by Ron Murphy

Have you ever sat at a ballgame and tried to send the psychic thought to a
Quaterback to throw the bomb, the batter to hit a homerun or the point guard
to hit the open man in the corner?  As I begin to spend more time at the
keyboard of my computer, viewing games on Internet "gamecasts" rather than
in person or by radio, I have made a conscious effort to impact the game
with my synergy.

With the recent efforts of the Knicks to trade Patrick Ewing, only to have
the Pistons back out at the altar, I have turned my focus to basketball.
Normally, I'd have waited for at least the pre-season, but the circumstances
are dire, and the stakes are high.

With the balance of power in the East shifting from the Knicks and Indiana
to the Magic and the Heat, Scott Layden was under pressure to put the Knicks
back in the mix.  In doing so, however, he underestimated the business sense
of the Pistons.  They didn't want 200 contracts of so-so players who
probably would never arrive in Detroit anyway, and they backed out of the deal.

For the balance of power in the NBA, Vin Baker to the Knicks, along with
Glenn Rice, makes it a four team race again.  Ewing to the Sonics puts them
in the mix with the Blazers, Spurs and, of course, the Lakers.  NBA
officials should be bending over backwards to get this done so that ratings
don't lag until the Finals.

When the Pistons dropped out of the mix, I felt the need to put my
considerable synergy focus on resetting this deal with the most obvious of
solutions:  Add the Bulls!  Now I don't know where Tim Floyd and Jerry
Krause are fishing, and frankly the image of Krause in fishing attire is not
a pretty picture, but I'm sure their feeling my psychic pressure to unpack
the cell phone and put this deal back on track.  

Hey Jerry, do you really think Marcus Fizer is going to be a great
small/shooting forward?  And do you really want to keep Hersey Hawkins in a
rebuilding process?  Maybe you could unload some folks and still have enough
bait left over to land Jermaine O'Neal!  Maybe this is what you ought to be
fishing for!!!!

The thought is that Ewing still goes to Seattle, Rice and Baker go to New
York and a lot of table scraps end up in Chicago, but what if the Bulls
signed Rice and took the Lakers out of the deal!  Dudley and a first rounder
go to Chicago, as do the extras (Borrell, Maxwell, Stepania and Foster) from
Seattle.  But if Portland joins the mix as the fourth team, the Bulls
re-route Dudley, Hawkins, Borrel, Fizer and Foster and the Knicks 1st round
pick to Portland, while the Blazers send O'Neal, Stacy Augmon  and Bonzi
Wells to the Windy City.

Now the Bulls have Maxwell (SG), Stepania (C), O'Neal (PF-C), Augmon (SF)
and Wells (SF/SG) to join Dragan Tarlac, Elton Brand, Ron Artest, Jamal
Crawford, Guyton/El Amin,  Ron Mercer and Michael Ruffin.  Maybe a team that
can get close to 40 wins, and still has some cap room for next year.

Jerry!  Tim!  Land this deal and your off-season fishing won't consist of
"the one that got away" stories.  Everybody, focus your mind on your monitor
and repeat after me, "Krause, pick up the phone!"

________

Ron Murphy is a member of "Bulls Fans on Life Support" and a free-lance
sports writer in the Mid-West.  You can contact him at idlehands@sltic.com.  

8/25/2000
____________

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