"The Charlotte Bobcats never should have happened. You know how I know this? Because Michael Jordan spent about 20 bucks in actual cash to buy them two years ago, that's how. If the Bobcats break their stadium lease and move somewhere else, they'd have to pay the city of Charlotte $150 million. So it would make no sense to move them, unless … you know … Jordan moves them to Chicago (where he still lives), plays in the United Center (where he has a giant statue), ropes Oprah into being a minority owner, then quickly becomes a well-run version of the Clippers to the Bulls' version of the Lakers.20 Not only would they cover the $150 million pretty quickly, but that would give the league six teams in the three biggest TV markets. And that's a bad thing … why?"

Update (6/2): That specific report was shot down by Howard himself. -ed.

"Magic center Dwight Howard spent the holiday weekend working on signing a two-year extension with the team, sources told Local 6 Sports Director David Pingalore late Monday.

Sources said the deal is all but signed by Howard."

The Heat’s offense is constructed for Thibodeau’s defense. As one longtime associate said, "When has Tom ever lost a series to a team running delay isolation in the playoffs? Even with the Rockets, they lost to the Utah Jazz. Ball movement can attack the defense, but not isolation. It doesn’t work."

Bulls are the team with the highest chance of winning it all now, at 18.1% chance. I like those odds a lot better than 1.7%.

This could be good for the Bulls. Pistons will probably have to do something. Either fire the coach, or look at getting rid of some guys like McGrady or Rip through buyouts.

This has been trending on twitter today. It's the website for the movie "Space Jam" and it's been left untouched since 1996. It's a real web artifact.

And yes, I'm totally re-watching Space Jam on VHS right now.

"The idea behind MJ: Creating a Legend is that you're going to step into today's NBA with a rookie Michael Jordan," says Boenisch. "He is rated a 79 overall, which gives you plenty of room to improve, but he has all of the physical tools of Michael as a rookie -- the fast speed, the high jumping, the quickness -- but he lacks a lot of the shooting skills and the offensive and defensive awareness. So you're playing with a raw prospect who can do just about anything, but can't deliver in the clutch just yet.

"And the cool thing about this mode is that you're player-locked to Michael Jordan, so you're kind of re-creating the career and the legend of Michael Jordan."

Only this time, when gamers start the mode, they can choose to add Jordan to any team in the league. So whether you want to send him to Cleveland to replace LeBron or take him to Portland to right the wrong of the 1984 draft or make maybe the most insane video game team of all time by joining Jordan with the Heat, the choice is yours.

Nothing too much, but it's nice to see that there is someone in the front office with some type of ability to not look like a complete fool amongst controversy.

Forman definitely messed up during the lead up to Gordon's free agency and during December with Del Negro, but he seems to be taking the right approach this time around.

Check the sidebar. I haven't listened to it myself personally yet.

2k Sports has signed Derrick Rose to be the spokesman and cover athlete for their new Draft Combine game.

Good to know that Luol is good enough to win a game of 21 against a message boarder and his brother Ajou.

A site I made way back when last July, when contract negotiations were stalled out with both Luol and Ben.

Now is a more prevalent time then any, to show it off again.

Sign the guestbook on there.

NEW YORK, Apr. 3, 2009 – The Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Kevin Love today were named the Eastern and Western Conference T-Mobile Rookies of the Month, respectively, for games played in March.

Well...maybe not. But that's what Allen Iverson would do.

I'd assume the Bulls will probably be a part of this whenever it happens.

If Ben Gordon leaves the Bulls this summer, I assume that team would be the opposition.

Can you please shed some light on the rumor that Ben Gordon was trying to accept Bulls' offer last year past the deadline imposed by the Bulls and was denied? If that's true, does it mean that the Bulls never wanted to give him that contract? I would think that if you really want someone, a minor technicality wouldn't stop you.

Boris

Sam: More Ben. This is what happened, as I've heard it. Ben rejected $50 million for five years from the Bulls in 2007. Then he rejected $54 million for six years last summer. The negotiations were ugly and accusatory. Still, the Bulls came back to Ben again and said they have to move on and he had 48 hours to accept the offer. After all, this has been going on for over a year. Ben's agent waited the 48 hours, or whatever time period, and said no. OK, said the Bulls. Then just before the deadline, the agent came back and said Ben would accept. This gave the Bulls pause about what was going on and why and now right before the deadline. So they backed off and said they'd wait it out since they still could offer Ben the most. Ben was upset, though I don't see how the Bulls treated him unfairly.

John Hollinger has a new stat, VA, Value Added, which determines how valuable a player is over a scrap heap player (think Linton Johnson III or Lindsey Hunter I).

Shocking who the best Bull was.

Talk across the Bulls organization is that they definitely want to re-sign Gordon this summer and have been happy with his performance. But no one is sure whether it will happen, because the Bulls would almost certainly have to pay the NBA's luxury tax next season in order to keep him.

"People like to pick out Ben Gordon's flaws all the time, but the great majority of games I've coached against Ben, he has been tremendous," said a longtime NBA assistant coach. "I would agree that Ben is more valuable to the Bulls than most other teams."

Considering the apparent lack of competition, the Bulls should stand a good chance of re-signing Gordon with an offer similar to what he turned down last summer, roughly $54 million over six years.

So that could leave just $4 million-$5 million to spend on Gordon's first-year salary before the Bulls hit the luxury tax.

Of course, the reason the Bulls are so close to the tax threshold is because they spent $60 million to sign free agent Ben Wallace in 2006, a move that didn't pan out. Last year's decision to re-sign forward Luol Deng for $71 million doesn't look good in hindsight, either, since Deng has slumped and struggled with injuries for the second consecutive season.

An argument could be made that the Bulls shouldn't compound two mistakes by making a third and letting Gordon walk away for nothing. One piece of good news is the Bulls would have to pay the luxury tax for only one year, since they'll have $25 million in expiring contracts next year between Brad Miller, Tim Thomas and Jerome James.

Most every league observer felt Gordon and his agent, Raymond Brothers, should have agreed to terms last year. Gordon actually tried to accept the Bulls' offer last September after the team-imposed deadline had passed. The Bulls chose not to put it back on the table.

"I think it would be a tough situation for him to actually leave everything," Hughes said. "It's set up for him there, being from the area [and] taking that team as far as he's taken them. He's the face of the organization. He's the face of sports in that city. It would be tough."
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I'm sure that's exactly what the New York fans want to hear. Larry Hughes puts a damper on everything in life.

This is pretty interesting. Would have Rip Hamilton, Michael Jordan, and Elton Brand have been a core that could have competed for an NBA championship in those years? I think they probably could have at the very least, been able to make it out of the East.

Ben Gordon was named the CDW/Blackberry player of the month. He also received the honor for December.