Chaos Theory

My morning was chaos. Someone fell on my bus to work (a passenger, as opposed to someone dropping from the sky and landing on the bus). For those of you familiar with the city, just as we went over the little hump on Lake Shore Drive at the Fullerton exit, he apparently lost his grip and went crashing down. So, we stopped. A doctor checked him out and declare him to be okay. Per CTA regulations, the bus had to get off the Drive at Michigan and pull over to file a report on the incident. I now found myself standing at Michigan and Oak in rush hour hoping to find a way to work. Needless to say, competition for cabs and busses was fairly heavy. I finally caught a cab at Chicago and State (might as well have just finished walking to work). Anyway, as I'm getting out of the cab, I snag, and tear, my suit pants. I had a meeting this morning with the Solicitor General, aka my boss, and I thought the hole in the slacks look was inappropriate. So, I ducked into a tailor, and for 10 bucks he repaired my pants while I stood around in my boxer shorts. It is now 11:00 and I've completed zero work. And, we have a fire drill this afternoon. What is that crap?

Anyway, I need to work, but I did want to take a moment to talk about the Bulls' first pre-season game -- a last second victory over the Washington Wizards Wednesday night. I thought it was funny last night that the newcomers, from Ben Wallace to PJ Brown to Viktor Khryapa could do no wrong as far as Red Kerr, Stacey King and Tom Dore were concerned. This despite the fact that PJ looked lost and indifferent. But, there is a lot of promise to this team, and it was visible last night. They can crank up the pressure and intensity on both ends of the court because they have the depth to come at you in waves. The Bulls still figure to be a fairly inefficient offensive team. But they should generate enough offensive opportunities to off set that weakness. Steals and offensive boards, which should come in bunches for this team, equal scoring chances that the opponent doesn't have. In a funny way, this team will swarm around much like the Phoenix Suns, but the focus of the energy will be on the defensive end and the boards. In the backcourt, Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon are backed up by Chris Duhon and Thabo Sefolosha, who brings size, length and athleticism that was previously missing. The duo of Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni is very effective. Either or both could really emerge this year as the team's best offensive player. And finally, the team has some quality in the post rotation. Wallace, Brown, Khryapa, Tyrus Thomas and Malik Allen may not threaten Wilt's or Kareem's scoring records, but they are all aggressive rebounders and defenders and will catch, finish and move the basketball better than Tyson Chandler did. Can I imagine this team beating Dallas or Phoenix? Not really. A really talented offensive team will probably prove to much for the Bulls unless Deng or Nocioni emerges as a go-to guy. But the Bulls should win their first play off series since a certain #23 retired, and that's progress.

By the way, I have my distribution draft for the season tix I share with a number of other people. I'm torn as to whether I should go for top teams from the West who only come to town once, rivalries like Cleveland and Detroit, players I like to watch like Carmelo, or teams that should make for fairly even match-ups and exciting games like the Nets or Clippers. Any advice?