According to Bulls.com, Tyrus Thomas has been named to the Dream Team For Public Service.

SAN FRANCISCO (November 23, 2009) – Ronnie Lott, NFL Hall of Famer and founder of All Stars Helping Kids, today announced the ten “Dream Team For Public Service” winners from 53 nominees selected for the Jefferson Awards for Public Service, including Bulls forward Tyrus Thomas, which will recognize the top athletes who have given back to their community.

The ten will be officially recognized in New York City at the third annual Sports Business and Philanthropy Luncheon on Tuesday, December 8. In addition, two top winners will be honored at the national Jefferson Awards ceremony June 22nd in Washington, D.C. Past Jefferson Awards winners include four Supreme Court Justices, seven Secretaries of State; as well as Oprah Winfrey, Alan Greenspan, Peyton Manning, Colin Powell, Lance Armstrong, Barbara Bush and Bill and Melinda Gates.

The ten “Dream Team For Public Service” winners (whose capsule accomplishments are attached) were selected by the prestigious Jefferson Award board and public voting:

* Nnamdi Asomugha (Lafayette, La.) defensive back, Oakland Raiders, NFL
* Curtis Granderson (Chicago, Ill.), all-star outfielder Detroit Tigers, MLB
* Stuart Holden (Houston, Tx.) forward, Houston Dynamo, MLS
* Dwight Howard (Orlando, Fla.), all-star forward, Orlando Magic, NBA
* Dirk Nowitzki (Wurzburg, Germany), all-star forward, Dallas Mavericks, NBA
* Tyrus Thomas (Baton Rouge, La.), forward, Chicago Bulls, NBA
* Justin Tuck (Coosa County, Ala.) all-pro defensive end, New York Giants, NFL
* Lauryn Williams (Rochester, Pa.), Olympian and World Champion sprinter
* Venus Williams (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) Olympian and Grand Slam champion, WTA
* Ryan Zimmerman (Washington, N.C.) all-star outfielder, Washington Nationals, MLB

It’s good to see Tyrus Thomas continually recognized for the great work he has done in making the world a better place.

With one and half minutes in the game the Bulls were up by 5, and were on their way for victories.  The Mavericks had other plans.  Jose Barea drove on Kirk Hinrich and scooped in a layup for his 20th point of the game, making it a 95 to 92 game.  Rose missed a jumpshot, the Bulls fouled Nowitzki, who made two free throws to make it a 95 to 94 game.

Next trip down the floor, Rose nails a nice floater to give the Bulls a three point lead.  Unfortunately, Rose would then give up three points to the Mavericks.  Rose was out of position defensively, leaving Jason Kidd wide open for three.  Kidd sunk the three.

As usual, the Bulls called their end play for Derrick Rose.  He drove to the basket and did a fall away floater trying to get it over Nowitzki.  Bulls fans thought that Rose was fouled on there by an undercut, but that was not the case.  After Rose came down, he just caught himself on Brandon Bass’s foot and tripped.  No foul.

I don’t like what Rose did on this play.  Dirk caught himself in no man’s land, with his feet within the semi-circle.  Rose should have just went into Dirk and forced the foul, instead of fading away.  Not only did Rose make his shot more difficult, but he assured that he would not get the foul call.

The play call was also questionable by Vinny.  He should have went to Ben Gordon, who had Jose Barea guarding him.  That’s a matchup you have to take advantage of.  In addition, I don’t like how Vinny had Ben just stand in the corner.  That makes for some easy deny defense on Gordon for the Mavericks.  If you are going to go to Rose, have Ben run around like he is trying to get open and be an actual decoy on the play.  Ben and standing in the corner has never been a successful formula.

In overtime, it was all Dirk Nowitki.  Nowitzki scored 14 points in the overtime period, and answered everytime the Bulls scored.  Nowitzki was the definition of clutch tonight.

The Bulls made a mini run to try to end the overtime.  Nocioni made a 3 to make it a 3 point game.  Nowitzki responded with 2 free throws.  Then Tyrus Thomas made a 3 pointer to bring it within 2.  Nowitzki responded with 2 free throws.  Then Ben Gordon made a three pointer at the buzzer to make it a one point game.  Unfotunately the Mavericks didn’t follow Eric Gordon’s lead, and foul Ben Gordon on a three pointer to allow the chance for a 4 point game to bring the game into overtime.  And with that, the Bulls fell 115 to 114 in overtime to the Dallas Mavericks.

Dirk Nowitzki was a monster tonight, scoring 43 points, grabbing 9 rebounds, and blocking 3 shots.  He actually started the game shooting poorly, but he was deadly down the stretch.

Ben Gordon led the Bulls in scoring with 28 points.  He had an alright game.  His scoring was nice, and he had a good game for the most part, but he had some really bad moments.  The first of which was letting Antoine Wright score an easy 4 points to start the game, which prompted Del Negro to bring Kirk Hinrich into the game just about 2 minutes in.  This wasn’t all Gordon’s fault, as their was no help defense behind him, but he could have showed a little bit better effort there.  The second bad moment for Gordon was an offensive foul followed by a pass to Dirk Nowitzki in overtime.  Gordon had 5 turnovers in the game.

In the past 5 games, Gordon is averaging 22.6 PPG and is shooting 60% from three point land.  His winter shooting slump appears to be over.

Tyrus Thomas was phenomenal tonight, finishing with 23 points and 12 rebounds.  He is starting to become more of an offensive force.  He has learned how to finish when he drvies to the basket and he is great at drawing and hitting free throws.

It is phenomenal that Thomas is going so strong into the trade deadline.  His value has to be skyrocketing.  The Bulls front office has to avoid falling too much in love with Tyrus.  If Amare Stoudemire or Chris Bosh are available, you trade Thomas for them and don’t think twice about it.

Derrick Rose had a mediocre game, scoring 22 points and dishing for 9 assists.  On the surface, that looks like a good game, but Rose shot the ball an inefficient 11 for 25 and played poor defense.  Rose was especially bad down the stretch, going 2 for 11 in his last 11 shots.

Jose Barea was great tonight, scoring 20 points and adding 6 assists to go along with that.  He especially gave Kirk Hinrich fits tonight in the second half.  Late in the third, Barea burst down the court past Kirk Hinrich for an easy layup.  The next play down, Nowitzki set a screen for Barea.  Gray showed lightly on Barea while Hinrich went under the screen.  Hinrich never got up to pressure Barea and Barea just pulled up for the long three.  Then Barea made a layup with 1:22 left in the game with Hinrich guarding him.

Joakim Noah was solid tonight with 8 points and 10 rebounds, although he seemed to get winded tonight.

Kirk Hinrich was terrible tonight scoring 10 points and committing 5 turnovers.  Andres Nocioni added in 13 points and 6 rebounds.

Luol Deng also had a really bad game.  Deng had just 10 points on 3-15 shooting.

Josh Howard added in 13 points for the Mavericks.

Jason Terry left the game at the half and did not return.  He broke his left ring finger in a play late in the second quarter.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 22-29 on the season and are now sitting 2 full games behind New Jersey for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference.

In the middle of the fourth quarter during the Bulls game against the Dallas Mavericks yesterday, Derrick Rose clapped for the ball and Ben Gordon went ahead not passing to Rose and instead driving the ball in.

The message boarders went on to blow this into a controversy up as evidence of Gordon’s selfishness this season. They have fabricated stories about Del Negro calling a play which Rose called out that Gordon ignored. Stories have also been fabricated about Del Negro nodding agreeingly with Rose that Gordon did something wrong. This misunderstanding of the situation was likely caused by Neil Funk’s and Stacey King’s announcing during this time, where they blasted Gordon for not passing the ball to Rose.

A simple look back at the game on League Pass Broadband tells a significantly different story. Here is what actually happened.

Ben Gordon misses a shot and Tyrus Thomas grabs the rebound. Thomas passes it to Andres Nocioni at the top of the key who gives it to Gordon who resets the Bulls offense. Luol Deng raises up his right hand and calls out a play. Tyrus Thomas runs up to set a screen, but tries to set the screen on the wrong side of Gordon. At this point, Rose starts clapping for the ball on the right wing. Rose is the only player on the right side of the court for the Bulls. Thomas resets to the top of the key, and the Bulls go ahead with the play that Deng had called out. Thomas sets the screen on the correct side this time, and Gordon drives in off the screen. In this play, Dirk was guarding Nocioni downlow. Nocioni cuts to Rose’s side of the floor to try to pull Dirk away, giving Gordon an open look at the basket. Dirk recognizes that Gordon is driving and blocks off the basket, at which point Gordon passes it to Deng, who misses a close shot.

After the Mavericks score, the Bulls bring the ball down the court and call a timeout. Rose goes over to talk to Gordon and points at a spot on the floor, showing Gordon something. The spot that Rose pointed to at on the floor was on the side that Gordon was on. Then the camera cuts away. When the camera cuts back on to Rose, it shows Rose complaining to the coaching staff. Del Negro, Bernie Bickerstaff, and Del Harris give Rose a blank stare, probably realizing that it is just an NBA player having an ego trip moment and Rose walks away.

It seems that Rose was demanding the ball separate from a call from the coaching staff, just wanting to try to make the play himself. It appears that if anyone was being selfish in this moment, that it was Derrick Rose as Gordon was only going along with the play that the rest of the team was running. It would be pretty hard to believe that the entire team was trying to ignore a call from the coaching staff. In this instance, it appears that Rose wanted to go rogue like Sarah Palin and Gordon stayed on course running the Bulls’ play, called out by Deng.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Dallas Mavericks 98-91 at the United Center yesterday.

The Bulls fell down early, 24-5, but Ben Gordon, who had 12 points in the first quarter, got the Bulls back in the game single-handedly.

Luol Deng then helped Gordon with a big 2nd quarter to give the Bulls the lead going into the half.

In the third quarter, Derrick Rose had 14 points to help grow the Bulls lead to a comfortable margin. From there on, the Bulls just put the game in cruise control and eased their way to their fourth win of the season.

Ben Gordon was absolutely phenomenal. He finished with 35 points and 4 assists. Neither Kidd, Terry, or Stackhouse could stay in front of Gordon, and Gordon ate it up, driving the ball play after play. Gordon also continued his great defense. Jason Terry had 16 points, but it was on a highly inefficient 5-14 shooting, and Stackhouse only had 4 points on 1-5 shooting off the bench.

Derrick Rose played poorly in the first half but significantly picked up his play in the 3rd quarter. Rose finished with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists. In the first quarter, Rose had a great set up to Deng for a dunk on the fastbreak where he turned his body to fake a pass to the trailing Gordon for three, but bounced it in to Deng for the dunk. At the start of the game, Rose had difficulty creating anything against the Mavericks, but once Gordon captured the Maverick’s attention on defense, Rose was able to get going driving the ball on Kidd.

At one point during the middle of the 4th quarter, Rose had some unkind words for Gordon after Gordon refused to pass Rose the ball after Rose clapped for it. It seems that Gordon was just going with the rest of the offense while Rose was trying to go rogue.

Luol Deng also continues to show signs of improvement. He finished with 20 points and 9 rebounds. His jumpshot looked better and he was able to attack the rim with some good aggressiveness tonight.

When all three of Rose, Gordon, and Deng have it going, the Bulls will be a tough team for anyone in the NBA to beat, and Rose and Deng didn’t even have that good of games, just good stretches tonight. The trio is similar to the Hinrich-Gordon-Deng trio from 06-07, only Gordon is a better player now and Derrick Rose is a much better player than Kirk Hinrich.

Tyrus Thomas had a solid game, finishing with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Thomas is so much better when he doesn’t try to take over on the offensive end.

Joakim Noah finished the game with a 0-0-0-0-0 stat line, after Vinny Del Negro pulled him after less than 4 minutes and exiled him to the bench for the rest of the game.

The two former Cavaliers returned to action today. Gooden had an okay performance, finishing with 8 points and 8 rebounds. Larry Hughes had 5 points and provided solid defense off the bench.

Thabo Sefolosha got a DNP - Coach’s decision.

Josh Howard finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki had 12 points on 5-17 shooting. Deng did a solid job locking down Deng for most of the game. Ben Gordon even was able to stop Dirk on one posession where Dirk was posting Gordon up off of a switch.

The Bulls next game is Saturday against the Indiana Pacers at the United Center.