UMFan83

Sure, 16 miles, but that's a 3 hour drive. ;) I would guess that vast majority of NY athletes live outside the city, many in NJ. Eli and a couple others live in my town of Hoboken, which is between Newark and Manhattan. It has nothing to do with where you have to live/commute, it's more about playing for a team that until now has been in competition with the Islanders for NY area popularity, and being in the middle of a huge transition that is still unsettled. Valid points. I just don't think that the relative obscurity of the Nets would outweigh the dominance of the LeBron James brand. I think LeBron is what the Nets need to be considered a NYC team. The team has an interesting history from it's days in the ABA, so it's not like it's just some crappy expansion team prodding along in obscurity. LeBron comes to the Nets, and its hip to be a Net fan, everyone is talking about them, and then before you know it, the team is in Brooklyn and they are a real NYC team. If the Angels can do it in LA, the Nets can do it in NYC.

I don't understand the Newark thing being a big deal either. I just mapquested it, it's 16 miles from the center of Manhattan. I mean yeah it would suck to have to go there to play your games and practice (if that's even where they practice). But you don't have to live in Newark or spend any time there other than basketball related activities. It's no different than teams that moved to the suburbs in the past. I'm sure Vince Carter spent more of his free time in Manhattan than he did in East Rutherford. East rutherford is less than 4 miles closer than Newark, and I don't hear stories about how Eli Manning didn't want to play for a team in New Jersey. Maybe someone can make more sense of it to me.

I don't know where the NJ>Bulls love comes from... Rose - Superstar in the making, at this point his floor is probably a very high rung star (not quite superstar....think like Kevin Martin) and his ceiling is probably top 5 NBA player. Noah - I honestly think he's getting a little overrated at this point, but I see him as a borderline All Star player, good energy/glue guy on a title contender. He's a borderline number 3 guy/most likely a good 4 guy Deng - Not quite an all star but a pretty versitle number 3 guy on a title team, can both slash and shoot adequately (slight above average), defends well but not always consistently, provides length. Hinrich - Great backup PG. good on ball defender, especially with smaller guards, extremely streaky but mostly mediocre to poor shooter, but has decent court vision. Easily a championship caliber backup PG Taj Gibson - Looks to be a pretty good backup PF on a good team, another good energy guy That's a pretty good roster to jump into. You have a 1/2 guy (Rose), an average 3 guy (Deng....can improve on this but decent), a pretty solid 4th player/energy guy (Noah), and you have very adequate backup PG and PF. The biggest thing you need if you grab lebron is a starting caliber shooter to play PG, a backup shooter, and a guy that can put his back to the basket. Easier said that done I know. That's a lot to find for a team that's gonna have almost no cap space after signing a LeBron, so you have to find them with the MLE, LLE and the draft, but not every championship team is perfectly built. Also by signing LeBron you are much much more likely to attract quality guys willing to pay less to play on this team. Now the Nets have some nice pieces, and some good talent. I love Lopez, I'm not huge on Harris but he's definitely an above averge PG, they have some nice role players. But I don't think they are set up to drop in a superstar SG/SF and compete right away like the bulls are.

Dale Tallon was named GM of the Florida Panthers today apparently.

August 8th at Toyota Park

I didn't say it's impossible that they'll have a better shot, I just doubt it. With the only 2 teams worth anything in the East going down before the conference finals, it basically turns a 4 round playoffs into a 3 round playoffs. I know much crazier things have happened than the Flyers or Canadiens winning the Cup, but I'm just saying, some things have broken in the Hawks favor here that might not happen in future years.

Actually that's a great point about Cal/NJ. The Bulls could just be calling their bluff by not going after Calipari. The Nets won't hire Cal again, nor do I think he wants to go back there. The Knicks hired their coach 2 seasons ago for this offseason. The Heat aren't going to hire him. So that leaves the Bulls and the Cavs as the only options. Maybe Cal becomes Cleveland's coach, but the same issues surround LBJ's decision. Does he think he can win in the next 2 years with that aging Cleveland roster.

The need to win now thing is grossly overstated. They will still be a very good team the next few years, at least. True, but you gotta admit this sets up to be a very good shot. If we don't win a cup with this nucleus, when thinking back on these teams, I doubt there will be a better year to point at and say "that was our shot right there"

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/peter_king/05/16/ranking/index.html lol Meh, I expect projections to go all over the place this preseason. I think 25 is not outrageous, nor is something like 10th. The Bears have been a pretty unpredictable team the last few years. Everyone expected another SB berth in 07, only to see the team go 7-9. Then everyone including myself expected the Bears to be really awful, think 5-11 bad, and instead they were one win away from the playoffs at 9-7. Then the Bears went out and got Jay Cutler and Orlando Pace in the offseason and people were talking about being at the top of the NFC, possible Super Bowl team and instead they went 7-9 and looked awful.

Trying way too hard. "I have this kinda cool idea and I'm going to shoehorn it into a bad sentence no matter what!" From the CubbieBum School of Journalism.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5194333 I think the Bulls are doing this because they like to have control over their coaches and they want to hire another potential whipping boy in case things go south. This is of course stupid as hell. If you have a chance to acquire a once in a generation player in the early part of his prime, you pull out all the stops to get him. If he asks to have John Paxson tied up to the Jordan statue and get tarred and feathered and left up there for 48 hours, you have to do it. I'd hire Cal on the 25% chance that this rumor is legit. I certainly don't want to piss off the apparent power of WWW and co. by ignoring their plan that they've apparently spoken directly to the Bulls about. But who knows, we obviously only get to hear little bits a pieces about what's happening, so it's possible it's being made into a bigger deal than it is or whatever, or they could be trying to downplay everything so the media isn't on top of every development.. Just don't want to see the Bulls blow this like they do everything else.

I don't think he'd be against resigning with the Cubs if we traded him at the deadline. It doesn't happen all that often but it could in this event.

Yeah you couldn't get Kinsler if you added Castro and Vitters along with Lilly.

No they weren't. They were mediocre. 4 sub .500 seasons, 3 95 loss seasons and only 1 90 win season. 3 playoff appearances in 10 years despite a substantial financial advantage over the competition. The Angels, Twins and Athletics had great 2000's, the Cubs just managed to not suck as much as they did the previous decade. All you had to say was Neifi Perez.

Even I had to think about it for a second. If it meant the Blackhawks would win Game 2 against the Sharks, I would go back in time and make sure Deloris Peoples falls in love with someone else, Back to the Future style, thus erasing Michael Jordan from history. Easy there. I sort of fell out of love with the Bulls after Jordan left and the NBA changed (I know that sounds curmudgeonly), but Jordan made my childhood awesome. Yeah man, watch out. You went a little overboard there. Why don't you take the next couple of plays off. It would be hard for me to choose anything over the Michael Jordan experience.

I agree with Flames in that LBJ will not take less money, but there is a good chance that he won't sign a full 6 year deal either. I think LBJ might do another 3 year to reach his 29 birthday, for the main reason if LBJ only signs short-term deals at full max he keeps the pressure on the FO of whoever signs him to keep making moves that will improve the team. As I've said before, I doubt it because the NBA is likely to have a much less player friendly CBA in the next couple of years. Actually it's inevitable that it will change (I think the CBA expires after next season), but to what extent is anyone's guess. It's very likely there will be some sort of lockout or stike after next season, as sides are presumably pretty far off. Instead of the max contract being 6 years 100 or whatever it would be now, the max might be 4 years (2 guaranteed), $60 min or close to that,

Here's a random question for Hawks fans who are also Bulls fans. A friend asked me this and I did not hesitate in my answer. Which would you rather have happen, the Hawks win the Stanley Cup or the Bulls sign LeBron. You can't put a price on championships, without a doubt I'd take the Cup, even though signing LeBron would give me more long term enjoyment.

From McGraw of the DH: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=381195

I had a feeling in the back of my mind that Philly was going to roll over Montreal this series for some reason. So far so good on that.

LOL...did anyone else notice this? I saw this on the 300 level board and thought it was worth sharing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frFCkHc7Pos&feature=player_embedded#! Check out Kane's goal celebration. He draws the shape of a heart with his hands, and then makes a stabbing motion right through the invisible heart. He does it not once, but twice in the video.

Not trying to be an alarmist or a Geo hater, but I noticed he's cooled off a bit over the last 8-10 days. 3-24 with 0 XBH and 3 walks in his last 8 games for a line of .125/.250/.125/.375 Every player goes through those though. Just don't want it to become extended like it has sometimes in the past for him.

Yeah I think hardcore fans were the only ones that saw Niemi coming. I read an article that was talking about how when Hawks scouts found him he was the backup goaltender on his Finnish team.

BTW, it's been over an hour since the game ended and I'm still just in awe at the performance Niemi had tonight. Enough can't be said for what he did did today. I did not think Niemi had that type of performance in him. Big big kudos to Niemi.

Yeah Ill be a lot more relaxed coming into game 2 than I was today. We're already accomplished what we needed to in SJ. That said, by no means do I think a loss is acceptable, just not as deflating. I hope the Hawks don't have the same mindset as I do because it would be so awesome to head to Chicago up 2-0. If you go up 2-0, the pressure is all on SJ to win game 3, and if they do win game 3, you can still get a home split and have a commanding series lead of 3-1.

I doubt it. They outshot Colorado 51-17, couldn't score and lost on an own goal in Game 3 of that series to fall behind 2-1 but came back to win the next three and the series. touche. Hadn't thought about that. yeah but the avalanche weren't close to what the hawks are right now Yeah but when he said that, I thought about it. That was definitely a bigger mind [expletive] for the Sharks than this. First of all they outshot them by 34 shots and lost because of a horrible own goal. Second of all, they had the weight of last years first round loss as well as the previous years. They could have easily folded and lived up to their chokers name, but instead they won 7 of their next 8 games until today.