NBA.com may be slow, but ESPN is just lazy.
You’d think that being drafted in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft, starting for your team for almost half of the season, and getting selected to play in the Rookies-Sophomores game during All-Star Weekend would ensure that someone at ESPN would have a photo of you. Sorry Taj Gibson, those 20 points you put up and those 13 boards you brought down were not enough for the guys at ESPN to look too hard for a picture of you. So while you and the rest of your team whupped the 76ers last night, we get to look at “the other” A.I.’s mug on the ESPN recap of last night’s game.
Aside from the obvious East Coast bias that ESPN showed in slighting Taj Gibson, Saturday night’s game was extremely encouraging. Vinny Del Negro is such a masterful coach that both Hakim Warrick and Flip Murray already appear completely in sync in the Bulls system. If you twisted my arm I’d give some credit to the players themselves. Murray drove and kicked the ball out to open shooters on a number of occasions and the 3-pointer he buried from the corner near the end of the first half showed what the Bulls have been missing from the SG position. And Hakim Warrick will quickly become a fan favorite if he keeps this up. Stuffing a few of the lanky 76ers, throwing down that sick spinning dunk on Thaddeus Young, and crashing the offensive glass, he ensured there was no let down with the second team.
The Bulls seemingly have a reliable quartet of Power Forwards and Centers to work with now that Joakim is slowly coming back (let’s hope he gets into game shape soon, sucking on an inhaler is not what you want to see from your future All-Star Center). More importantly, the entire team is realizing that they can win games in the paint and at the free throw line. During the second quarter the Bulls began to settle for a few 15 to 18 foot jump shots early in the clock and it allowed the 76ers to regain the lead. In the first half of the season, the Bulls would have continued to force shots and we would’ve awoken to Sunday morning articles bemoaning the Bulls’ inefficient jump shooting letting the team down again. Instead, coming out of a TV timeout, Rose and Deng began driving and slashing to the rim and either finishing or dishing off to our big men, and if the drive wasn’t there the Bulls ran their offense opting for the jump shot with less than 5 seconds on the shot clock. Conversely, the young athletic 76ers seemed gassed by the amount of work they were putting in on the defensive end and quickly resorted to isolated, step back jumpers and easy rebounds for the Bulls.
Last night was a great example of what kind of team the Bulls can be. Taj Gibson is a huge part of that, as his development allowed the Bulls to make the moves they made for this season and the next. Is it too much to ask for ESPN to dig a little harder for his picture on nights when he outplays guys like Elton Brand?
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