The news that Barack Obama appointed Dan Rooney as the American Irish Ambassador is all over the Googlez today, as it should be.

After all, it is St. Patrick’s Day. And Rooney is the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And Barack Obama is hip and cool and happening! Anyway, the traditional route here would be to say, “Wow! What a great and cool choice blahblahblah.” But that’s been done like a hundred times today.

Instead, how about another list of sports-related people and what countries I’d like to seem them appointed to. If you’re really lucky, Jon Bois will do this tomorrow, only funnier!

• Michael Phelps … Jamaica — Too obvious? Too corny? Or just “How High”? (/Redman’d)
• John Daly … Scotland — Because it’ll get him out of our hair, they won’t give a crap how much he drinks and there has to be a golf tour he can avoid getting kicked off of. Downside: no Hooters.
• Mark Cuban … Cuba — An “it’s in the name” joke could be appropriate here, but, really, who better to turn around a sputtering country stuck in its ways than the guy who made the Mavericks relevant again?

Keep reading →

Things we knew about Vinny Del Negro before this season: 1) He had sweet hair. 2) He had never coached before.

Things we know about Vinny Del Negro 60 games into the season: 1) He has sweet hair. 2) He coaches like he never coached before.

The Bulls have been a lesson in confusion this season: They beat the class of the East, but lose to far more mortal foes. Lineups and substitutions have been anything but stable. Vinny seems to tinker when tinkering doesn’t need to be done, keeping out scorers for long stretches. Sometimes it make-a no sense. Like not having Derrick Rose in at the end of a few recent games.

So John Paxson decided to say something to Vinny about it:

”I’ve talked to Vinny about this,” Paxson said Saturday during the WMVP-AM (1000) broadcast of the Bulls’ 105-102 victory over Houston, in which Rose scored 16 of his team-high 22 points in the fourth quarter. ”Our future is Derrick. That’s no secret. There are times that I feel — and Vinny knows this — that he should be on the floor at the end of games.”

Translation: Dude, what are you doing?

It should also be noted that Ben Gordon had 11 points to close out the fourth against the Rockets on Friday night. But yeah, the point still remains here.

Now, this simple act of keeping Rose on the floor isn’t going to cure all the Bulls’ ills. But it’s something. It’s logical.

And, it’s certainly a better strategy than the yell defense.

The Chicago Bulls, as rumored, headed to the White House for a  visit Thursday with First Fan and President Barack Obama.

Obama is, of course, a Chicago guy and a big Bulls fan, which makes this a little different from a normal athletic team’s visit. Usually it’s only champions that head to the White House. But that didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the meeting.

”It was a great experience,” Bulls rookie point guard Derrick Rose said. ”Usually, you’re nervous around a person of his stature and power, but he made us feel at ease. He was like one of the guys. He was laughing and joking with us and knew everybody on the team by name.

”We toured the White House and took pictures with the president. [Assistant coach] Pete Myers gave me a copy of [Obama's] book and he autographed it for me.”

Additionally, the Sun-Times reported that Obama will be kicking it at the Bulls-Wizards game tonight. It’s absolutely, 100 percent worth noting that these things are why Obama is an awesome President for the sports fan; the guy was asked by Berman to change one thing and he went with the BCS. He invites his home team to the White House. He attends NBA games.

I realize he’s not the first Commander-in-chief to actually care about sports. But at the same time, it just kind of feels different, you know? Like, if you heard the line “John Paxson could neither be reached for comment, nor did he emerge from the White House with the rest of the team,” wouldn’t you, instead of freaking out that there was some scandal, just nod your head in affirmation, knowing that Obama was fixing the glitch?

All and all, a pretty solid couple of days for the Bulls. Sure, there was no big-name splash with any of their deals, but there did seem to be a master plan behind the three trades, and plans are a good thing. Just ask your Aunt Betty.

You may remember last week when the man working the phones all this week, Bulls GM John Paxson, was reportedly stepping down after the trade deadline. Then he was still stepping down, but maybe not till the end of the season. Or maybe he was just going to stay with the organization, but under a different title. Oh yeah: Jerry Reinsdorf was apparently trying to talk him out of all this, too.

But John Paxson would like you to know here’s here to stay:

“I don’t feel an obligation to have to respond every time something comes up about me or a trade, and so I left it alone,” Paxson said. “I’m the GM of the Bulls. I’m not resigning. I’m here. I’m going to be here. That puts an end to it.”

Well then, there you have it … I guess. It’s not that I don’t believe Pax; you can only take a man on his word. It’s that with independent reports coming out of various newspapers, there was likely some sliver of truth somewhere about Paxson having second thoughts about sticking around. Had to be, right? What version of the truth that is, or whether it was inflated by Peter Vecsey, or whether reporters had bad sourcing, we may never know.

But we do know this: Paxson is here to stay. For now. Welcome back from obscurity, old friend.

A few weeks back when the Bulls were floundering and people were giving heat to first-year coach Vinny Del Negro, there was also talk John Paxson’s days as Bulls GM were numbered. Look, I even blogged about it.

But since then, the Bulls hit the road and played pretty well. And in the games they lost, they were very close to winning. Sort of like last night. (God, that last six seconds was infuriating.) But, one above average stretch of basketball apparently isn’t going to be enough to keep Del Negro’s and Paxson’s jobs in tact. This is at least what Peter Vecsey of the New York Post is reporting. (Blog A Bull points out the Sun-Times has also confirmed this report, but  the timing of his resignation is not certain, as it may possibly come after the season) For what it’s worth Vecsey writes today two sources have told him Paxson will resign Thursday, once the trade deadline expires. Assistant GM Gar Foreman would likely take his spot for the remainder of the season.

Then, Vecsey drops this:

One of the above sources said he wouldn’t be surprised if Doug Collins were approached again at the season regarding the coaching job (currently held by Vinny Del Negro) and as GM, or both. Collins and managing partner Jerry Reinsdorf couldn’t agree on money last May.

Argh. Look, Doug Collins is a smart cat. And he’s a pretty good coach, too. But as John Hollinger pointed out last time around when the Bulls were supposedly going to hire him before the start of this season, Collins’ teams play at a snail’s pace. He also hasn’t shown much support for younger players. With Derrick Rose leading this team, I don’t see why the Bulls would hire him. This team needs to go, go, go with Rose at the helm.

Ah, if only Mike D’Antoni had waited around a bit longer, saw the Bulls grab the first pick and then decided to come to Chicago.

What could have been …

AFTERNOON UPDATE: The Chicago Tribune is reporting Paxson might still stay with the organization, but under a different title. The paper also reports Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf has tried to talk Pax out of leaving.

The wolves are circling around first-year Bulls head coach Vinny Del Negro. Some don’t like him constantly tinkering with the lineup, while others are wondering why the Bulls hired him in the first place. After all, he’s never been a head coach before. And it’s showing. With the Bulls seemingly handing leads over to the opponent every time they step on the floor — the Hawks game on Tuesday night was particularly frustrating — John Paxson spoke out about the team’s performance.

And, he’s throwing it all on himself.

“The only person I’ll evaluate right now is myself, and I obviously haven’t done the job of putting the type of team that I want to have on the floor in terms of competitiveness and effort,’’ Paxson said Wednesday when asked about the job coach Vinny Del Negro and his staff have done. The Bulls are 18-25. “That falls on me. That’s the only person I’m going to critique. That’s the way it is.’’

[ ... ]

“We’re not very good right now,’’ Paxson said. “We’re not playing well enough to win those [close] games. I’m obviously not happy with how we’re playing. I don’t think my expectations were such going into the season thinking we were going to be a top, top level team. But what I want to see is the team play together. And right now, through 40-plus games, we’re not that. And that concerns me.”

Keep reading →

A veteran of the Chicago beat reporting scene, David Schuster regularly writes about the sights and sounds of Chicago sports from the press box and locker room for MOUTHPIECE Blog.

In the midst of both baseball teams on the verge of postseason play and the Bears fresh into a new season, one forgets the Bulls are close to starting their year.

John Paxson has been fairly quiet this summer, but behind the scenes he’s dealt with a lot of headaches and some  are still lingering. The good news? The Bulls unexpectedly got the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft and selected Derrick Rose. The bad news? Dealing with other members of the roster has not been so pleasant.

Ben Gordon has been, and continues to be a thorn, in the fact that he hasn’t budged on his contract demands. Last year, the Bulls offered him a five-year deal at just over $50 million. But Gordon and his agent balked at it, saying they wanted him to be the highest-paid player on the team. Which meant he’d be making more than Ben Wallace, or about $15 million per season. Wallace was subsequently traded but Gordon (and his new agent) still want that kind of money. The Bulls pretty much made him the same offer this summer and gave him further options on both longer and shorter term deals. But still it’s a deadlock.

Time is running out as training camp opens next week. Gordon’s representative has threatened that his client might go play overseas. But that’s a stretch since their monetary offers are far less then even the Bulls. So the chess game is coming down to the wire and the Bulls hold the position of strength. Good thing the baseball season is going into overtime because otherwise this messy situation would get a lot more attention in the media.