I was spent after live-blogging the Bulls game.  I couldn’t come up with anything interesting to say about the game.  They let the Bulls hang around too long, but nothing the Bulls did made me think that they had something to pull it out.  Boozer was back to form, Deron was Deron, and we won.  Have there been any more uninteresting games?  We lost to the Kings, we played the Bulls without any of their big three, and we play the Sonics after a three-day break.  For some reason none of them have mattered to me because things don’t get serious it seems until after the All-star break now.  This Sonics game coming up to me is like my last period of high school before summer break.  You just want to get it out of the way.

The only thing that interested me in the Bulls game was the play of Ronnie Price.  He struggled early this season, but he never really got a chance to run the offense in a game.  According to Sloan, he hustles and plays well in practice.  But Jerry had gone with Hart a while ago.  So now that Price has had the opportunity to show what he can do, he’s grabbed the #2 job right out of Hart’s hands.  Even Hart said he hasn’t played well and at Price deserves it.  Let’s hope to see Price on the floor in Seattle.

Anyway, I had to get something up and not take my own mid-season vacation like the NBA does.  Did the rest of the Jazz players though ask Deron and Boozer if it was okay to make vacation plans this early?

Why do reporters make stuff up?  There’s no way in Hades that the Jazz trade AK for Wallace.  Big Ben and his contract are a millstone around the neck of the Bulls.  He’s seven years older than AK.  He is having a career-low in blocks.  He would be one of the worst players to play for Sloan.  How long before he would be in the doghouse?  Then we’d have all that money sitting on the bench.  Besides the fact that AK can actually, you know, play offense.  The list goes on and on.  The Jazz would only have one thing to gain and that’s one less year on his contract.  I don’t think even Isiah would do this one if he were Jazz GM.  I can’t believe people get paid for writing this type of thing.  And remember, I don’t get paid ;).  Luhmy has a pretty good response to this.  But would we even have a spot for Hinrich?  It drives me crazy to see stuff like this.  Was this guy paid by the Bulls to float this? 

And my last rambling of the day is about the traitors Pace Mannion and Thurl Bailey.  Before the Bulls game, the pre-game had an interview with Byron Russell on Jordan’s shot in the 1998 Finals.  First of all, great way to bring back pain to the Jazz fans 10 years later.  My wife told me to turn it off until they stopped showing Jordan’s shot.  The interviewer asked Russ if he thought it should have been called a push-off on Jordan.  He didn’t mix any words and basically said, “Hell yes!” 

So they kick it back to the KJZZ booth where DJ asks Pace and Thurl if a call should have been made.  And both of them said no.  “It’s not popular to say” said Thurl, but it was right.  But they make no other statements as to why there shouldn’t have been a call except that they should just let them play when the game is on the line.  BS.  He got the call because his name is MJ.  And former ref Mike Mathis agrees,

Remember when Jordan hit that winning shot? I’m going to give you exactly what the commentators said: ‘What a great move by Michael.’ Was that a great move or was that an offensive foul? There was no question it was a push-off. No buts about it. The only buts you can have is, ‘Well, it was Michael Jordan.’ That was a defining moment.

Here’s something else that I’ve never thought about the foul.  A lot of people will say that Russell’s momentum carried him and he would have been out of position anyway.  That may be true (it’s arguable).  But I think the biggest advantage for Jordan was that he was able to stop himself and his own momentum by pushing off on Russ.  It put him in a rhythm that he otherwise may not have had.  Either way you look at it, Russ and the Jazz got hosed.  And saying contrary (unless you’re a Bulls fan of course) is traitorous.

And finally, some links to tide you over until tomorrow’s game.

• Getting his hopes up
• The best PF of all-time? - Duncan gets the nod of course.  What were his numbers against the Mailman though?  It seems like when he went up against the best, he didn’t have his best games.  Of course, Malone usually played Robinson.
• The coccyx is still out - I don’t think we see Ronnie play in Seattle either.  No reason to irritate it when we’ve had CJ and Price playing well.
• The KK effect
• KK on your mind
• Carlos moving up a bit in the MVP blogger vote - I would have Deron above Carlos right now.
• Pistol gives is HORSE - Best shot for HORSE?  The left-handed layup.  Nobody can do it.
• Jazz players tradeability - I agree with most of these.  Pretty good write-up.
• I’m all in
• “I’ve loved my Salt Lake experience” - Music to Jazz fan’s ears.
• The media love-fest continues - Paul goes 1-10 from the floor and still gets a write-up in the Daily Dime.