Last night at the VMA’s, Kanye West took the microphone out of Taylor Swift’s hands as she was accepting her award for Female Music Video of the Year, to put Taylor on blast, implying that Beyonce should have been taking home the award.

Similarly, on Friday, Michael Jordan put his enemies on blast during his speech during the Hall of Fame induction. During his speech Jordan called out Jerry Krause for his organizations win championships comment. He called out Isiah Thomas for freezing him out at the 1985 Allstar Game. He called out Jeff Van Gundy for saying that Jordan conned players by befriending them. He called out Byron Russell for saying that he could cover Jordan if he was still playing when Jordan was retired in 1994.

Kanye West’s actions were obviously much worse, but both have been talked about as classless. While they are similar in that respect, they are also so very different, because of who Michael Jordan is.

Kanye West thinks he can say anything he wants about other musicians without repercussions because he has self deluded himself into thinking that he’s The Beatles. Michael Jordan, however, can say whatever he wants, because he is The Beatles.

Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player to ever play the game. Not only that, he is the greatest athlete to ever play in any sport, and that is why it seemed okay to do what he did last Friday.

Him being the greatest athlete of all time, as well as donning the Chicago Bulls uniform is also why it’s now Monday, and this is just being written. The fact that Jordan is the GOAT and also wore a Bulls uniform makes this a hard post to write, because I want to make it a good one. I want to make it a perfect one, just like Jordan, the perfect basketball player.

And I know I’m not alone in this. Kelly Dwyer explains the same difficulty in writing about Jordan that I have.

At least Dwyer know completely what Jordan meant to him, as he got to witness it all. Doug Thonus of Chicago Bulls Confidential and Matt from Blog-a-Bull are admittedly indifferent about the entire thing. I am the in between, which is incredibly difficult to write about.

As a sports fan, I root for all of the same professional teams that my Dad did. That is the Packers, Cubs, and Bulls. So I was out there watching the Bulls when they were out winning these last three championships. But it wasn’t until after Jordan retired from the Bulls that I really got into basketball (I started becoming a hardcore basketball fan in 1998).

While I was watching Jordan win these championships, it wasn’t with the same fervor that I watched Ben Gordon lead the Bulls to the second round of the playoffs or Rusty Larue lead the Bulls to 17 wins. The Bulls winning a championship now would mean a lot more to me than the ones they won in the 1990’s.

Just off the top of my head, here are some of the athletes that mean more to me than Michael Jordan:

Sammy Sosa, who was the only exciting thing about the Cubs for a long while, and one of the greatest home run hitters to ever play baseball.

Dwyane Wade, who graced us with his presence for two terrific seasons at Marquette, culminating in a Final Four appearance.

Ben Gordon, who helped in re-energizing the Bulls, leading them back to the playoffs for the first time since the guy I’m writing this article about.

And also Aaron Rodgers, the new face of the Green Bay Packers, and one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

But this list is still very small. Michael still means a lot.

The first video game I ever owned was Bulls vs. Blazers and the NBA Playoffs for Super Nintendo.

While I was more excited for Bugs Bunny at the time, Michael Jordan is the reason why Space Jam is still one of my favorite movies of all time. (Although I still find Bugs hilarious!)

The first jersey I owned of any athlete was Michael Jordan. Elton Brand, Derrick Rose, and Ben Gordon are the only other Bulls that I have owned a jersey of.

When I used to wear headbands when playing basketball (before deciding it was tacky), about half the time I would wear a white Air Jordan headband. I owned a pair of those butt ugly Jordan Retro 5’s, but thought they were cool because they were Jordan’s shoes.

My basketball card collection, which I stopped collecting for during the 2004-2005 (just enough time to get some Ben Gordon rookies!), has a massive pile, dedicated to just cards of Jordan.

When NBA 2K3 came out, in quickplay games I often played as the Wizards (although Jay Wiliams was sick in that game too!). In franchise mode, Jordan would curiously be traded for (or fantasy drafted) time and time again to the Bulls, and I would try to win the championship before Jordan retired in the game.

I also watched a lot of Wizards games that year. Anytime they were on national TV, I would watch them, although I never brought myself to get a Jordan Wizards jersey. I’ve gotten jerseys of guys on other teams in the past. I had a Shaquille O’neal and Penny Hardaway Magic jerseys, a Chris Webber Kings throwback, and a Tim Duncan Team USA jersey. But getting an MJ Wizards jersey just seemed wrong, and I never ended up purchasing one.

During the offseason I will often find myself watching one of the documentaries or games on the Ultimate Jordan collection. It’s also not uncommon to be on youtube re-watching some of Jordan’s greatest moments on youtube.

But my memories of Jordan when he was actually playing for the Bulls are thin. My memories of Jordan are more from the culture Jordan created than anything Jordan actually did in a Bulls uniform.

So now, at the end of the article, I still cannot say what Jordan meant to me in exactness. He probably means more to me than both Doug and Matt, but less than Kelly Dwyer. Maybe I will never know how much Jordan means to me, or my basketball fandom, but I can tell you one thing, Michael Jordan was the greatest athlete to ever play a sport.

Ben Gordon appeared on the Waddle and Silvy show on ESPN 1000 today, to talk about him becoming a Detroit Piston. Here is a recap of what he had to say.

• He is happy about the situation he’s going into.  Joe Dumars is really focused on winning and his priority is winning a championship.  That’s also Ben’s main goal as a player.
• He first knew he was going to sign with the Pistons right after he met with Dumars.  Dumars exuded winning, and everything he talked about was building a team to win a championship.  Dumars convinced Ben pretty easily to sign, and it was a no brainer to sign with the Pistons.
• The Bulls didn’t pursue him at all, they didn’t even make an offer.  It was pretty much a one team race.
• On whether the Bulls were lying when they said it was a top priority to re-sign him, Ben said that it is what it is.  There was no offer made.  You have to put it together.
• He felt that he always got a lot of love and respect from the fans that really followed the games.  When walking down the street, people always showed him love.

(more…)

In an interview with Chuck Swirsky, Lindsey Hunter described Derrick Rose’s upside as being endless.

“He is one of those special talents. He posesses that ‘it’ factor, that a kid can raise his level. I think it’s been proven time and time again with him, he raises his level to the level of the competition, and not many young guys can do that. I think he has an endless upside, and that’s scary.”

Hunter, when signed by the Bulls, was expected to receive minimal playing time, with his main task being the education of rookie point guard, Derrick Rose.

Hunter has experience playing with some of the best guards of the league. He played with Sam Cassell in Milwaukee and Chauncey Billups in Detroit. Hunter played with Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars in his first year in the league, although both players were in the twilights of their career at that point.

That rookie season, where Hunter’s Pistons went 20-62, was a growing up experience for Hunter. It helped Hunter understand the business and perseverance aspect of the NBA. Rose will need perservarance to survive the Bulls’ current roster that lacks talent in the front court as a result of business decisions by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

“It was a humbling experience,” Hunter said, “Coming out of college most of the guys that make it to the league, you won your last year in college, you had a great senior year.”

Hunter also had some advice that appeared to be targeted at the Bulls other talented young guard, Ben Gordon.

“It will always be a game and I tell young kids that to this day. The business part will take care of itself and that’s off the court issues, and you try to keep it separate in your own mind, because you don’t want to tie that into each other, it affects you.”

It is important for Gordon to keep his passion for the game burning. After this season, if he gets his new contract with the Bulls, he will be expected to be the Bulls’ second star until they make a major acquisition.

“The ultimate goal of basketball is to stop the opponent from scoring and you score more than the opponent,” Hunter said, “I tell kids from grade school until you’re in the NBA, it will always be basketball, it will always be a game, and it will always be something that if you love it, you have fun doing it.”

You can listen to this interview online, exclusively at Bulls.com.

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