You only turn 231 once

Last year on America’s birthday, I butsed out a nice twelve pack of random thoughts for the celebration. It worked out well, so I thought I’d do it again for 2007. Happy Independence Day.

1---As I said they would do, the Bulls selected Florida forward Joakim Noah with the ninth pick in last Thursday’s NBA Draft. I really like Noah. He’s a great rebounder, an outstanding defender, a winner in college and always plays with a lot of energy. Plus he is seven feet tall. Combined with Tyrus Thomas and Loul Deng, the Bulls should have one of the most energetic front lines in the NBA. I’m still a bit concerned about the lack of post-scoring, but the team definitely improved during the draft. Second round picks Aaron Gray, a center from Pitt and JamesOn Curry, a combo guard from Oklahoma State, are both nice players who have a chance of making the roster.

2---If you look back at last year’s July 4 birthday twelve-pack, you will see that I was disgusted that the Bulls signed Ben Wallace. How disgusted was I? Something along the lines of, “His rebounding, which is his main skill, has gone down in each of the past three seasons, as has his minutes per game. He offers no offensive skills, and will be almost un-tradable with his $12.4 million a year contract. Plus he has shown attitude problems in the past when coaches got in his face, not a good sign when Scott Skiles is the one calling the shots.” Well considering his rebounds and minutes per game did go down again, and he and Skiles did get into the whole headband controversy, it looks like I was mostly correct. But I did get the trade thing wrong. Because according to my calculations, Big Ben could be the centerpiece of a very big deal. Using the ESPN NBA Trade Machine , I worked out a deal that would make the Bulls instant championship contenders. In the deal, the Bulls would send Wallace along with Ben Gordon, Andreas Noicioni and a future first round pick to the LA Lakers in exchange for Kobe Bryant and Aaron McKie. The deal works for LA, since Kobe wants to get out and they are getting three above average players and a first round pick back. And the deal works for the Bulls, especially if they can re-sign PJ Brown or bring in a free agent center like Miki Moore. A starting five of Hinrich, Kobe, Deng, Thomas and Brown, with a bench of Noah, Thabo Sefelosha and Adrian Griffin would make us the best team in the East.

3---While the Bulls did well to get Noah, the team that did the best in the draft was the Seattle SuperSonics. Obvioulsy they grabbed Kevin Durant at number two, who I think will end up being the best NBA player over the next ten to fifteen years. But they also got Georgetown’s Jeff Green in a draft day deal with the Celtics, which cost them Ray Allen. Green might not be a great player right away, but I think he can end up being a Pippen to Durant’s MJ. He’s an outstanding passer and does all the little things to help his team win games. It’s not too often a team can pick up the National and the Big East player’s of the year in the same draft.

4---Moving to baseball, and I have to say, I was very encouraged by the Cubs performance this weekend against the first-place Brewers. Friday they went down five to nothing right away, yet they never gave up. The bullpen pitched six scoreless innings and Aramis Ramirez bailed the team out with a two-run, walk-off homer (see below for more on that). Saturday, they got absolutely smoked, 13-4, but on Sunday, they came right back to give a great all around performance. Jason Marquis finally got a win and Ryan Theriot played his best game of the season, hitting three doubles. Carlos Marmol has been on fire this year coming out of the bullpen, and with easy games this week against Washington and Pittsburgh, the Cubs could enter the All-Star break as many as five games over .500.

5---Aramis Ramirez’s walk-off homer on Friday afternoon was amazing. Thought I did not stick around to see the play at Wrigley, the reaction I had when hearing the new on the El was about as loud as I will get on a train. That was a huge win for the Cubs, and it was capped off by the most exciting play in baseball. But how does the game-ender in this sport compare to comparable plays in football and basketball? I think the best is in hoops, because of the clock aspect. In baseball, there is no time limit, and in football, the clock is usually stopped. But in basketball, the time is running out as the play is going on, so there is that extra sense of defense going on in the players head. Not to put anything against walk-off homers or game-winners in football, but I just prefer the basketball version. Here’s an example of one from each sport. (Note: There aren’t high quality videos for a couple of these events, so one is a homemade video and another is just the radio call.)

Football--- Robbie Gould’s game-winning FG vs. Seattle in the 2007 playoffs
Basketball---- Michael Jordan’s ten best buzzer-beaters
Baseball--- Aramis’ HR from Friday

6---Winners of ten of their past eleven games, the Cubs are definitely looking better than they were a month ago. But where will they be the first week of August? How about September? I think the team will continue to play well in the second half of the season, but I’m not ready to say they are a playoff team, because there still are too many questions. Will all five starters pitch well at the same time? Will Aramis Ramirez stay healthy? How will the Derek Lee suspension affect the team? What’s going to happen with Carlos Zambrano’s contract? Can we ever get rid of Cesar Izturis and Jacque Jones? Until they get those answers, I think we’ll stay right around .500, just missing out on the division and the wild card. Hopefully I’m wrong.

7---The MLB All-Star teams were announced over the weekend, and in what seems to be an annual tradition, there is already outrage over who did and who did not make the rosters. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is no point in getting all worked up about these things. In a week and a half, nobody will even remember who made the damn team. And since the last three Fall Classic’s have been sweeps, its not like the whole winner gets home field advantage thing is making much of a difference. Frankly, the best part of the MLB All-Star game is Monday night’s home-run derby, not the Tuesday night game.

8---A lot of people are wondering if the Bears feel stupid for cutting Tank Johnson now that we have learned that he wasn’t over the legal drinking limit and wasn’t arrested for DUI. The answer to that is an obvious no. The reason the Bears decided that it was better for the team to get rid of Tank was because they told him to stay out of trouble and he failed to listen. After sticking by him through his house being raided, through his arrest, through his friend being shot and killed and through his three-month jail sentence, Tank came right out and got in trouble again. The team had no choice but to release him, regardless of whether a charge was made or not.

9---Props to the Bears for being the first team to sign their first round pick, tight end Greg Olsen from Miami. I was worried about G-Reg’s contract negotiations, mainly because his agent is Bears nemesis Drew Rosenhaus. But thankfully the two sides agreed on a five year, $10.7 million deal. I actually got to meet Olsen, he bought a hot dog from me at a Cubs game. He’s really big in person, all muscle. Having him in camp from day one will be a big plus, and hopefully he and Rex Grossman can team up for a bunch of touchdowns this season.

10---So this I found entertaining. Last week Detroit Lions quarterback John Kitna said on a Detroit radio station, “I'll keep to myself what I think we actually will win. But it's more than 10 games.” Is this man crazy? The Lions haven’t won more than ten games or more since 1995, when their coach was Wayne Fontes, their QB was Scott Mitchell and their best player was a man named Barry Sanders. In fact, over the last two seasons, the Lions have won eight games…combined. Maybe Kitna should spend more time running practice and less time running his mouth.

11---It seems that every year, the Fantasy Football magazines come out earlier and earlier. I mean, NFL pre-season games don’t start for another five weeks, yet if you go to your bookstore, there’s already six mags telling you that this is Travis Henrey’s break-out season and that Donovan McNabb should be avoided at all costs. While I’m not complaining, my brain is not ready to dissect all the fantasy knowledge I will need come draft time. I’ll be ready in a few weeks, but not yet.

12---Finally, last but not least, have a happy holiday and stay safe.