Chicago Bullseye 73 - Part I and II

[Fred]

Last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to play at the Berto Center on a team coached by Bill Wennington. We played a team coached by J. Noah. This is my story.

To sum up:

I show up at the Berto Center.
I talk to J. Noah for 10 minutes.
I destroy my friend Nick in 2 games of Horse, all the while hoping Hinrich shows up.
I talk to B. Wennington.
I get picked to play on Wennington’s team.
I come off the Bench, score 6 quick points to cut a 12-4 deficit to 12-10.
Coach Noah sends the white Bruce Bowen in to stop me.
The White Bruce Bowen, the heat, and my out-of-shap–ness, stop me.
I feel comfortable enough with Wennington to tell him what a jerk his buddy Neil Funk is.
This leads to an animated argument with Wennington about Gordon for most of the 2nd half. He threw every Steve Gorches-talking point at me, and I hit them all out of the park.

Noah and Wennington were extemely cool. I talk about the event in further detail on the podcast. It's divided into Part I and Part II.

 

[houheffna]

You wouldn't want to talk to Neil Funk? He is a lifelong basketball man, you probably would enjoy talking to him. Might as well talk to all of them, would make for good podcasting (almost said radio, I know that would upset you...).


I think Hinrich could take you in Horse though...

Look forward to talking with you guys and listening to your podcasts.

 

[??? ??????]

A few comments.

Deng is better just popping that jumpshot than slashing to the basket. Deng is too slow, and has too poor of handles to slash to the basket. I think this was part of my observation from last year where Deng would pump fake five times and throw up a brick. I think that was Deng trying to slash to the hoop, the man stayed in front of him, so Deng pulled up, and then pump faked twenty eight times and threw up a brick.

Also, for the play where he had four guys walk of the court, we had a play similar to that on our sixth grade basketball team. We called the play Hollywood. You would have four guys who just fall down like they were shot, and then have the point guard drive to the basket.

 

[??? ??????]

That podcast was great.

If you guys get Bill Wennington on, you should talk to him about possibly helping you guys in getting Neil Funk on the show.

 

[flipcyde23]

What a great experience that must have been. $50.00 Wow. I want to sign up next year. Great podcast...it was so entertaining. I was in tears a few times from laughing at you and Mark's comments. Great stuff.

 

[Diddy1122]

Great cast. Fred, when Mark told me last week you played at the Berto Center with Noah & Wennington, I was extremely jealous. Sounds like it was an amazing time. Wennington, though clueless when it came to BG, really is a great guy. I actually helped him pick out Christmas gifts for his kids when I was working at Barnes & Noble some years back. I asked him alot of similar questions & I'm actually surprised the answers were the same. He said Hakeem was the greatest center he ever played against back then too. But I was asking alot of Curry & Chandler questions because he was part of the young player development program with the Bulls at the time. He actually said Chandler was one of the fastest players on the team which I found shocking. I even got a nice little joke at his expense when he handed me his credit card, with his picture on it & he was sporting his mullet from his Mavs-Kings days. I said, "Great picture, only thing that's missing is the Canadian Tuxedo."

And Mark, watch some TV Land for cryn' out loud. Welcome Back Kotter is sure to be on. Or Nick at Nite. I know it was a 70's show but so was Happy Days & I'm sure you've seen that before.

For you reference Mark:

 

[RPK]

Great story Fred!

I am seriously jealous that you got to play ball at the Berto center and even get into a serious argument with Bill Wennington (of course it was about BG ! :laugh: ).

Joakim definitely seems like a down to Earth guy, which just goes to show how far along his maturation process has gone from when he was a rookie and yelling at out assistant coaches.
Remember this..

Your quote on Noah: "He seemed to establish himself as a center the team can move forward with and is virtually certain to return." You are really kidding, right? Are you suggesting to all Bulls fans that this boy is an NBA center? Did you watch the same series as I did? Surely you know enough about the NBA to have seen his faults and cost to our team under the basket. And you seriously say such? You think the Bulls can win in the NBA finals with this kid? Please explain.

Paul

Sam: Me defending Joakim Noah, I know. Heck, I even remember a Chicago basketball fan I've heard of, Barack Obama, saying after the 2007 draft Noah wasn't exactly what the Bulls needed. Since then I've at times felt Spencer Hawes was the pick because he can play in the low post and can score. And I know one series shouldn't be that much of a judge. The point is I can see that you can be a successful team with Noah. I had issues with him when he came to the Bulls because of his attitude and behavior. He was a spoiled frat kid and didn't seem to understand what it took to be a pro. He's not exactly there, but he came around and learned a lot and made a big jump in those areas since his rookie year when he refused to even do the little, fun rookie hazing stuff and the players actually increased a team suspension on him, unheard of. There may never have been a more disliked rookie. But he's tried. I give him that. He's made an effort with the media and teammates and in trying to improve himself. He is extremely competitive, which is a skill these days. He knows he has to get stronger, and insists he will. He definitely will try. There's also this notion with fans that it's 15 wins or a championship. Bulls fans may be some of the most unrealistic because of the six championships. You have to be lucky and have a truly great star, and then you have a CHANCE to win a championship. The idea is to put together a high level team, and Noah could be a part of that. You don't need Russell or Abdul-Jabbar to win a championship. As I recall, Luc Longley was the starting center for three championship teams. And he hated basketball. Noah has shown he'll compete and cares, which does matter. He plays smart, if not with great skill. Check to see how many great centers there are in the NBA. I'm quite comfortable trying to be a high level team with Noah as the starting center. When you find a better one, I'm sure the Bulls would be interested.

Thankfully we won't be having any more player voted suspensions for Noah.

And you were absolutely right about the plays Wennington drew up. Weak!

 

[clonetrooper264]

I listened to the cast last night and I have to say, it was pretty darn good. I actually wish I could hear more about the actual game, just because I'm interested in that sorta thing For $50.00 that is a great deal...I've got to get myself signed up for this thing next time they have it. When are we going to here the recording of the white Bruce Bowen? lol

 

[TheStig]

Lol leave it to Fred to take on Bill Wennington. Fred your the best and I was cracking up when you were telling us about Bill saying "Now I know why you like Gordon." Good show as always and I have to second that part that Mark is the smart one

 

[??? ??????]

Fred, what was that wall that you were talking about with the pictures, that didn't have BG's picture up (and Artest's too?).

Do they put up pictures of every player that ever played for the Bulls in a hallway or something?

 

[Fred]

??? ?????? wrote:

Fred, what was that wall that you were talking about with the pictures, that didn't have BG's picture up (and Artest's too?).

Do they put up pictures of every player that ever played for the Bulls in a hallway or something?

Here's a video I took with my phone.

http://blog.chicagobullseye.com/

I apologize about the quality. It's a video of the hallway leading to the gym inside the Berto center, and hopefully it will give you an idea of what I am talking about. You can tell where BG's pic was taken down.

This is also the area where Artest tore his picture out of the wall. KC described it on an earlier Bullseye.

 

[Fred]

Thanks for the nice comments. FYI, I put a call into my source with the Bulls. He said it was more of a Visa Signature event. They have these fantasty games (Batting practice at AT&T park with the Giants, golf at Augusta, etc.) This was a part of it. But I said if they do the same next year, and he finds out ahead of time, to give me a head's up. I'll make a post and maybe we can get it filled with Bullspodcasters.com Forum stars.

 

[clonetrooper264]

Fred wrote:

Thanks for the nice comments. FYI, I put a call into my source with the Bulls. He said it was more of a Visa Signature event. They have these fantasty games (Batting practice at AT&T park with the Giants, golf at Augusta, etc.) This was a part of it. But I said if they do the same next year, and he finds out ahead of time, to give me a head's up. I'll make a post and maybe we can get it filled with Bullspodcasters.com Forum stars.

Haha can you imagine a game with just Bullspodcasters.com forum players? I am all for it . How exactly does one qualify for this anyway? Is it just a sign up and pay $50 and you're in or is there more to it?

 

[TheStig]

Fred wrote:

Thanks for the nice comments. FYI, I put a call into my source with the Bulls. He said it was more of a Visa Signature event. They have these fantasty games (Batting practice at AT&T park with the Giants, golf at Augusta, etc.) This was a part of it. But I said if they do the same next year, and he finds out ahead of time, to give me a head's up. I'll make a post and maybe we can get it filled with Bullspodcasters.com Forum stars.

What game, we would just be bugging wennington and noah all day?

 

[Dpauley23]

As usual a great podcast. I love listening to these because there's at least 3 or 4 moments when I start laughing so hard Im basically crying. The best one was when you had Diddy on and you guys just tearing apart that Pistons fan from sportsstuff website. I was alittle sadden that I got bumbed from podcast for Newskool so Im just going to give Mark a crappy review and give Fred great one so tell Mark to suck on that

 

[Kush77]

Great show boys!

I love Freds comments. "Noah looked at me and could tell I was an athlete." LOL

Fred you can stroke the rock my friend.

 

[Kush77]

I'm listening to part 2 now. LOL

"Block that bitch" - Michael Jordan

 

[clonetrooper264]

Kush77 wrote:

I'm listening to part 2 now. LOL

"Block that bitch" - Michael Jordan

I thought I'd post some of my favorite moments from this cast. In no particular order...

"Now I know why you like Ben Gordon so much"
"I think he saw me hitting a couple pro 3s so he figured he'd talk to me because I was the coolest guy in the room other than him" (or something to that effect)
The 2 quotes Kush listed
"Don't even guard him, this guy SUCKS!"
"Joakim Noah sent in a a white Bruce Bowen to stop me"
"I sacrificed all hopes of winning the game to get my BG argument"

 

[Kush77]

I also enjoyed his exchange with one of the ladies there.

Girl: "ILL"

Fred: "Hey, INI"

Girl: "When I saw you shooting the rock I could tell you went to Illinois."

Fred: "Well you know I did light up Brother Rice on a Tuesday night in 1988."

I'm paraphrasing a bit, but it's close.

 

[mlewinth]

Dpauley23 wrote:

As usual a great podcast. I love listening to these because there's at least 3 or 4 moments when I start laughing so hard Im basically crying. The best one was when you had Diddy on and you guys just tearing apart that Pistons fan from sportsstuff website. I was alittle sadden that I got bumbed from podcast for Newskool so Im just going to give Mark a crappy review and give Fred great one so tell Mark to suck on that

Woah! Woah! DPauly! You have not been bumped. We haven't done a whole lot this offseason, so we Fred and I were figuring out where to fit you in. I think we are going to do 2 shows around preseason, for conference previews. One for East, one for West. I think we will get you on one and NewSkool on the other. We are putting Houffena on the next one to talk Gordon. We will work you all in my man!