Luol Deng is, like, so angry you guys

July 21st, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Luol Deng has long seemed miffed that he wasn’t awarded a contract extension — insofar as one’s play can be the sign of such things, he made it clear on the court last year — but he’s never come out and actually said as much. That changed late last night, when Deng told Adrian Woj(narahsdflkasjg)* of Yahoo! Sports that his ish needed to be resolved in two weeks. After that, he’s done. He’s super, super serial:

Deng is determined to come to terms on a long-term contract, but he has set an Aug. 4 deadline to reach an agreement. Once Deng, 23, leaves the country for the European Championship qualifying tournament, he will a sign a one-year qualifying offer for $4.5 million and become an unrestricted free agent in 2009. The message to the Bulls promises to be implicit: Unless the two sides come to terms soon, Deng will never again negotiate with them. He will not let the uncertainty over his future hang over another basketball season, and unless a sign-and-trade is worked out, Deng will play out his final season in 2008-09 and sign elsewhere next summer.

In a way, I’m sort of happy Deng has decided that he’s not going to be held captive to the winds of yet another Jerry Reinsdorf season-long negotiation. That seems fair. But it’s a little ridiculous to think that contract talks really impair one’s ability to play basketball that much. Is it really that much of a strain? You can’t, like, play hard, and stuff? Really?

*I just want to make clear that I know this “joke” — screwing up Woj’s name so badly that it’s obviously intentional — is not funny. Oh my god, his name is ethnic and mono-syllabic! That’s hilarious! I know, OK? I just really didn’t want to figure out how to spell his name. Sorry.