[h3]Johnson and Gibson look better than Bad Boozer Rumor[/h3]
The Bulls Thursday night kicked off their rookie and free agent mini camp with first round picks James Johnson and Taj Gibson getting their first action with the team.
But before I get to that, I guess I have to deal with this trade story that was making the rounds in Chicago and the NBA Thursday of a three-way deal involving the Bulls, Trailblazers and Jazz with Carlos Boozer going to the Bulls, Kirk Hinrich to the Trailblazers and Tyrus Thomas to the Jazz.
Not true.
Made up.
Fabrication.
Prevarication.
Am I being too subtle here?
The report on ESPN said the teams "discussed" a deal and "two sources with knowledge of the three-team proposal confirmed there have been substantive talks…"
I'm not quite sure how you get that much wrong, but I think the editors may have left out the word, "not."
As in the teams have "not" discussed a deal, and there have "not" been substantive talks.
I have checked this out thoroughly and am convinced there never have been discussions about any such deal. There's a theory going around that the Trailblazers have been putting out the false leaks (you'll notice they make out well in all the scenarios without much detail of what they give up) because of pressure they've been getting in Portland over losing out on Hedo Turkoglu after they said they would sign him.
There's also a little modern day journalism issue in things like this. Which is not to say newspapers always got this stuff right and didn't print false information. But with the internet and even more instant communication with Twitter, which many reporters use now to advance their scoops, stories often are measured in seconds or minutes of who got something out first. So the tendency, along with the evil of the update button that demands changes every few hours, is for a greater rush now for something new more often and more quickly, which doesn't allow time to check things out as thoroughly.
And just think it out: The Bulls are going to give up two of their top six players for a one-year rental player they could get-if they wanted-in free agency next summer without giving up anything. And they'd have given up Hinrich and Ben Gordon and now need Jannero Pargo to play perhaps 30 minutes per game as a third guard. And this is with not having seen Boozer play after Boozer played in just 37 games last season, the second time in the last four seasons he played in fewer than 40 games because of injuries. And nowhere in the report is there any mention of any players leaving the Trailblazers. C'mon, who could really believe this?
Though it seems Tyrus Thomas believed it.
A reader notified me Tyrus wrote "Gone" on his Twitter update Thursday afternoon. Tyrus later posted in a Tweet, "The media is a mess."
We figured he always felt that way.
They make it too easy on me if this is true.
Got it off Hoopshype.