Thursday, May 12, 2011

Why The Bulls Will Win Tonight

Let me explain to you why the Bulls will finish off Atlanta and tee it up with the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday.

I'm not going to talk about Taj Gibson and the Bench Mob, or the greatness of Derrick Rose, Luol Deng's defense on Joe Johnson, or the Bulls' record when Keith Bogans scores 6 points in the game.

My friend, Scott, sent me this article today, listing Scottie Pippen among 25 notable athletes who went broke. Scott observed that this probably explains why Pippen is currently employed by the team in an Ambassador role. It reminded me of several instances in which Jerry Reinsdorf took care of his people even when he had no real reason to do so.

After all, Pippen had a long-running squabble with the Bulls organization over his second NBA contract, which both his agent and Reinsdorf advised him not to sign because it would leave him underpaid later. When that indeed happened, Pippen was incensed that the team would not re-negotiate the deal, and was further angered when Bulls' GM Jerry Krause chased after Toni Kukoc while simultaneously not - in Pippen's view - taking care of him.

How did the Bulls punish Pippen for being so difficult? They engineered a sign-and-trade with Houston as a part of the breakup of the team in the summer on 1998 so Pippen could get his max deal while the Bulls got virtually nothing in return.

At the end of his career, Pippen then returned to thank the Bulls for their generosity by virtually stealing $11 million when he signed a midlevel exception deal when he knew full well he could not play anymore.

Yet here we are and Reinsdorf is still taking care of Scottie.

Also recall #2 overall pick Jay Williams, the Duke point guard who broke himself into 100 pieces when he crashed his motorcycle after his rookie season and never played again. The Bulls were under no obligation to pay Williams one cent, yet paid out his whole contract and helped him rehab on the team's dime.

And then there's Bill Cartwright, who needed to see specialists all over the world for his worsening throat condition that was taking his voice. Even after he no longer worked for the Bulls, Reinsdorf paid for his treatment.

On the other end of this spectrum is Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

Clippers assistant coach Kim Hughes was suffering from prostate cancer that was getting more aggressive, and he needed $70,000 worth of out-of-network surgery and treatment to save his life. (Story here.)

Sterling, a real estate tycoon who is estimated to be worth half a billion dollars, would not cover the life-saving surgery on the stunning rationale that if they covered it for him, they'd have to cover it for everyone.

If every Clippers front office employee needed $70,000 worth of out-of-network medical care, it would still not equal one year's salary of a player making the NBA's midlevel exception.

Stirringly, four Clippers players - Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Chris Kaman and Marko Jaric - stepped up and saved Hughes' life.

Sterling has owned the Clippers since 1981, and in those 30 years his team has only made the playoffs four times and has won only a single playoff series. This is a staggering run of ineptitude, with a run of bad luck in the form of freak injuries to high draft picks and expensive free agents sprinkled in. In a league with a salary cap and revenue sharing, and in a format that rewards bad teams with high picks, it is almost impossible to comprehend this level of failure.

In the meantime, the Bulls lucked into Michael Jordan in 1984 when the Trailblazers famously chose Sam Bowie, and with MJ the Bulls won six Championships. Then in 2008, the Bulls cashed in on a less than 2% chance of getting the top pick in the lottery when they landed Derrick Rose, who this year became the league's youngest-ever MVP.

Do you want to know why the Bulls keep cashing in while the Clippers crap out almost every single year?

Karma.

Bulls finish this on the road tonight so Jerry Reinsdorf can take his collection of talent to South Beach next week.


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