful about making the trip. In an interview, Smith said that the event “has been dwarfed by politics and tainted by Rodman’s comments.” David Stern has smartly made it a priority to distance himself and the NBA from the event.
Another thing Stern is attempting to distance himself from is the league’s financial obligation to the Spirits of St. Louis. When the ABA and NBA merged, the owners of the Spirits (brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silna) negotiated an agreement that would pay them one-seventh of the national television revenue that the Nets, Spurs, Pacers, and Nuggets received as long as the league continued to exist. Since the 1976 merger, the Silnas have been given about $300 million. On Tuesday, the league is planning to strike a deal that will pay the Silnas $500 million upfront and would end the perpetual payments due to the Silnas.
Finally, we’ll wrap up today’s What We’re Reading with Jimmy Butler gleefully singing along to Taylor Swift after the Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.
That’s all for today. Remember…reading is FUNdamental.
No comments yet.