According to TMZ.com, Derrick Rose is among a set of players that is suing Topps over only being partially paid.

NBA star Tracy McGrady’s autograph is over 16x more valuable than fellow baller Deandre Jordan’s — this courtesy of a lawsuit filed against a trading card company.

Nine NBAers — McGrady, Jordan, Brandon Roy, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, D.J. Augustin, T.J. Ford, Antawn Jamison, Anthony Randolph and DeAndre Jordan — are suing Topps, claiming they were all only partially paid for their autograph deals.

The most interesting part … how much Topps paid per autograph.

McGrady — $50
Rose — $25
Roy — $18
Westbrook — $10
Jamison — $10
Ausgustin — $8
Randolph — $7
Ford — $6
Jordon — $3

It’s interesting that Tracy McGrady is getting paid the most out of these players for an autograph, even though a Derrick Rose or Brandon Roy autograph are likely more wanted. McGrady must have had a longer term deal with Topps to be making more than Rose.

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Golden State Warriors 95 to 83 in their first contest in the 2009 Las Vegas Summer League.

The Bulls fell behind early, as Anthony Randolph poured in 16 points in the first quarter. The Bulls would take control of the game in the second quarter, making it a one point game at half time, 46-45 in favor of the Warriors.

The Bulls took the lead, 63-62 with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter on a James Johnson jumpshot, but it was all Golden State from there.

The story of today’s game was Anthony Randolph of the Warriors, who finished the game with 42 points and 3 blocks. The 42 points tied a Las Vegas Summer League record. Randolph now joins Marcus Banks and Von Wafer for having the most points in a Las Vegas Summer League game. Randolph, with his combination of length and athleticism was a tough cover for the Bulls, forcing the Bulls to foul often, as Randolph went to the free throw line 21 times.

James Johnson was impressive in his Bulls debut, scoring 21 points on 9-13 shooting and grabbing 8 rebounds. There isn’t much that James Johnson can’t do on the offensive end, he is a very skilled player. Johnson was shooting the ball well, even hitting a three point shot near the end of the second quarter. Johnson had another three in the fourth quarter that just rimmed out.

Johnson handled the ball very well. There aren’t many players, if any in the NBA, who can handle the ball like he can. He handled the ball for the Bulls often in the half court, but also in the full court, where he led multiple Bulls’ fastbreaks, many of which were successful. He also showed the ability in the half court to take his man off the dribble, and finish off his dribble drive move.

The discerning part of Johnson’s performance tonight was his effort defensively and on the glass. His defense was subpar, and he didn’t show much effort on the glass, lazily going after rebounds, rather than viciously attacking the boards.

Taj Gibson was the opposite of Johnson defensively and on the glass. Gibson was in there fighting for every rebound. Gibson’s motor is excellent, and has the length to be a good rebounder. He looked as long as advertised in pre-draft measurements out there on the court.

Gibson finished the game with 14 points and 12 rebounds. He showed an ability to get out and run the court, which should be a good fit when he’s out there playing with Derrick Rose in the regular season.

The discerning part about Gibson’s game tonight was his 9 personal fouls. A lot of these fouls were on attempted blocks by Gibson. Gibson needs to learn to go straight up with his arm when attempting to block a shot. Not only will he avoid the foul, but he will get more reach, which should lead to more blocks.

Johnson and Gibson shared one really impressive tag team play in the second quarter. Jamal Sampson went up for a shot on the left block, and Johnson and Gibson simultaneously blocked the shot.

James Augustine scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in just 24 minutes. Augustine hit some jumpshots, and put in a lot of easy shots in the paint set up by his teammates.

Stephen Curry had a tough game, scoring 10 points on 3-15 shooting, but he did have 8 assists and 5 rebounds. Curry looked like a solid point guard, but doesn’t appear to have the skills to be an elite point guard if he isn’t scoring in bunches.

Anthony Morrow and Joe Ingles both put in 10 points for the Warriors as well.

Demarcus Nelson had a solid 14 point, 6 assist, 5 rebound game, while Anthony Roberson put on a brick fest, scoring 11 points, but shooting 3-13 from the field.

Closing Comments

A solid start to summer league for the Bulls. Yes, it was a loss, but in summer league, how you’re prized young players perform is more important than the game result. Tonight, both James Johnson and Taj Gibson showed exactly why the Bulls drafted them, and put on performances that should have Bulls’ fans excited about both players’ futures with the team.

Go Bulls!

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Golden State Warriors 110 to 88 with some exciting, high scoring basketball tonight at the United Center.

The Bulls fell down big pretty early on, but Vinny subbed in Brad Miller and Kirk Hinrich, and that pair brought stability to the lineup, and the Bulls quickly fought their way back into the game. Brad Miller had an impressive 19 points on 7-9 shooting off the bench and Kirk Hinrich had a nice 13 points 6 assist effort.

John Salmons led the charge tonight with 23 points on an efficient 7-14 shooting along with 9 rebounds. He is just playing great. He makes some nice drives to the basket, which he usually finishes with a reverse, double clutch layup. He is also a shot maker. The offense is much improved with Salmons in the starting spot than with Deng, for two reasons. First, Salmons is a much more efficient scorer than Deng. Second, Salmons is less of a blackhole than Deng. Salmons will take shots when he has them there. Deng tries to force up some bad shot everytime he has the ball. Salmons really should be the starting small forward for the remainder of the season.

Joakim Noah was great as well tonight. He finished with 14 points, 17 rebounds, and 4 blocks. He was just all over the place tonight, making good defensive plays and rebounding the basketball. Just an all around great game from Noah.

Ben Gordon had another off night. He finished with 15 points on 6-15 shooting. The shots just weren’t falling for Ben tonight. You could tell it was a rough shot by the point blank layup he missed, as well as the 2 misses from the free throw line. The problem with Ben right now is that he’s taking some pretty bad shots. That’s not to say that he has bad shot selection, but his form is broken right now. He is severely leaning into a lot of his shots. He has to go straight up. On the three point attempt that he missed, he pumped, hesitated, then leaned in. On the three point shot he made, he just went straight up, and took a well balanced shot. If Ben gets back to taking square, well balanced shots, he will probably begin to see more of them go in again.

Derrick Rose had a so so game, scoring 14 points and passing for 6 assists. He didn’t seem to really impact the game in any great way, he was just sort of out there, making a nice play from time to time.

Tyrus Thomas had 8 points and 7 rebounds. Thomas was kind of checked out of this game mentally. Early in the game, Anthony Randolph had a vicious block on Thomas, that sent Thomas to the floor, writhing in pain. After that, Thomas really didn’t have it mentally tonight, which is understandable.

Stephen Jackson led the Warriors in scoring with 19 points. Corey Maggette had 14 points and Jamal Crawford and C.J. Watson had 11 points each.

The Warriors just aren’t a good basketball team. They chuck up a lot of bad shots and hardly play any defense. It’s easy to see why they have the record that they do. Still, the Bull have been losing to some teams that they’re better than, so beating a bad team is not something that should be taken for granted.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 28-34 on the season. Around the league tonight, the Bucks fell to the Cavs 91 to 73 and the Nets fell to the Celtics 115 to 111. The Bulls are now tied with the Bucks record wise for the eighth seed in the East. The Bucks at 29-35 have one more win, but also one more loss than the Bulls.