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.

Kobe Bryant, Luol Deng, and pessimism

November 1st, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

There’s been a cascade of Kobe news over the past 24 hours, none of it more interesting, at least to me, than Chris Sheridan’s story today that Kobe would veto any trade that includes Luol Deng:

Deng is very much in play in the conversations between Chicago and Los Angeles, ESPN.com has learned.

And it’s mainly because of Bryant’s wishes that Deng is still wearing a Chicago uniform.

A source with knowledge of the trade talks said Deng has been included in proposals swapped between the teams, but Bryant has continually threatened to veto almost any deal in which Deng would be included. Bryant wants to be sure that the team he joins has enough talent remaining to compete for the NBA title.

The source said talks between the teams had stagnated, though by no means were they dead. And while the difficulties involved in the deal — making the salaries match, and trying to trade players onto 15-man rosters now that the preseason roster flexibility has elapsed — continued to be formidable, the Bulls remained determined to pursue every avenue toward acquiring Bryant from the Lakers.

On first read, that looks like good news for Bulls fans, as it increases the odds that the Bulls would end up with both Kobe and Luol Deng. After the initial euphoria dies out, though, pessimism takes over.

The Lakers don’t need to trade Kobe. They have less costly options: Not only could they try to work out the old Jermaine O’Neal chestnut, they can do what they’ve done each time Kobe’s name has come up in trade talks: They can do nothing. Kobe might be unhappy, but he certainly won’t stop competing. He’s Kobe Bryant, hard-wired killer-instinct Model T3000. He might take a few more nights off than normal, but can you picture him totally shutting it down? On the management side, the Lakers can roll with a half-angry Bryant and still probably do better financially and publicly than they would with a full-on rebuild. Kobe Bryant might not want to go to a depleted team, but the Lakers don’t need to trade for anything less. Why would they?

So as much as this Bulls fan embraces each Kobe rumor that lands on my retinas, this newest revelation — even if it confirms that talks are active — nearly spells doom for a trade to Chicago. Optimism is the default emotion in things like these, but if Kobe’s no-Deng standard continues, pessimism makes more sense.

Case of the Mondays: Whew, this is fun

April 23rd, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Yes, it’s that time again. Basketball all day, every day, at the convenience of the dedicated viewer. It’s a beautiful thing, yeah?

I’m glad this whole Little 500 thing is over, not only because my body, descendant of Irish alcoholics, is becoming dangerously accustomed to early-morning alcohol intake, but because constantly focusing on keg tap pressure and whether or not my legs were abnormally numb kept from enjoying the really good stuff this weekend: the NBA Playoffs.

Sunday was too much recovery to truly enjoy the games, though lying in the dark of the afternoon with HD basketball on might be the best hangover cure ever. And Saturday, with the exception of the Bulls game, which I saw start to finish, the Playoffs have existed in a vacuum. I need my visuals.

So here we go again tonight, another set of games, more Inside the NBA (the best show on television not named Planet Earth or The Sopranos), more Bulls basketball. Will they be able to hold off the Heat for a second straight game? Will Kirk be able to stay out of foul trouble? Will Luol keep his “He could have sex with my girlfriend and I wouldn’t even be mad” privileges (currently only extended to Deng, Ben Gordon, Brian Urlacher, Michael Jordan, and Mark Grace)?

Will D-Wade ignore his host of nagging injuries as well as his propensity to exaggerate those injuries, and take over? Will Shaq be enough? Will Tyrus Thomas do something that will literally force Scott Skiles to keep Nocioni on the bench, where he belongs? Will Skiles’ head explode? Can Ben Wallace justify trading Tyson Chandler for another game? Will I, for the sake of superstition, have to be dangerously close to alcohol poisoning during the game?

This is all too much. But hey, it’s the NBA Playoffs; that’s kind of how it works this time of year.