"Dude, that was awesome! Also, we still want to trade you."

It’s really strange looking at last night’s NBA Playoffs scores and seeing that the Chicago Bulls have been eliminated. The Bulls were supposed to meet the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, and not another team in the East stood a chance against either of them. It was going to be LeBron James/Dwyane Wade/Chris Bosh vs. Derrick Rose/Joakim Noah/Luol Deng in the battle of a team that depends on three guys and a team.

But then that team was apparently in a train crash, because Rose went down with a torn ACL and Noah sprained his ankle and everything went to hell. Perhaps 76ers coach Doug Collins put it best after his team pulled off the 4-2 series victory with a 79-78 win over the East’s top seed last night.

“I don’t know how we won this game.”

The 76ers won the game because Andre Iguodala, the guard they’ve been trying to trade for the past year or so, hit the turbo boosters with a rebound on Omer Asik’s second missed free throw with 7 seconds left and went coast-to-coast to miss a layup but make two free throws to win the game. And those two free throws might guarantee that a team will come calling for a veteran like Iguodala, despite the fact that he’s owed more than $30 million over the next two seasons.

In case you missed it, you can watch the play that made millions of Bulls fans wonder, “How the f*ck did this happen?” after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Chicago Bulls handed the Miami Heat a third-straight loss on Saturday, but the Southeast Division’s first place team isn’t concerned with a few losses as much as the Heat are concerned with injuries. More specifically, they’re concerned with ankle injuries suffered by LeBron James and Chris Bosh. James injured his ankle in Miami’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers last Wednesday and Bosh injured his ankle in Saturday’s loss to the Bulls. Luckily for Dwyane Wade, the team only plays 2 times in the next 10 days.

But as James is expected to battle through the pain and play against the Atlanta Hawks tomorrow night, Bosh is taking his injury very seriously. He has taken umbrage with the haphazard play of Chicago’s rookie center, Omer Asik. According to various accounts, the 24-year old Turk has worked very hard to be a strong contributor to Chicago’s battered frontcourt this season, but Bosh doesn’t want to hear any of that nonsense. Not when it affects the 5-star food that he puts on his family’s table…

“C’mon, that is how guys get hurt, that is how serious injuries happen. You’ve got to watch people’s legs. I know guys want to hustle and everything but we all want to play and provide for our families and have a job. We all want to be healthy and that is very important If it is by somebody’s leg, don’t dive for the ball, it’s too close.” (Via CBS Sports)

Yeah, Omar! Don’t do your job and help your team win so that Bosh can half-ass his job and keep calling himself a superstar. Look, I know that we – myself in particular, as a frustrated Orlando Magic fan – like to give the Heat a lot of crap for being spoiled and undeservedly arrogant. But I am absolutely getting a kick out of the guy who is making $14.5 million this season criticizing the guy who is making $1.3 million for playing hard. It could only be better if Bosh was spitting caviar from his mouth while riding a Clydesdale to his diamond mine.

Video of the injury after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »