Links to the weekend

Bulls

- Brian emailed Matt from Blog-a-Bull and I yesterday to see what we thought about trading either Gordon or Hinrich for Samuel Dalembert. Check out our responses here. Matt, who has always been a much bigger fan of Gordon than I, calls our undersized gunner "one of the best shooters in the history of the league." Uhhhhh.

- Speaking of Gordon, he's open to returning to the Bulls next year. From the Trib: (link)

"I'm not ruling anything out at all," Gordon said before the Bulls' 115-109 overtime victory over the Clippers on Wednesday night. "My focus right now is to play well, help the team win games and stay healthy. That's a long time from now. But I've always said I'm happy here, and that hasn't changed."

The popular belief when Gordon didn't sign the Bulls' long-standing offer of six years and roughly $54 million last summer was that Gordon would be as good as gone next summer because of bitterness or lingering bad feelings.

Gordon quickly dismisses such talk.

"I never felt I shouldn't do my job because something didn't go my way," Gordon said. "We're all human. As much as you sometimes might want to take it personal, you have to realize it's business.

"I've learned more and more every year and the business aspect is easier to deal with.
When you're on the court, everything goes out the window."

White Sox

- The Cheat has a must read post up on Bobby Jenks' loss of velocity. Not as troubling as you may think.

Left overs

- Organized by Dubs, the future leader of the blog world (more on that in coming weeks), TTCS and Mass Hysteria pulled the ole' blog switeroo today for the Bulls-Celtics game.

- Final basketball note: the Illini landed one of the top sophomores in the state yesterday in Mount Carmel (since when did they get good basketball players?) point guard Tracy Abrams. Sez YourSeason:

"You tend to forget he's just a freshman in high school. Mount Carmel's Tracy Abrams opened eyes in March with scintillating performances in state tournament play. Now he has people drooling. And when you combine these three elements -- raw talent, unlimited potential and current productivity -- he's really unmatched and the best of a ridiculously loaded Class of 2011."
...

"His style of play shows flashes of a Chris Paul-type, a slender-framed, slightly undersized point guard who gets into the lane and to the basket, finishes and plays in control and -- again, in a word -- fearless."

"Abrams is the most athletic point guard in Illinois. As a prospect he's better and way more advanced than any of the top players in the Class of 2009 (D.J. Richardson, Brandon Paul, Diamond Taylor, Joseph Bertrand) were at the same age."

For Illini basketball fans, the real prize is Waukegan junior forward Jereme Richmond, who's one of the top players in the country. He'll probably be a one-and-done at U of I, but it's still good to see them lock up some of the top players in the state after basically falling on their face in recruiting ever since the Dee Brown-Deron Williams-Luther Head led title run a few years back.

Since I work for YourSeason, I sort of know a lot about all of these kids Illinois is getting, and a few of them seem to be really good. Two guards next year, DJ Richmond and Brandon Paul, are going to be solid. The year after the Illini get Richmond and guard Crandall Head (Luther's little bro, who's supposed to be much better at same age), and both should be great. Throw Abrams in there now, and Illinois' basketball future looks bright.

And..... the Bears

I'll probably have a bunch of Bears thoughts for Monday but I'm not motivated enough to organize them now since the season will be determined before they even play their Monday nighter against Green Bay. I actually think Atlanta should be able to pull through with a win over Minnesota on Sunday (Tarvaris + no Pat Williams), so, um, lets go Falcons.