Just asking
Is there any scenario where you can see Phil Jackson coming back to coach the Bulls?
No,” Jackson said.
Well, with Pippen back from injury the Bulls have the championship roster everyone envisioned, the one for which Bulls management paid dearly.
And so they win their sixth title, and some young free agents the Bulls wanted get locked up and the talent market shrivels and, well, the Bulls still could have the same championship roster next season. Same championship coach too. Because championships provide a glow all their own.
So I can see a scenario, for sure.
We agreed not to put any scenarios out there–if this or that would happen–to keep any tension away from this club,” Jackson said. “It’s best not to even talk about it.”
Ah, so it’s not that there aren’t necessarily any scenarios, it’s just that you have agreed not to say anything about them. So, the chance still exists, right?
In somebody’s mind,” Jackson said. Not mine. I was told directly.”
So directly, in fact, some players say Jackson was told, even if you win 82 games and a championship,” he’s not coming back.
For now.
Eat to win
Former Chicago guy Priest Lauderdale provided the 2-31 Denver Nuggets with the kind of optimism you would expect from a 2-31 team.
Seems the 7-foot-3-inch, 320-pound Lauderdale, who blew a $100,000 bonus with Atlanta last season for failing to show up for conditioning sessions, is working out in Denver. Sort of.
He recently was seen coming out of the Nuggets’ exercise room.
Holding a plate of nachos.
Still sounds a little unclear on the concept of discipline.
Just asking
So, what’s a Latrell Sprewell trading card worth these days?
Not much at a Northern California souvenir shop.
We’ve taken every Sprewell card we had and we’re giving them away,” said Bob Kurtz, co-owner of Collectors Realm. We’re getting great response. People have torn them up right in front of us.”
One last time, Alan Eagleson had to rip off somebody.
Eagleson, the disgraced former director of the NHL players association, had to be in Boston Monday to plead guilty to mail fraud. The night before, Eagleson reserved three rooms at a Westin hotel, claiming he was in town to scout other hockey teams and thus was entitled to the usual NHL discount. And indeed, Eagleson got the rooms at $89 instead of the standard $189, according to the Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle Tribune.
Which means that on the eve of going to court to express contrition and remorse for stealing millions from players who trusted him, Eagleson still was ripping off someone.
Eagleson, by the way, is the guy for whom Blackhawks Senior VP Bob Pulford wrote a glowing character letter, one that was read into the court records talking about the guy’s integrity being unquestioned.”
A dog’s life
Not sure who is the meanest guy in hockey, but Dallas Stars center Joe Nieuwendyk appears to have the meanest dog in the game: a Jack Russell terrier named Tex.
“He’s a goon,” Stars teammate Benoit Hogue said. “He was playing with my dog, and he got him down and went for the neck.”
In the last couple seasons, Tex has taken a bite out of Andy Moog’s dog and scrapped with Mike Modano’s retriever.
By all recollections,” Nieuwendyk said, he’s 6-0 lifetime.”
Quotable
Pittsburgh forward Stu Barnes, on why only two hats flew out of the stands when he racked up a hat trick recently: “I think it was probably because people didn’t believe it was me.”
