The Tribune wrote Sunday about how no Bulls player bothered to pressure Toronto's Jarrett Jack as he bent down to tie his shoe while holding the ball late in the third quarter of the Raptors' easy 110-78 victory Saturday night.
Now, it's getting plenty of national attention and response, with NBA.com columnist Steve Aschburner suggesting the Bulls are deserving of the basketball version of the Lady Byng Trophy, the NHL's sportsmanship award.
"If it was one of our guys guarding their guy, and the guy tied his shoe, I would expect our guy to go over and knock him on his ass," Raptors coach Jay Triano said today.
Wow.
Replays show that Luol Deng turns his head to scream at Jannero Pargo because the Bulls are in a mismatch situation. But the play still seemed to be a perfect symbol of the Bulls' lack of effort in the 32-point loss.
"That's not acceptable," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "But it was a unique situation where we were in a mismatch and Lu had turned his back. He didn't see it. Otherwise, he would've been up on the ball."
Photo: The Bulls' Luol Deng watches as Raptors guard Jarrett Jack bends to tie his shoe. (Jim Prisching/AP)
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Bulls should hire Stacy King to be the Bulls next coach. He would demand all the players to play hard and he obvious knows what are the Bulls troubles and needs.
So for those of you who think it was the gentlemanly thing to do ...
What about a football player who has lost his shoe while running for a touchdown? (I've seen it twice). Does the defense stop its pursuit just to be gentlemen?
You either play on, or the team with the shoe "malfunction" can call a timeout
Idiots, all of you.
Um, who is talking sportsmanship? They lost by 32 points. Joke him no ah nothing got kicked out of the game for doing something you don't do in professional sports. They officially suck balls
It's called sportsmanship, people. In soccer, they kick the ball out of bounds to allow the other team's injured player to be tended to.
This seems a relative trifle to prevent an injury, especially at the point in the game where the Bulls were already down 25 points.
Find something else to harangue upon, such as del Negro's inability to have the team prepared to play.
Hey Trib, this is old news. Do you only post stuff if it appears on other sites first?
The sad part is that Deng doesn't even look like he knows what to do in that situation. Where are his schoolyard instincts... POKE THE BALL OUT AND RUN !!!!!
There's sportsmanship, and there's the desire to win. Right now, the Bulls don't have the desire. Yes, it was "nice" of them to allow the shoe to be tied...but if they were winning games and they allowed this, no one in this city would be upset.
Keep in mind, too...if they had put pressure on the ball and not allowed Jack to have the time to tie his shoe, the team may have needed to burn a time out, the official could have stopped it for safety...in other words, there were other avenues that could have been taken. This is called game management.
I'm a big Bulls fan, but I would have been all over my team for not showing any desire to win!!
For all of you that think the bulls should have done something to gain an advantage on this play, shame on you.
What would that prove. That they have a play that they use
to steal the ball when the player ties a shoe. Yes, that is
what I expect from my talented basketball pro.
I for one am glad the Bulls play with a gentlemanly style. It was thoughtful to allow the opponent to pause and get his lace tied-up. No big deal.
Terrible play by the Cows. The officials also missed an obvious travel as Jack takes two steps before dribbling the ball. Based on the Donaghy interview and upcoming book, the NBA is nothing more than WWE nowadays any. Sad times. They'll have to change their slogan to "I USED to love this game"!
Luol Deng is embarrassing!!!
Not to excuse the Bulls, but it seems like there should be an NBA rule against tying your shoes while holding a live ball. At least require a player to pass the ball before bending over to tie his shoes with the game clock running. Isn't that akin to a delay of game?
Sportsmanship???? It's called sieze the opportunity and play like you want to win! What on Earth was that????
Well, I bet he would have seen him as he made a clear shot. Excuses are for loser, Bunch of losers!!!!
That was the official "waving of the white flag" moment.
It looked like Jack knew that no one was going to bother to do anything.
It seems the Blackhawks are the only decent Chicago sports team at all right now....all the other pro teams suck (Bulls, Bears, Cubs, Sox)...
Its called sportsmanship. Obviously noone even knows what that word is anymore, much less what it means. When the press jumps on you for showing good sportsmanship, you know our society is in a free fall.
From the 300 section, I couldn't tell why Lu was standing there dumb. Now that I've seen the video, I can see that those are a really nice pair of kicks. How can you not help but to stand and stare? I mean, wow! They're really nice!
Playing defense wasn't a part of the Bulls' game plan anyway, so there's nothing out of ordinary going on here...
to funny!!!!! This is your chicago bulls....
The Bulls got rid of Gordon and now are tired of playing with each other.
They officially suck!
Lu had turned his back. He didn't see it. Otherwise, he would've been up on the ball."
CLEARLY IN THAT PICTURE LUOL DENG IS LOOKING RIGHT AT HIM!!! AND THE VIDEO SHOWS HIM LOOKING AT HIM...WHILE TYING HIS SHOW HE TURNS AROUND THEN TURNS BACK STILL WATCHES HIM N IS HOPPING AROUND LIKE A BAFOON
I was screaming from the 300 section but I guess they didn't hear. It really was remarkable. You can't even get away with that on the playground.
That shit is funny