D-Rose vs. His Airness

The regular season is coming to an end and, for the first time since Michael Jordan graced the United Center court wearing red, white and black, the Bulls are the first seed in the Eastern Conference.

That accomplishment, which not even the most optimistic fan could have predicted before the start of the season, is due in (very) large part to Derrick Rose.

It seems like every night he does something that leaves us speechless, and just when we think we’ve seen it all – he finds a way to one-up himself. It’s a characteristic that Chicago fans haven’t seen in a basketball player since…well…Michael Jordan graced the United Center court wearing red, white and black.

Because both Jordan and Rose have led their respective teams to great success and because of their aptitude for mind-blowing plays, the comparisons have begun to fly. As Rose closes in on his first MVP award, I have heard the quiet rumblings: “Is Derrick Rose the next Michael Jordan?”

For years, every time there is a new MJ-comparison – whether it be Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, I have scoffed at the idea. Often times, I think the comparisons come from the fact that people forget how good Jordan really was.

However, just for fun, let’s go ahead and take a look at Rose v. Jordan. For fairness sake, I will compare Jordan’s third year in the league to Rose’s 2010-11 season – which is his third year.

First, the percentage stats:

**	Field Goal %	3 Point %	Free Throw %
Michael Jordan	.482	.182	.857
Derrick Rose	.441	.332	.859

Now, the per-game stats:

**	Minutes	Points	Assists	Rebounds	Turnovers
Jordan	40.0	37.1	4.6	5.2	3.3
Rose	37.4	24.9	7.9	4.1	3.4

When you look at the numbers you start to see where the comparisons come from. In a lot of categories, the two compare really well. The difference is that Jordan was a better shooter – inside the arc – and scored about 12 more points per game.

Rose has more assists, but that’s to be expected from a point guard, and 12 additional points per game is a big difference.

Still, the big test for Rose will be next year. The 1986-87 season (Jordan’s third) was the last time Jordan shot below 50 percent until 1992-93. 

Jordan took huge strides between his third and fourth year. In the 1988-89 season Jordan shot 53.5 percent from the field, dished out nearly six rebounds per game, and still scored more than 35 points per game.

If Rose can pull that off, sure, maybe he can compare to Jordan. But right now, it’s just not fair to think that anyone – even someone who works as hard as Rose – can make that kind of dramatic jump. He’s not Jordan right now and there’s a good chance he never will be.

But let me be clear – that’s not a knock on Rose. More so, it’s a declaration of just how unbelievably good His Airness actually was. It’s hard to imagine Rose being any better than he already is and it’s even harder to believe that we once had someone who was even better.

Soccer isn't my favorite sport...

When it comes to sports, I’m a true American. I love baseball, football, and basketball; and I couldn’t possibly care less about soccer. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a difficult sport. It’s a sport that requires a lot of talent.

Unfortunately, to me at least, it’s just not that interesting. Teams play two 45-minute halves, running back and forth the entire time and – sometimes – they score. Sometimes. Sometimes one team wins - but that doesn't happen all the time either.

I think that’s my biggest issue. As an American sports fan I’ve grown accustomed to a little bit of flash. The occasional deep touchdown pass, 450 foot home run, or reverse dunk. Not to mention the fact that, in a game, there is a winner and a loser.

But, while a simple lack of interest is my biggest problem, Harry Browne, soccer writer and journalism professor at the Dublin Institute of Technology, believes the primary issue lies elsewhere.

“A lot of people passionate about soccer [in America] are passionate about teams in other countries,” said Browne. He says that the true problem with American soccer lies not in its fan base, but with American soccer organizations.

He says that Major League Soccer is more of a structured, socialist-style organization much like the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL.

“That’s not how it is run in the rest of the world,” Browne said. That type of organization works for other American sports, he says, because of the strong college presence of each of those sports.

College soccer, however, is not nearly as strong as college basketball, football, or baseball. That means the players available to draft from year to year are not as talented.

Additionally, much like the problem faced by baseball and basketball in other countries, America suffers from the fact that the best talents often leave to play internationally.

But according to Browne, none of that necessarily means that there is no talent in American soccer. He says there is, particularly in the women’s game.

“More women play [in America] than anywhere else,” said Browne. Though, he says it does lead to some chiding from other countries.

“[Soccer fans from other countries like to say] America is so **** up, only women can play well,” said Browne.

I suppose, for soccer fans at least, that’s good news. Personally, I just can’t get into it. I’ll stick to baseball where, even in a low scoring game, somebody wins; which isn’t always the case with soccer.

The Future of Sporting Events

This month Wired magazine put out a challenge to readers to tell them what the future of sporting events would look like. It's an interesting concept; so let's try it. Sports in 20 years...

...Will be essentially the same as they are today. Prices will continue to increase for tickets, food, souvenirs, and just about everything else you can imagine, advertisements and other signage will increase, and attendances will continue to fluctuate from year to year dependent on economic trends. But, overall, sporting events will be generally the same.

One positive change that stadiums and ballparks may make is an effort to digitalize the fan experience. It is foreseeable that stadiums will one day implement programs which fans can access from their mobile devices which will give them access to statistics, commentary, and instant replays.

So, basically, if you're a fan of sporting events the way they are today - you're in luck; because not much will change.

Red and Black Times Two

In both the NBA and NHL, the All-Star breaks are over and the trade deadlines have passed. Chicago, for the first time in – well, my entire life – has two teams with legitimate playoff hopes entering the month of March.

The defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks, who are still trying to find their stride after losing a major portion of their championship team to salary cap issues, and the young, talented Bulls have windy city sports fans strapped in for a wild ride.

Personally, I’m thrilled…for the Bulls.

I must admit, I’m biased. Hockey is very hard for me to get into, if only because I find regular season hockey mind-numbingly boring. It’s a great event to watch live, but a lot is lost on television; mainly, the ability to follow the puck.

A hockey puck zips across the ice at an incredible speed and unless you’re blessed with a 60-something inch high-definition TV, you just can’t see it. At best, you can guess the position of the puck by the movement of the players on the ice. At worst, it’s mass chaos.

That, combined with the fact that the Hawks have been (ATTENTION: critical understatement to follow…) consistently inconsistent for most of the season makes me less than excited to follow their playoff chase.

The Bulls have my full attention. For the first time since His Airness dominated the league in his retired No. 23 jersey, basketball has actually taken precedence over my admitted baseball addiction.

This Bulls team, led by the MVP-candidate Derrick Rose, is just so much fun to watch. Rose breaking ankles and blazing past defenders, Joakim Noah dominating the offensive boards, and Carlos Boozer scoring in the post – all with the intensity of a team that has played the whole season with a visible chip on their shoulder – has me sucked in.

And here’s the best part – they’re not just exciting, they’re winning. As they enter the stretch run of the season, they finally have their whole team healthy and they appear poised to make a serious run at an NBA championship.

Even the Bulls strongest supporters couldn’t have seen this coming at the beginning of the season, and that’s what makes it all the more thrilling. Everybody loves an underdog – especially when they win.

Bullish or Bullsh*t?

The Chicago Bulls are good, there’s no argument there.

There is, however, an argument as to exactly how good. Bulls fans are beginning to convince themselves that their team might be the best in the Eastern Conference, possibly even the entire league.

Starting with the Eastern Conference; that’s a possibility. Going into Monday night’s game against the Washington Wizards, the Bulls are in third place in the conference. They sit two games behind the Boston Celtics and one and a half games behind the Miami Heat – though they are tied with the Heat in the loss column.

Essentially all pundits agree that the best team in the East resides in one of those three cities; Boston, Miami, or Chicago. In my opinion, though, one of these things does not belong…

The Miami Heat. So far this season against the Bulls and Celtics, the Heat are an uninspiring 0-5. They are a great team, to be certain. They have the best player in the NBA in LeBron James and another member of the league’s top-5 in Dwyane Wade.

Based purely on star power, the Heat have dominated mediocre, sub-.500 teams, and they will continue to do so. But, they are a team with many weaknesses. Chiefly, they have no center and no point guard. They simply cannot compete against teams who can score down low or have a talented point guard (Like, let’s say….Chicago or Boston).

That leaves Boston and Chicago. At this point, I’m not ready to say that the Bulls have surpassed the Celtics as the top team in the East. With a healthy Joakim Noah, it’s a possibility. Particularly since Boston traded away one of its big men – Kendrick Perkins – at the trade deadline.

But as of right now, the Celtics still have one big advantage over the Bulls; Ray Allen. Chicago is offensively weak at shooting guard and not particularly overpowering defensively. I’m just not convinced that anybody on the Bulls can consistently guard Ray Allen in a 7-game series.

Does that make the Celtics decidedly better? Not necessarily, but it’s also hard to prove that they’re not.

Then there’s the West – and that’s a completely different story. San Antonio, Dallas, and Los Angeles (Lakers) all have a better record than the Bulls. They also all have something that might still give the Bulls fits; a talented big man.

Noah has blossomed into one of the best centers in the league for the Bulls over the past year, however it still remains to be seen if he has come far enough to consistently compete with the likes of Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, and Dirk Nowitzki.

If he can, I have no doubt in my mind that they can not only consistently compete against, but beat all three of those teams.

So, back to the original query; how good are the Chicago Bulls? The answer is very – but they still have to prove it on the court, particularly out west.

A Waning Interest

“Pitchers and catchers report.”

About four years ago, as far as I was concerned, those were the four greatest words in sports. They signaled the end to a cold, baseball-less winter and the beginning of another season of the best game on earth. As a baseball fan above all else, this Rogers Hornsby quote always had special meaning to me:

“People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

So when the long winter ended and baseball season finally began, it was always a huge deal to me. But these days, I find myself critically underwhelmed; and here’s why:

Spring training sucks for the first two weeks. Until teams actually start playing games, spring training is just God-awful boring unless you are actually there. Sure, it’s nice to start hearing some news about your favorite team again, but after a few years you’ve heard the “player X lost 20 lbs and will for-sure win the MVP and hit nine billion home runs this year” story as much as you can stand.

The first week or two of games suck, too. Unless there are a few big position battles or any talented young rookies/minor leaguers that have been invited to big league camp, the first week or two of games suck pretty badly. You get to see about two or three innings of starters playing at approximately 50 percent intensity before an endless string of substitutions.

Most games aren’t broadcast anyway. This one is pretty self explanatory, but most games aren’t broadcast and there’s not much you can glean about a position battle from a box score. Sure, if player A goes 0-for-4 and player B goes 3-for-4 you can take something from that; but it’s often more informative to actually watch. Or, at minimum, listen to.

I grew up. I mean that both literally and figuratively. When I was younger I had less going on in my life, so something as simple as players reporting to camp was a much bigger deal for me. Also, I grew up emotionally; I became more level-headed about my sports addiction. That’s not to say I’ve stopped yelling at the TV, thoroughly convinced that the people on the other side can hear me. I still do that often enough.

Rather, what I mean is I’ve been able to stop getting so sucked into the every-day. I don’t predict a World Series victory with every win and I don’t want to jump off the proverbial (or literal) cliff with every loss. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up, maybe it’s because I’ve spent the last three years in a job where I’ve had a much more intimate relationship with the game, or maybe I’m just a bad sports fan. Who knows.

All of that withstanding, though, it’s still nice to be a little bit closer to those warm summer days at the ballpark. And there’s absolutely nothing that sucks about that.

Two Hypocritical Cents

There have been very few things in sports this year capable of making my blood boil quite like the response to Michael Vick’s return to super-stardom as a starter for the Philadelphia Eagles.

It wasn’t so much the commentators and analysts fawning over his spectacular level of play – that’s expected any time someone has a year like his with that kind of flash. More so, I’m aggravated by the continued hatred and vitriol showed to him that seems to be unique to his situation.

This week Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle added his two cents in an interview with MLB.com writer Scott Merkin. The interview was a harmless, positive piece about the charity work Buehrle and his wife, Jamie, have done for animals.

But then, Buehrle said something stupid:

He had a great year and a great comeback, but there were times where we watched the game and I know it's bad to say, but there were times where we hope he gets hurt. Everything you've done to these dogs, something bad needs to happen to these guys.

There are so many things wrong with this statement, I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s just ignore for a moment the hypocrisy of the fact that he wished bodily harm on someone, while at the same time condemning that person for causing another creature bodily harm and focus on the “something bad needs to happen” part.

Something bad DID happen; it’s called prison. On the list of bad things that I wouldn’t want to happen to me, I’d put spending 19 months in prison right near the top. The point is, he paid his debt to society and he doesn’t owe a damn thing to anyone.

And yet, in the most ironic part of this entire situation, since his release from prison Vick has been donating his time and money to charities with the same beliefs and goals as Buehrle.

He has gone above and beyond his sentence to continue doing community service by speaking to children about the evils of dog fighting. He even donated $1 million to help more than 60 dogs who were the victims of dog fighting.

For some reason, though, none of that matters. Don’t get me wrong; I love dogs. I have either owned or lived with someone who owned a dog for the majority of my life. I understand how awful dog fighting is.

But, Vick has done everything he possibly can to show that he’s a changed man. Next time Buehrle should just keep his comments to himself.