bukie

I don't have a problem with a factual argument that the Packers are the best team in the NFC (they probably are). However, to say that they have a running game now is objectively false. The Packers are where they are because of Aaron Rodgers and the defense. The Packers can lose this weekend because of their lack of a running game and awful special teams. Oh, and because the Bears are no slouch, and quite likely the second best team in the NFC if the Packers are the best (Falcons and Eagles are right there too).

Yeah, when was the last time Illinois basketball went 5 years without a championship game appearance and 2 years without a top 2 Big Ten finish? UNACCEPTABLE.

I wonder if he realizes that the Red Sox and Yankees have met a grand total of 3 times in the playoffs over a 100+ year history.

NFL's is so much worse. Yeah, at least the NHL's ASG is during the season when everyone is still playing. The NFL ASG is only comprised of players who have been off for a month.

Next, the Bulls get a Cavs team that has lost 24 of 25. They should win it even if Rose, Boozer and Noah all can't go.

Weird point distribution tonight. Rose had 26, the rest of the team had between 5 and 9.

Somehow only a game behind Miami.

captains are crucial in the asg game too. need somebody to pump up the team in a game where guys are skating at 40% speed They're more crucial in the ASG than the season, because they're actually picking teams. Just thought it'd be Crosby and Ovechkin.

Considering Dallas had the second best road record in the NBA and had a full team, this win was kind of amazing.

Two straight games now where Brewer passes up an easy layup/dunk that he should've just taken.

- They were sub .500 once, in the unluckiest season in the NCAA that year (by Pomeroy) - Chester Frazier as a soph led the team in minutes and was 3rd in usage behind Pruitt and Carter. McBride was useless, even if he was a recruit of his majesty Self. As horrible as he was offensively, he was still made into an effective point guard by Weber's coaching, and took two teams to the NCAA as overachievers. - Henson's forced retirement had more to do with the NCAA sanctions and penalties than any specific "run", but revisionist history is fun!

I still love Deron Williams. Hey who recruited him again? It should be clear to pretty much everyone now that Bruce rolled the balls out for that group that Lon and Bill put together. Now Bruce is on his own and we are a .500 conference team. Awesome. All hail Bruce Weber. So is he a bad coach or a bad recruiter? Keep your story straight if you're going to consistently hate. I think he is a poor recruiter. I think that was proven until we added Jerrance and we will see it again when Jerrance leaves for his own gig. I also think that he is a poor game coach because of his being stubborn and refusing to adapt. I do think he develops point guards well. But that's about it. I'm sorry that I won't just accept him as the coach at Illinois. He's been horrible since Dee Brown and James Augustine graduated. I think it is offensive he is still employed. Since Brown and Augustine graduated: 2007: He took a team led by Chester Frazier and Shaun Pruitt that lost two rotation players to a collision to a winning record in the Big Ten and a tournament game as a 12 seed in a game they had won. 2008: This team had the worst luck in the NCAA, losing 15 games by single digits, the only blowout losses being to Wisconsin and Duke. Still took the team within a game of the tournament. 2009: McCamey's sophomore year, along with Tisdale and Davis. Led by Frazier again, to second in the Big Ten and a 5 seed, and lost Frazier for the NCAA tournament, while McCamey wasn't ready to take over yet. Disappointing tournament loss, but overachieving season. 2010: Two terrible preseason losses killed what should have been a tourney berth (Utah St, seriously?). Probably the most disappointing season of the Weber era. I understand being disappointed by last year, and the UIC loss this year, but every team has the occasional stupid loss. You've had your mind made up since like 2008 that Weber can't handle the program, and he's now finally getting the talent. If they defended as well as they did in 2006-08, they'd be a top 10 team. But to say you're "offended" that Weber is still coaching is clownshoes, and says more about you than Weber.

Thibs is running him into the ground because he doesn't trust JJ or Korver enough, so it's not that amazing. He needs more rest.

I still love Deron Williams. Hey who recruited him again? It should be clear to pretty much everyone now that Bruce rolled the balls out for that group that Lon and Bill put together. Now Bruce is on his own and we are a .500 conference team. Awesome. All hail Bruce Weber. So is he a bad coach or a bad recruiter? Keep your story straight if you're going to consistently hate.

So you think the game would have equal hype/importance if it was the Eagles. From the bolded, he obviously doesn't think that. He's just saying the added importance from the rivalry doesn't outweigh the added importance from the chance at a first trip to the Super Bowl, or even a first SB in 21 years in 2006.

incorrect, we'd have beaten you a second time for the championship. I wish that's how it would have all played out. Then Maybe Roy stays. Damn you Carmello, why couldn'y you just go pro out of high school? OH MY GOD STOP I WILL AS SOON AS WE GET A COACH WHO IS NEAR SELF'S TALENT LEVEL. It's like 2005 never happened. This from the guy that had Deron Williams tourettes for 3 years.

Have you met White Sox fans?

Clay Matthews. Oh yeah, I went there. I hope Goldilocks doesn't try to steal the porridge, because she's going to have to deal with more than 3 Bears this time.

I'm sorry but this is absurd. You are arbitrarily deciding that the only game that can match it is another Bears/Packers game. Yes I am because that's what makes it so important! Bears/Packers in the NFC title game is the absolute pinnacle of sporting games in Chicago and no other non-championship game can match it. To you, maybe. To the rest of the city, it's not necessarily true. A more valid statement would be that there hasn't been anything like this game in Chicago, ever. Playoff matchup between two arch-rivals in a winner-take-all format to go the the championship.

Except that it's not. Name 1 game in the last 27 years, that can match the importance of this game (semi-finals of a major sport playoffs), where the teams playing match the rivalry and hatred of Bears and Packers fans, and the team and event was big enough to impact the entire city, from people who barely follow sports all the way down to the diest of the die hards. You can't 2003 NLCS game 6-7: Far bigger importance, rivalry not on same level, team and event big enough to impact the entire country, let alone the city. People who never followed baseball were keyed on those games. 2006 NFC Championship: First conference championship appearance in 20 years, first home conference championship in 21 years, everyone in the city thought the team actually had a chance. Situation bigger, rivalry smaller 1990/1991 NBA Eastern Conference finals vs. Detroit - Game 6 1990 in particular, looking to finally get over the hump against the "Bad Boys" Detroit team that had owned the East the past few years. Rivalry probably about the same, except this was 3-4 years straight that they played each other in the playoffs. 1986 NFC Championship: First real shot at a championship at home in over 20 years, against a team with one of the best RBs in history, and a city full of doubt that they were ever going to get a championship. Like Tillman and Urlacher have said: sure, it's the Packers, but it's just another game. They don't have a playoff history against each other like the Niners and Cowboys had in the 90's, or even the Bears and Redskins in the 80's. Sure, it's the most played rivalry in football, but the added playoff rivalry starts this week.

That one was weird, though, because I don't think too many of the fans in Chicago gave Indiana a real shot. Maybe due to the 5 previous championships, maybe due to the lack of a real rivalry with them during the 90's (it was mostly NY/Detroit/Miami/Cleveland during the dynasty, with maybe a touch of Orlando). Even when they got down, there was a sense they'd come back and win anyway.

New Jersey's owner does, which has to count for something. No, but somebody has to take it for the Bulls to get Anthony, so if Anthony really wants to play there, they'll have to do something with it.

William Wesley...that's the guy that Lebron was chummy with for a while right? The one that was trying to get him to Chicago? I can't keep track of Lebron's posse. Wesley is actually Thib's agent.

Are they talking about Carmelo Anthony or Joel Anthony? The only way the Bulls can even make a deal is by including Deng (at least somewhere). Not sure Denver has much in the way of leverage left aside from them liking the Knicks' package better, or just stonewalling and making Anthony stay.

The whole area was still on a collective high from 85/86 to care as much about 88. I think you are completely overlooking the have never been there, haven't been there in a generation aspect that made those games huge. People think of the January 86 playoff games as formalities now, but that is not how they were at the time. After the loss in Miami, people were thrown for a loop. Doubt definitely crept in. And again, it was the first one ever in a depressingly title starved city. There were no Bulls rings to fall back on, there was no Stanley Cup. There were a couple of miserable failures by the White Sox and Cubs in the early 80's, and nothing. And nobody assumed anything with the Rex Grossman Bears. They were the most talented team, but the outcome was very much in doubt. Regardless, the level of confidence doesn't change the fact that we just did this a couple years ago, but in 85/86 and 06/07, Chicago was coming off very large droughts of football glory - and in the case of 85/86 any glory at all. It's tough, but what I remember about 85/86 was more intense than what I'm seeing now. And I think that's saying something, given that there wasn't the flood of media that there is today. The thing about 85/86 that made things so much more intense than they are now is that nobody in Chicago had won anything in sports since 1963 (Bears won NFL in pre-SB era), or even 1961 in a playoff that meant much of anything (Blackhawks). The Bulls were terrible, the Cubs had just choked away their only decent chance in 50 years, the White Sox did pretty much the exact same thing a year earlier, and the Blackhawks couldn't buy a Stanley Cup in an era where 80% of the league made the playoffs. Couple that with the team making a music video about winning the Super Bowl well before the playoffs started (hell, Hampton wanted nothing to do with it because he thought it was cocky and unnecessary), and the terrible Miami loss (Miami was the most likely Super Bowl opponent) there were plenty of reasons to think the Bears wouldn't be able to hold up in the playoffs.