The past few days I have been seeing a lot of stories in the paper and segments on t.v. showing the best sport moments in the past year. So I thought I would share my favorite sport memory. I thought long and hard about the baseball season and the Cubs, but couldn’t think of many great memories. When I thought about the Cubs things that came to my mind were:
1. The Milton Bradley Saga
2. Kevin Gregg blowing save after save. One specific night comes into mind when I was at Champs with TBO and Sexy Rexy and the Cubs game was on. Gregg came in against his former team for the save and before I could blink the game was over and we lost.
3. Carlos Marmol getting himself in trouble by not being able to find the plate. He would walk batter after batter. I hope this whole off-season he is somewhere just pitching trying to get the ball with his movement over the plate.
4. Kerry Wood coming to Chicago and helping the Cubbies out by blowing some saves.
5. Soriano looking like age is catching up with him and his timing being a mess at the plate.
Hopefully the 2010 baseball season will bring me more positive memories for the cubs. I would have thought my best sports memory would be from the Cubs, but this was a bad and ugly season at times, so I had to think elsewhere. After the cubs I thought about the Bulls and Bears. The Bears had an uglier season than the Cubs, but the Bulls had some bright spots.
In 2009 the Chicago Bulls got lucky and had the number one draft pick in the NBA lottery. Instead of drafting Michael Beasley they choose Chicago native Derrick Rose. Even though I don’t know if he will ever be as good as Rajon Rondo or Chris Paul like some thought/think, he was the better choice. The Bulls were able to trade Larry Hughs and bring in John Salmons and Brad Miller that sparked the bulls. Even though it is still 2009 and they both look terrible, last season they were the spark plug that jumped the Bulls to make the playoffs and have an incredible run in the playoffs. So if you’re still reading this and a Bulls fan, then you may agree with me that the Bulls/Celtics series was incredible. That was some of the best basketball I have seen since the Jordan era and that was one incredibly fun series. Even though if they did have Kevin Garnet we probably wouldn’t of had a chance, but they didn’t, and that was some fun basketball with almost every game going down to the wire. So that series is my favorite sports memory in 2009.
Here is a clip of that Bulls Celtics series:
Watching it again makes me remember how much fun I had watching each game and where I was for most of those games.
What was your favorite sports memory for 2009?
Showing posts with label chris paul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chris paul. Show all posts
Comparing Rose to LeBron Rookie Years
Us Chicago Bulls fans have seen the immense potential of Derrick Rose lead the Bulls from a lackluster start all the way to the 6th spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Although smaller in size than LeBron James, Rose's athleticism and basketball IQ all point to the fact that he will be a superstar for many years to come. But how does Rose's rookie campaign compare to LeBron, as well as other young successful point guards Chris Paul and Deron Williams?
Truth be told, Rose's season compares favorably with each of the NBA superstars listed above. The most impressive part of Rose's game is his shooting percentage. While most rookies shoot in the low 40% range, Rose has a top shooting percentage for guards at 47.5%. Not to say that Rose is a pure shooter, which he definitely is not, but he has the unique ability to finish in the lane over or through centers. His ability to constantly penetrate the defense is possible the most important quality of any point guard, as it breaks down the defense and allows the player to finish or find the open man.
The assist numbers are very comparable among these particular players, except Chris Paul showed a superior ability to distribute with an 8 assist avegare, while the other players sit in the 6 assist range. Rose's greatest weakness was his ability to distribute the ball to the appropriate player, however, the Bulls recent stretch of 15 home wins in 16 games has been partially a product of Rose's ability to run the fast break and pitch the ball out to shooter like Gordon, Salmons, and Hinrich. Still he has yet to record a double digit assist game this season, but i expect his assist totals to jump into the 8 range much like Paul, Willians, and James had.
A second major complaint I have of Rose this season is his low free throw attempt numbers. He is only averaging 3.0 attempts per game. As i had pointed out in a previous post, nearly every NBA superstar is in the top 30 of free throw attempts per game. If he is able to improve in this essential category, Rose's point per game average can sky rocket from 17 to 22 points per game. This would be concurrent with James(+6.3) Paul(+1.2) Willaims(+5.4).
The biggest jump in production for most NBA players comes in the second year in the league, just look at players like Wade, Roy, and Bosh etc...if you need more verification. I'll go as far as predict that next year Rose will be the first Bulls all-star since the Michael Jordan era. I can't say if the supporting cast will be talented enough for the Bulls to compete for a title, but look out 2010.
Did I mention he's still 20?
Truth be told, Rose's season compares favorably with each of the NBA superstars listed above. The most impressive part of Rose's game is his shooting percentage. While most rookies shoot in the low 40% range, Rose has a top shooting percentage for guards at 47.5%. Not to say that Rose is a pure shooter, which he definitely is not, but he has the unique ability to finish in the lane over or through centers. His ability to constantly penetrate the defense is possible the most important quality of any point guard, as it breaks down the defense and allows the player to finish or find the open man.
The assist numbers are very comparable among these particular players, except Chris Paul showed a superior ability to distribute with an 8 assist avegare, while the other players sit in the 6 assist range. Rose's greatest weakness was his ability to distribute the ball to the appropriate player, however, the Bulls recent stretch of 15 home wins in 16 games has been partially a product of Rose's ability to run the fast break and pitch the ball out to shooter like Gordon, Salmons, and Hinrich. Still he has yet to record a double digit assist game this season, but i expect his assist totals to jump into the 8 range much like Paul, Willians, and James had.
A second major complaint I have of Rose this season is his low free throw attempt numbers. He is only averaging 3.0 attempts per game. As i had pointed out in a previous post, nearly every NBA superstar is in the top 30 of free throw attempts per game. If he is able to improve in this essential category, Rose's point per game average can sky rocket from 17 to 22 points per game. This would be concurrent with James(+6.3) Paul(+1.2) Willaims(+5.4).
The biggest jump in production for most NBA players comes in the second year in the league, just look at players like Wade, Roy, and Bosh etc...if you need more verification. I'll go as far as predict that next year Rose will be the first Bulls all-star since the Michael Jordan era. I can't say if the supporting cast will be talented enough for the Bulls to compete for a title, but look out 2010.
Did I mention he's still 20?
CP3 3 steals short of a quadruple double
Chris Paul is a sick sick man. He doesnt play in a mike d'antoni system like steve nash did, and he doesnt run a pick and roll offensive like jerry sloan does for deron williams. He is just a sick baller who cannot be stopped. Tonight against the 76ers, paul went for a cool 27/10/15/7 line. That's 3 steals short of the oh so rare quadruple double. If you thought a perfect game or an unassisted triple play is a rarity, consider that there have only been 4 such occurrences in the history of basketball. David Robinson and Hakeen Olajuwon stand out and only one occasion where steals was the 4th category. 10 steals is much harder to get than 10 blocks, but i predict Paul will one day to it. He did just set the record for most consecutive games with a steal so anything is possible.
