Tyrus

I generally tend not to have favorite players on Chicago’s sports teams anymore, but Tyrus Thomas is my favorite Bull. He’s easily the most exciting player they’ve had since MJ, and, more importantly, I think people our age can sympathize with his plight.

Of the three pseudo-controversies Tyrus has caused since coming here, the most recent, skipping Wednesday’s practice and getting suspended two games for it, is the most serious. Sure, Thomas is a little immature, but certainly isn’t as bad as people are saying right now. He’s a million times less detrimental to the Bulls then Ben Wallace was, and his behavior is probably less of a problem then Chris Duhon’s.  But while Duhon mostly gets a pass for being viewed as an overachiever, Thomas gets bashed for seemingly having all the talent in the world. Just because he can jump high doesn’t mean Tyrus should be dumped in the same category as Vince Carter or Stephon Marbury, players that have done far worse things then mock the dunk contest.

Skiles and Boylan are to blame as much as anyone for constantly yanking around his playing time, despite the fact that he’s one of the only power forwards on the roster. It seems painfully obvious that the best way to teach Tyrus isn’t by mocking him in the media or sitting him on the bench for entire quarters after he makes one mistake. When the coaches do that, he only becomes more defiant. If Boylan or Skiles could just relate to him a little bit, he wouldn’t seem like such a problem.

Nothing Thomas has ever done strikes me as totally wrong or crazy, yet if you read Mariotti’s column today or the comments on this Full Court Press thread the overarching opinion seems to be ‘he just doesn’t get it’. Maybe it’s everyone else that doesn’t get him, or today’s generation of young athletes. The Bulls are only hurting Thomas now, and I just hope it doesn’t end with him leaving town.  

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On a lighter note, how about that beat down last night? LeBron is just ridiculous by the way-it’s a toss up between him and Kobe for league’s best player (far more important than MVP)- which made that third quarter run all the more improbable/awesome.

Let’s see if the Bulls can put together three wins in a row for the first all season when they play the Celtics in Boston tonight. I’ll go ahead and predict a split over the next two games against the conference's two best teams (they play at Detroit Sunday night, followed by Utah at home, yikes), but I think the Bulls can go on a little run here. The Big Three (which should not under any circumstances be capitalized because none of them are really that good, but hey, I’m feelin’ good after that win last night) are all healthy and playing relatively well, and Noah, Gooden, and Tyrus are a more then capable front court. How about a first round playoff matchup with the Cavs? That’d be fun, though LeBron might average 43 for the seres.