Wednesday, November 17, 2021

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

 

November 17, 2021


The Chicago Bears have dominated my recent posts. With this being their bye week, I thought I would write about other happenings in the world of sports.

It’s been a lot of fun watching the Bulls. V.P. of Basketball Operations, Arturas Karnisovas with the help of GM Marc Eversley have completely revamped the Bulls roster. There are only two players left since they have been in charge. With their wheeling and dealing they have put together a playoff team.

It started last year when they traded for all-star center Nikolas Vucevic. He was acquired to be another scorer to help Zach LaVine. Whatever you may think, LaVine is prolific scorer. Things didn’t go smoothly as they didn’t have time to learn about each other, especially with LaVine being injured at the end of the year.

The Bulls biggest need was at point guard as Lavine was turning the ball over on a consistent basis. The Bulls pulled off a sign and trade deal acquiring Lonzo Ball. A think first passer, he has been excellent at running the offense and leads the team
in assists per game. He has been working on his shot and scored 27 points with six three pointers in the Bulls rout of the Lakers. At 6’ 5” he is also excellent defensively. They also acquired former all-star Demar Derozan who leads the team in scoring with 26.9 points per game.

The Bulls have also been one of the best defensive teams holding opponents to a little under 103 points per game. Led by newcomer Alex Caruso they have been creating turnovers and wreaking havoc for their opponents. Caruso got the main assignment of guarding Paul George, one of league’s best guards. George did score 27 points but he shot 7/25.

Coach Billy Donovan deserves a lot of credit. The team has bought in to his fast paced offense and his defensive schemes. The Bulls are 10-4, winning 2 of 3 on the current 5 game road stand. This is without Vucevic who had his best game before testing positive for COVID-19.  Finishing the west coast swing 3-2 would be good, 4-1 would be outstanding.

 There are still many players in sports who are not getting vaccinated.  Not only are they in danger of catching the virus, they can pass it on to teammates and opponents. The most prominent of these players is Green Bay Packers MVP quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.

When asked if he was vaccinated, Rodgers said yes and added he was immunized to the virus. Turns out he was lying, insinuating that he been vaccinated. He never followed any safety protocols such as wearing a mask. He went on explain it is a personal choice for every individual. Not so when you can infect others. He made false statements claiming the vaccines are not proven to be effective and can cause infertility, both wrong. I used to love watching him play and will still watch hoping he and the Packers start losing.

The more disturbing story is the Chicago Blackhawks cover up of sexual abuse
accusations. Since there was nothing more important than winning the Stanley Cup, the Hawks didn’t address this matter until three weeks later. It took ten years and an investigation when the law firm of Jenner & Block released their findings. Former Blackhawks video coach Brian Aldrich pleaded guilty. He had to register as a sex offender as well. There were many men who were complicit in the cover up. Two were GM Stan Bowman and Coach Joel Quenneville.  Bowman and Quenneviille both resigned from their positions as GM and coach. Their whole lives have been hockey. They resigned in disgrace and neither will be hired ever again. The Hawks were fined 2 million dollars and have to reach a settlement agreement with Kyle Beach. The Hawks stench extends to the ice. They are one of the worst teams in hockey. This is a team that Bowman has been putting together for five years, the last time this team made the playoffs.

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