Chicago Bulls Blog – Page 63 – NBA Blog

Bulls focused on an extension for Derrick Rose

The Chicago Bulls’ “top priority” during Wednesday morning’s initial contact period between teams and agents will be to set up the framework of Derrick Rose’s contract extension, according to a league source…

No matter when he officially signs, Rose is due for a mammoth raise from his rookie contract, based upon a new wrinkle to the collective bargaining agreement, which is expected to be ratified at some point in the next few days.

“The Derrick Rose Rule,” as it’s being called around the league, rewards players of Rose’s caliber by enabling a player finishing his rookie contract to make 30 percent of a team’s salary cap — up from 25 percent — if he’s been voted an All-Star starter twice, made two All-NBA teams or won an MVP award.

— Reported by Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago

Kurt Thomas could end up with Knicks, Bulls, Heat or Mavs

Kurt Thomas knows there is a good chance he could be playing on Christmas Day. He just doesn’t know where.

Thomas, the league’s oldest player at 39, could end up with the Knicks, Bulls, Heat or his hometown Dallas Mavericks.

“That’s the great thing about free agency,” Thomas said Monday. “A lot of things can happen. Teams have to make a decision on players but I also have a say in where I might end up.”

Thomas spent last season with the Chicago Bulls and the club is interested in re-signing the 6-9 forward/center.

— Reported by Frank Isola of the New York Daily News

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LeBron, Wade, Melo, CP3 set up 4-game Homecoming Tour

LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony are going home — and bringing friends with them.

With no end to the NBA lockout in sight, the All-Star group is set to lead a four-game “Homecoming Tour,” starting with a matchup in James’ hometown of Akron, Ohio on Dec. 1, followed by a Dec. 4 game in New Orleans, a Dec. 7 game in Chicago and culminating with a Dec. 10 contest in East Rutherford, N.J.

James, Paul, Wade and Anthony are committed to play in all four games of the tour, which was announced early Monday. Proceeds from the tour — which will include events such as food drives, educational outreach programs and clinics in each city — will benefit the four headlining players’ charitable foundations, and tour sponsor Google Plus will stream each game live.

“It’ll be very neat,” Wade told The Associated Press. “First of all, this is something we talked about doing a long time ago as players. To have an opportunity to go to these different cities that we’re from, to bring basketball to them at a high level and also have a charitable component in each city and to be with the guys, it’ll be cool. It’s something we’re looking forward to.”

Tickets for the first three games go on sale Tuesday. Tickets for the East Rutherford game will be on sale Wednesday.

— Reported by the Associated Press

James, Wade and Bosh had initially been listed to participate in a world tour of NBA stars, which also was to include Paul and Anthony. That tour was to include stops in Puerto Rico, London, Macau and Australia before it was cancelled.

“It’s not anything that I’ve heard about since then,” Wade said, with the change of plans to a domestic tour. “I was excited about the opportunity to go, obviously to play basketball with some of my friends, some of the best players in the game, to travel to different places and given them kind of what we get over here, the excitement of the game. It’s unfortunate.”

Instead, the passports are off and the domestic games are on.

“You could see, I was there to the end,” Wade said. “I wasn’t going to pull out of it, I was going to keep going and I wanted to play.”

— Reported by Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Luol Deng may sign overseas

Add Luol Deng to the list of players more seriously considering European offers now that the NBA lockout is in the hands of lawyers.

Deng, who has been receiving offers for weeks to play overseas, is seriously considering four to five offers and could make a decision as early as next week, according to his Chicago-based agent Herb Rudoy. Any offer Deng signed would contain an opt-out clause should the NBA lockout end to salvage a shortened season, Rudoy said.

Deng, who is currently visiting family and overseeing charity work in his native Sudan, is a British citizen who has become the face of Great Britain’s national team since that country granted his family political asylum years ago. The offers that Deng is most seriously considering are based in Europe.

— Reported by K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune

Phil Jackson says Chicago Bulls overachieved last season

The Chicago Bulls finished 62-20 to secure the No. 1 seed in the NBA last season, advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals and Derrick Rose became the Bulls’ first league MVP since Michael Jordan played for Phil Jackson in the 1990’s.

What does all of this mean to Jackson?

“I think they overachieved last year as far as record and how they got to the spots they got to in the playoffs,” said the former NBA coach on ‘The Waddle & Silvy Show’ Thursday.

He commented that Bulls need to help Rose and “They just can’t be one-dimensional in that regard. They have to have those complementary pieces to assist Rose in his game.”

The Bulls struggled with the Indiana Pacers and the Atlanta Hawks and if it weren’t for Rose would they have honestly made it as far as they did? Were they overrated?

— Reported by CSN Chicago

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Derrick Rose wants no NBA rookie salary cap

Derrick Rose, in Hawaii this week visiting military personnel as part of the Hoops for Troops USO Tour, will undoubtedly earn a lot more when he becomes a free agent at the end of his four-year, $22.5 million contract, depending on the new agreement, of course.

“I wish it was back like where it was in the old days where there wasn’t a cap,” Rose told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Back in the day, they were giving guys coming out of college with multimillion-dollar contracts, so why stop it now? The game is growing. There’s no need to stop it.”

The union would like players to get out from the rookie salary scale quicker than five years. On Monday, union executive director Billy Hunter mentioned Rose and Rookie of the Year Blake Griffin during an hour-long podcast with ESPN.com as examples of players who are underpaid because there are still locked into their scale figures.

The league said it has proposed a new bonus pool for top-performing rookie scale players who earn league honors as such as MVP or are on the All-NBA first, second or third teams.

— Reported by Jaymes Song of the Associated Press

Driver of Derrick Rose car arrested for DUI

Chicago Bulls superstar Derrick Rose strolled out of an LAPD station at 3:00 AM today … after his BFF was arrested for DUI … and Derrick was a passenger in the car.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ …. the 2011 NBA MVP was a passenger in a black BMW being driven by his close friend and personal assistant Randall Hampton … when cops stopped the car on a routine traffic violation at around 2:00 AM Friday morning.

When cops spoke to Hampton — who played junior college basketball with Rose in Texas — officers claim they detected the odor of alcohol.

— Reported by TMZ

Dennis Rodman thinks NBA players need to give in to owners

“I just think that … the players should bow down,” Rodman said. “They should bow down. In 1999 we (were locked out) and we missed half the season. The owners bowed down then. They gave the players everything. I think the players should do the same thing for the owners because today most of these teams are losing money. It’s not the players’ fault. It’s the owners’ fault. I think they should give a little bit and move on.”

Rodman insists he’s not taking the owners’ side in all of this but it’s apparent he doesn’t believe today’s NBA player deserves the kind of money he is getting.

“I don’t think they work that hard because most of the players don’t give a damn about the game. They want the money. I’m not taking the owners’ side, I just think the players should look at themselves. ‘OK, I’m making $16-million or $17-million a year but what have I accomplished?’ Most of the players haven’t accomplished anything. That’s what you have to look at.”

— Reported by Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun

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Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha signs in Turkey

Turkish champion Fenerbahce Ulker strengthened itself on the wings with the signing of Thabo Sefolosha, who is among the game’s premier defensive players. Sefolosha (1.99 meters, 27 years old) arrives from Oklahoma City of the NBA, where he averaged 5.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals over 79 games as a starter last season. He has played a total of five seasons in the NBA between Chicago and Oklahoma City and appeared in 367 regular season games. Sefolosha began his professional career with Tege Riviera Basket in his native Switzerland before joining Elan Chalon in France. He spent two seasons there between 2003 and 2005 and took part in the Eurocup both seasons.

— Reported by Euroleague.net

InsideHoops.com editor says: I assume he has an out-clause to return to the NBA when the lockout ends.

Ben Gordon expects more games to be canceled

“I think there will be more games missed,” Gordon said when reached by phone as he was driving to Chicago. “I expect it might be a year or two. I realized that when I was listening to both sides during the negotiations. I think there will be a lot of games missed and more money is going to go down the drain.

“I’m preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best.” …

Gordon was in New York for previous negotiating sessions and said until the past few days, he could tell the owners weren’t serious about making a deal and were looking forward to the eventual outcome.

“It just seemed scripted, and they were going through the motions,” said Gordon, calling it a valuable learning experience. “Sitting there in front of them you could tell they weren’t focused on getting a deal. I still don’t know the purpose of those meetings.”

— Reported by Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press