[From the FanPosts. The possibility of a 'D'Antoni' lessens by the hour. I was unavailable for most of yesterday, but here's the gist of the news.  That and the whispers of a creepy street hustler, and/or the most powerful man in the NBA. -ed.]

UPDATE: Thibodeau accepts according to KC's twitter:

Thibodeau has accepted offer. Neither Bulls nor Celtics will confirm officially during NBA Finals.

And Sam Smith

Heard Thibodeau deal is done. Bulls refuse to confirm or deny.But Thibodeau agreed. No announcement allowed during Finals

As reported by KC here.

Some quotes,

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I work as a valet for restaurants and some club venues in the city. Some of these places are frequented by Bulls players. One of the more popular places is a club in the south loop called The Shrine. This was the location of LeBron James blackout party after the Jay-Z concert last Thursday and is frequented by Jerome James, Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson, Flip Murray and Hakim Warrick. Some are brief accounts but I just wanted to lay them out.

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I personally like Simmons as a Basketball guy and while he is often way off the mark he at least comes up with two talking points (even if it is littered with pop culture references). Here is his comments about the bulls from his most recent columns that compare this NBA off season to quotes from the "best movie of the last decade" Almost Famous.

6. Live? "American Woman"? The most brilliant piece of gobbledygook ever! Give me some white-hot white heat! (Picks up an album.) IGGY POP!!! Aaaaaa-men!

To my three favorite sneaky-good moves this summer ...

Anthony Parker, two years, $6 million (Cleveland): Quality 3-point shooter (42 percent during the past three seasons) with size who can defend 2-guards. Something the Cavs didn't have last season. Also, we finally have a conduit for LeBron and Candace Parker (Anthony's sister). I know she's married to Shelden Williams, but I still can dream about Candace and LeBron producing the greatest basketball player ever.

Arron Afflalo, trade (Denver): Now this is how you run a team. You let someone else overpay Dahntay Jones (Indiana, $11 million, four years) and replace him with a short-term guy with the same skills (defense and 3-point shooting) for one-third of the price. I might dump Morey for the Wark (Denver's Mark Warkentien) as my role-model GM soon.

Jannero Pargo, one year, terms not disclosed (Chicago): A poor man's Ben Gordon who catches fire off the bench every so often. Please, Chicago, don't do anything else! You had a nice run this past spring and created an identity for yourself, and you have Luol Deng coming back to take Gordon's minutes. Let this thing breathe. Let the kids run around and do their thing. You have plenty of time. And here's why I'm saying this ...

7. Tell him, you know, it's a think piece about a midlevel band struggling with their own limitations in the harsh face of stardom. He'll wet himself.

According to NBA history, the Bulls will struggle coming out of the gate as this season's enticing "Watch out for these guys!" team that surprised in the previous playoffs, receives a little too much attention and briefly self-combusts the next season (copyright: 2007-08 Warriors). Again, let it breathe, Chicago. Thank you.

(Random question: Where does the kid from "Almost Famous" rank on the "Wow, it's absolutely disorienting to see him in any other movie on cable at 1:30 a.m." scale? I have him ranked No. 3 behind Ray's father in "Field of Dreams" and Flatch from "Hoosiers" ... but just ahead of Ian Ziering.)

So there you go. Pargo is a "poor man's BG and the bulls need to "let it breathe." Whatever the fuck that means.

Or as Vince Vaughn would say, "the guy behind the guy behind the guy."

I am young but I still remember the dynasty days. I remember when my dad was giving my little brother a bath when I was 5 and sending me back and forth to the tv to tell him the scores during the 91 finals. I remember the salvo of 3's form the 92 finals. I remember my dad screaming at the tv during the 93 finals. I remember watching MJ strike out at every at bat in a AAA uniform. I remember the comeback. The Bulls planted in me a love of basketball.

That obviously took a dive when the dynasty was disbanded for spare parts. But I still cares and still followed Elton Brand, the twin towers, and Jay Williams.  During that time my love for basketball as a sport was born. I remember my first issue of SLAM mag with LeBron and Telfair on the cover.  I played ball, I watched ball, and I thought I was starting to learn.  However, the one thing I didn't learn was that I should never trust an organization.

I always assigned blame to others, but didn't buy the BS that would be fed to me as far as players and coaches being the problem. I saw Crumbs as the problem during the good times and the bad times.

Then things turned around. We fired "the problem" in my mind and overcame the loss of Jay Williams and started looking up. I was so jacked to be a part of a young and exciting team.  I watched them stumble and lose curry and Deng and fight the Wiz (I was at the game 5 where Arenas hit the game winner, still not over it).  This time the problem was the wiz or injuries.

Despite all my dumb excuses I never saw the problem as JR.  I grew up assigning blame to others. Now I see clearly where the problem is. Its with the guy more concerned with buying the damn Phoenix Coyotes than paying a couple mil to keep the teams best player. The reasons for why the BG loss is bad for the team is here and the F-JR post here. What I wanted to add was how ti impacted me personally and how a part of my innocence as a basketball fan died yesterday.