This week in schadenfreude - Chicago Bulls
Not that we're Heat fans around here, but is anyone else savoring the irony from the Bulls/Heat series?
Articles like this one bring back 25 years ago when it was the Pistons trying to roughouse their way past the world's best player - MJ - in the playoffs. As we watch the woefully undermanned Bulls brutalize the Heat, does anyone else enjoy watching the Bulls try the other shoe on for size?
The difference is the Pistons kept their mouths shut and just played rough, while Phil Jackson and Scotty Pippen cried to the league and the media to (successfully) get more favorable calls from the referees.
Even now, the Bulls are trying to complain and mock their way into favor with this horse manure Thibedeau is spewing. My favorite was this gibberish spewed by Gibson:
"When it was over, the Bulls spoke longingly of a different time in the NBA, a different era, when they would've been allowed to get away with taking a run at LeBron James.
'M.J. would get fouled and he would just keep playing," Gibson told Y! Sports. "That's old-school basketball.'"
He can get a pass since he wasn't even born when the PIstons were deep at war with the Bulls, but even though MJ did keep his mouth shut, Phil Jackson and Scotty Pippen did all the whining to the refs, the league and the media that the Bulls needed, and soon enough MJ was well protected by the refs. Old school basketball my ass. If anything, the Bulls can thank themselves for setting the prima donna start treatment trend 25 years ago with MJ that LeBron is enjoying now.
Much respect to Jordan due to his greatness, but otherwise I've despised the Bulls ever since Jackson and Pippen's whining, and I'm glad to see my sentiment confirmed 25 years later.
Go Heat.
"Hammertime"
Only Pistons fans could look at this series and actually commend the way the Bulls have played.
I think they have more techs than assists in this series- the plays they make are not basketball plays. Just like the knicks of the 90s and the bad boys of the 80s-91, it's MMA on a basketball court and shouldn't be encouraged.
On Jordan: There aren't many high-level athletes with a bigger difference between quality of play (great, obviously) and quality of behavior (mediocre at best).
First of all, the NBA sucks, and I'm convinced they set it up for the Heat to win the championship this year. If you watch any of the games, the Heat get EVERY CALL, to the point where I can't even watch the games anymore because of how horrible it is.
Second: If you don't think the Heat complain about the "physicality" you're not watching the games. At every moment, Lebron or Wade are bitching at the officials, and not once have they ever been T'd up for it.
The Heat are a disgrace to basketball, and the NBA is a disgrace to sports these days.
OP sucks, this thread sucks, and everyone who puts on their fan blinders on an issue is retarded. The Bulls' only chance to beat the Heat is to outphysical them. And don't compare the Bulls to the bullshit that the bad boys used to pull day in and day out.
It seems that very few people can ever get over their biases and enjoy a tough, competitive series for what it is anymore. All that many want to do is create narratives where none should exist.
Don't be an asshat and call the Bulls dirty thugs while praising what the Pistons did (with much more vigor) years ago.
He's not calling out the Bulls for being dirty thugs, he's calling them out for being whiners. Reading comprehension for the win.
Second, calling people out for being biased and then calling the Bad Boys bullshit is hypocritical. You might not like the Bad Boys and how they played, but you're totally biased if you don't recognize that their basketball was world-class.
1989
1990
Who were the big dogs after 1990?
2004 - different team, different style altogether.
Are you seriously saying that winning a world championship, let alone two in a row, doesn't make you world class? Seriously?
I do not think that word/phrase means what you think it means.
Yeah, that guy is clearly an idiot.
Since 1980 24 of the 33 NBA champions have come from Top 10 media markets. If you include the 11th biggest media market, then 27 of the 33 NBA champions have come from the top markets. That's something like 80% of your championships coming from the top 30% of your media markets over three+ decades.
Coincidence? Sure, could be. But when it doesn't pass the eye test, when you've got things like the Donaghy scandal, when you've got David Stern whitewashing the obvious conncetions to other refs in the scandal, then the simplest, best, and most likely explanation is that the NBA reffing is biased.
Edit: for comparison, I quickly looked up NFL, MLB, and NHL stats too. NFL number is 21/33 from top media markets, MLB number is 17/33, NHL is 13/33. I'm calling shenanigans on the NBA.
How exactly does it have the brightest future?
Well, like I said, they're posting record profits, and have record viewership. Even the NBA D-League is starting to churn out profits on a larger scale. And by all the accounts the overseas game is just about ready to undergo another serious boom, with the possible emergence of India
Second, there's been rumours about the NBA dropping the Olympics, and starting up their own World Cup, think of FIFA, and if that happens, that's even more money.
Thirdly, just look at expansion. For all the complaining about "big markets" on here, the league put a team in Oklahoma City (barely top-50, and is smaller than the great cities like Norfolk/Grand Rapids/Birmingham), and that team is a huge success. And there's a multi-hundred million dollar fight over whether the Kings should stay in Sacramento, or go to Seattle, and if they still stay in Sacramento, Seattle is going to get a team eventually, and that's more money.
Finally, the future of the NBA doesn't have a huge medicinal cloud hanging over it. For the time being, the NFL/NHL have concussions to worry about, and that can get ugly real fast
Serious question, are their tv contracts gonna take the jump that MLB tv contracts are going to? MLB is going to see a giant increase with all the new TV contracts, will the NBA see similar deals at any point? I've no idea about the finances of the NBA, but I just don't see the NBA getting local tv contracts to approach the ones in MLB, or national tv contracts that will compare with the NFL.
The basketball version of the world cup sounds interesting, but we'll have to see how much that really benefits the NBA itself. I'm not really sure the World Cup has a significant impact on the Premeire league, but I admit that's my completely baseless speculation. The World Baseball Classic hasn't really had any impact on baseball at all, most people don't watch it. I'd imagine whatever basketball does will be more like the WBC than the World Cup.
This thread is an epic bitch fest.
I've seen complaints about the Bulls playing rough, David Stern, the NBA's quality of play, LeBron, people who hate LeBron, the city of Chicago, the referees, and several other topics.
I'll refrain from weighing in as I have a horse in the race (from Chicago) and love the NBA (considering I grew up in Chicago in the 90s, I don't think anyone should be surprised).
What I will say is this. Pistons fans, let it go. Our teams are no longer rivals. Don't be Illini fans.
Anyways, I will go a step further...there isn't one shredd of schadenfreude in Chicago's case. They playing on house money and still have a minimal chance to make some noise in the series. The Heat are the biggest whiners in all sports and to suggest otherwise makes you, OP, sound like a few of UofM's biggest rivals.
Just remember six rings in ten years. Best NBA player of all-time. I think Chicago Bulls fans can back pocket those accomplishments for a long time.
Fortunately for us Pistons fans we won back to back championships before that happened and were one of the few teams that mj's when it could still be done. This Bulls team is not in the same stratosphere as those Pistons teams. The irony of them longing for bad boy basketball though should not be lost on an old time Chicago fan. The Heat are not close to the prima donnas pippen and mj were.
Go Pacers!
Screw both of them. Both teams have huge whiners.
like a bunch of thugs against the Heat. No other word describes them near as well.