I meant to post this last week when the Bulls started wearing it, but it got shuffled to the bottom of all the Red and Norm tributes.  The Bulls will be wearing these patches on their jerseys for the rest of the season to honor the two Bulls greats.  Here is what they look like:

It’s simple yet elegant and does a good job of honoring Red and Norm.  I hope the Bulls can play the kind of inspired basketball that Red and Norm were known for all those years ago.

We have discussed Van Lier’s contributions to the Bulls on and off the court quite a bit here in the wake of his passing.  After reading something from Basketball Reference Blog, I realize that perhaps I was selling Norm short in a lot of ways.  Here is a more well-thought out analysis of his defensive abilities on the court than any I could write:

There’s no question that Van Lier’s calling card was his awesome defense. Although he was only 6’1″, he was quite strong and possessed a lot of what we might call “mental toughness” (they called it plain old “moxie” back then). Even in an era where guards were allowed to handcheck and bump opponents on the perimeter, the fiesty Van Lier was considered a particularly physical player; he used that hard-nosed style to rack up steals on 2.5% of opponents’ possessions (a rate of nearly 2 a game), and along with Jerry Sloan he spearheaded the Dick Motta-coached Bulls to what was the NBA’s 2nd-best defense from 1973-74 to 76-77. In recognition of his great defensive skills, Van Lier was named to either 1st- or 2nd-team All-Defense in 8 consecutive years (1971-1978), and for his career he ranks 19th all-time in defensive rating with 97.7. Let all of that sink in for a second… it’s a very impressive defensive resume, isn’t it?

My impressions of Norm were that he was underappreciated and that he lacked the kind of statistical upside that some other NBA greats of his era had.  Apparently I was wrong.  The Bulls could use a guy like this to defend the perimeter these days.

• The Bulls won a great game at Houston, but Deng may be lost for the year.  It looks like a fracture, which doesn’t sound good. [Tribune] ***UPDATE: X-rays on Deng were negative, he is now day-to-day.
• Paul Harvey, another Chicago broadcasting legend, passed away this weekend.  Why do they always go in bunches?  So sad. [Chicago Breaking News]
• Cubs sign Corey Koskie to a minor-league contract.  This must be a bigger deal than I think, since everyone is reporting it like it’s exciting news. [Bleacher Nation]
• Should the Bulls honor Norm Van Lier like they did for Red?  And what about retiring Stormin’ Norman’s number?  [Tribune]
• Obama snuck out to the Department of the Interior to play ball.  I wonder how many teams were waiting to get on when he got there. [The Swamp]
• There is a behind the scenes book being written about ESPN.  It doesn’t sound like it’s going to exactly be hard-hitting, but hopefully we find out some juicy stuff. [Deadspin]
• Illinois fought hard the whole game, but couldn’t get over that hump down the stretch.  This would have been a big win, but we still have a shot at a 4 or 5 seed if we play well in the Big 10 tourney. [Sun-Times]
• I don’t want him, but apparently he wants us.  Curt Schilling has expressed interest in playing for the Cubs this year.  I couldn’t care less, that guy is a douche. [Wrigleyville23]

NQTC reader Adam was bitching that we don’t post enough on the weekend, so here are some photos I dug up for you to look at:

Matt over at Blogabull posted this video which really shows Norm’s love for the Bulls.  This video embodies how passionate Norm was about the Bulls, basketball and taking pride in what you do.  He really starts going crazy around 1:40 in the video.  Who is going to bring that attitude and perspective in the post-game show now?