March Museness

Tonight we should watch--those who can--#4 Wisconsin take on #1 Syracuse for another Sweet Sixteen classic. Badgers, Brewers, Packers, Bucks: this state is doing things right, and well beyond the W/L column. Our symposian sympathies should go out to New Orleans, for the shambles of their NBA team and the NFL coach that has no concept of the gentlemanly aesthetics of the sport.

But today I'd like to talk about the Bulls. Tilo (et al), I'm putting you on this job: tell us what is behind the W/L column, which is, incidentally, most impressive.

We've put up a basketball hoop in our front yard. Everyone plays, and Joey and I like to 'Derek Rose' each other. He's become my favorite player, and not because the MVP award made me (or him) think any differently: he's worked on the diversity of his shots; he's embraced Tom Thibodeau's sense of defense; he's taught the pleasure of assists. As he sits and waits (see my previous post!) in this injury-expected stretch of a fast-break season, he's truly enjoying the way John Lucas the Third is stepping up, and Kyle Korver and C.J. Watson and even his starters.

Joakim was the butt of headlines when he was drafted: 'Are you Joakim?' (i.e. Joking) at the notion that he was going to reasonably do battle with the Dwight Howards and Andrew Bynums? Well, Thank you Uncle Jon for bringing us to a Bulls game to show us that he's the real enough deal. My buddy in Prague, David Sparandara, is the cousin of Vinny Del Negro. Between Joakim's first and second year (when he had an eye injury) Vinny asked David to attend pre-season training to 'deal with' Joakim; it was less about his eye than...well, that's where I'd like you, Tilo (et al) to fill us in. What's made the difference? We don't ultimately care about the W/L column. We don't need professional leagues to spur us on. But we do like the back-stories.

And we (my unlikely application of the royal 'We'?!) love basketball. We love any sport that plays itself out like chess: players that have their roles, do what they should: trap, retreat, steal and slide. But with all that pro forma, "every game is different." I put that in quotes because Joey has heard me say that every other day for the past year. Not to be macabre, I'd like that to be my epitaph (after Isaiah 42:3 and something from Dostoevsky--survivors' discretion).

But back to the Bulls. What makes them great?