Bulls Week In Review: All Star Festivities.

You crazy son of a bitch…I see what you did there.

You fooled all of us, Mr. Thibs, but I”m savvy to what you’re up to, and boy was it glorious. Not only did you manage to rest Deng and Rose, but you also planted the seeds of doubt into the heads of LeWade, drawing up a last minute play to ensure that they fail.

Oh and you better believe that vision will be softly creeping in the Heatles heads as they are sleeping. Failure in the postseason is the final mountain that LeBron has to get over. It’s haunted him for years now, and while the Heat are far and away the best team in the league right now, the questions are still surrounding the Heat’s ability to close in important games. There’s really only one place to kill those doubts, and that’s in the finals.

Speaking of doubts…

You had to know that Kobe was going to trash talk LeBron. He tries to emulate Mike after all. Kobe dared LeBron to take and make that final shot, and LeBron passed it up and turned it over. Now, I get that this is an exhibition and it’s all in good fun, but in the interview afterwards LeBron looked like a man who knew that every single talking head, blog, and sports media outlet was going to be asking the same stupid question that’s been plaguing him for years.

To that, let me say this. You were supposed to be better than this, LeBron. It’s a mantle that was given to you, sure. But it’s not exactly a mantle that you shy away from. You view yourself as the Chosen One.

I mean, you can’t be complaining when people are calling you out for not winning. It comes with the territory man. This is the NBA, the best players in the league win rings. Lots of them. Rare exceptions come at the cost of Dynasties. Malone, shit, almost a whole generation of 90’s basketball players lost to Mike and Hakeem.

That’s the thing LeBron, you aren’t Malone, or Barkley, or Stockton, or Ewing. You’re LeBron damn James, arguably the most intimidating and freakish athlete in the history of basketball. You’re the freakiest player in a league full of freaks. Durant is 6’10 and you could play him as a shooting guard, and you’re still more athletic than he is.

Comes with the territory.

As for what the All-Star weekend meant for the Bulls, we’ll see. Derrick didn’t dance, because he’s not like that. He also played like 4 minutes. Ditto with Deng. I think we found out that Thibs isn’t a maniac. He understands what games matter and which ones don’t. I think that there may be a master plan to it all. He might really be the evil genius the Bulls need to beat the Heat, but it’s gonna be a rough ride.

Rose and company are definitely the underdogs in all of this. Noah’s triple-double was fun and all, but that supporting cast is inferior to the Heat’s. Winning a playoff series against them is highly unlikely, but there are a few ways that they can possibly pull it off I think. Getting Rip Hamilton will help, but it’s going to take perfect basketball and another Heat chokejob for the Bulls to get it done.

It’s not impossible, but it doesn’t look good. The Bulls do need to trade for some better pieces, because even if the Bulls sneak by the Heat, there’s another pain in the ass that’ll be waiting for them.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7-GuLCYA-E]
Oh Lawd, pass the whiskey.