Tuesday's first timeout brought a video tribute to Michael Jordan for his Hall of Fame selection the previous day.
The second stoppage featured a similar salute to Jerry Sloan, who played and coached forthe Bulls but will be going to Springfield, Mass., for his coaching work with the Utah Jazz.
The Bulls' 110-103 victory over the Knicks never will be confused with any Hall of Fame material—or possibly even an instructional basketball video.
But at this point, survival counts more than style points.
A justified unhappy reaction -
There was one nice stretch in the 4th, when Vinny abandoned the 3 (small) guard lineup to put Salmons in for Gordon, and the Bulls went on a 15-0 run (off several turnovers).
Then, of course Vinny 'rode the hot hand', which is just a retro-justification to say he wanted to play Hinrich and Miller a bunch and did so. The game got closer but the lead was never lost, and while I was doing my usual sad sack routine thinking of our coach, I figured at least they were playing the sorry quitting Knicks who'd mess up any chance to get back in. A couple key blocks from Tyrus helped.
Besides that stretch though, I really thought it was a fairly terrible game, especially defensively. They were over-helping (a lot of times perhaps justified due to all the tiny lineups) and leaving shooters open, and I though Thomas and Noah were way to easily pushed around by a Knicks frontcourt that isn't too bulky themselves. Does that mean Vinny should try Rose/Gordon/Hinrich/Salmons with Aaron Gray at the end of a half? (no, no it doesn't)
Blake Griffin declared for the draft. So did Ricky Rubio.
Same old Sox -
The Kool-Aid was passed out in buckets throughout spring training and again hours before the White Sox finally opened the 2009 season a day late.
Manager Ozzie Guillen spoke of ''a couple new surprises'' and a ''new, balanced look.'' General manager Ken Williams pointed to a ''speedier lineup'' and players willing to ''fight in every at-bat.''
All nice little baseball philosophies to throw around while the games had no meaning.
But this is still the South Side, and that means grip, rip and hope to hear the fireworks. And no one on the roster is better at that than designated hitter Jim Thome.
Sox win. Cubs lose. Yes, baseball indeed reminds us of all that is good.
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