Great Time to be a Chicago Sports Fan
The Bulls and Hawks are looking good in the playoffs, the Cubs and Sox are both coming off playoff appearances and off to a decent start. Oh, and the Bears just traded for a franchise Quarterback, only two seasons removed from a Super Bowl appearance. Has there been a better time to be a Chicago Sports fan? I vote no.
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The Bulls are one shot away from being 2-0 on the mighty Celtics in a series almost nobody gave them a chance at winning. Derrick Rose was an absolute stud in his playoff debut, and he willed the team to victory in game one. The Jordan comparisons are about five years and two championships premature, but it sure does look like we got a winner in town. Some more things I like:
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Ben Gordon's 42 point outburst in game 2. Sure, he only had one rebound and zero assists...but this is exactly why you keep Ben Gordon. He can just go off and score at will. He hit five nearly impossible shots down the stretch. He was NBA Jam "on fire." Just throw him money and try to move Deng.
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Ty Thomas and Joakim Noah. Both young big men stepped up in the second half of this season, and I never would have thought that possible back in December. I absolutely hated this franchise back then. Now I think the team has a legitmately bright future, even brighter than I thought they had back in 2005, when they were seemingly on the cusp of a breakthrough.
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Brad Miller and John Salmons. Salmons hasn't been all that great in the playoffs, but what a great trade for John Paxson. Does he lose points for robbing a nearly bankrupt franchise? Hell no. He still had to beat out 20 other teams in that fire sale.
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Vinny Del Negro. No, he's still not a good coach. But he's done a decent job lately, and that's far more praise than I ever thought I'd be giving back in December. He's still making rookie mistakes, like running out of timeouts in game 2 and not figuring out a way to take advantage of Rondo's injury with Rose. But he's gone from laughingstock to respectable, and he's earned another year, at least.
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Each of the first two games of this series was a classic. Just great, great basketball. Can the rest of the series possibly live up to the greatness of the first two games? It doesn't seem possible, but I'd like to think so. Can the Bulls win the series? Yes, but I'd still pick the Celts if you put a gun to my head. Yeah, Boston hasn't looked very good on their home court, KG and now Powe are lost, and they just flat out look old. But Pierce has been an absolute non-factor for them. Can that possibly continue? I expect him to step up like Ray Allen did in the second half of game 2. He does that, and Boston wins the game by a clean dozen. And the series.
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I'm not going to pretend to be a huge Blackhawks fan, but I have to admit that playoff hockey is pretty cool. Maybe next year I will commit to the indian.
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The Cubs are rolling. I was at Saturday's game, a great win for the Cubs. Saw Cutler throw a strike to start the game. Put him in the bullpen! At least there he has a chance of running into Jeff Samardzija, the best receiver in Chicago. And hey, hey! Aramis!!
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Sox? Quentin keeps hitting like this and it will be hard to keep them out of the postseason. The more Chicago the merrier.
I can go on all day but there's still work to be done. And I didn't even mention the draft.
BEAR DOWN