Finally, Sports! Or not.

I've sat idly this week since finishing my last Bears post. The dominating news stories of the past week just don't float my boat, so to speak. Tyrus Thomas is only in the dunk contest for the money? No s**t. He's just the only kid still naive enough to say it out loud. Olin Kreutz lives in Hawaii and can't be bothered with playing in the Pro Bowl, but because he says the right things in dropping out, no one bats an eye. We all know that All Star Weekend and the Pro Bowl mean more to the players as a vacation, party or rest break than anything else, but we don't want it rubbed in our faces. Except I couldn't care less. Nor could I care less about tension between the Notre Dame and Illinois football programs, or college football recruiting in general. Unlike college basketball where the instant impact or lack of impact -- I'm looking at you Paul Harris -- of a talented freshman can make or break a season, incoming freshmen rarely make a difference on the football field. Rex Grossman, David Carr, Jeff Garcia? It's too soon to generate much excitement about next football season. And, spring training, while tantalizing close, has yet to begin.

Which is why I was so excited this morning to sit down and write about an actual sporting event. I sat down last night to watch the Bulls play the Sacramento Kings waiting for a fun storyline to emerge. Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, and even Ben Wallace contributed early, and the Bulls led by five after a quarter. And, then I watched the ugliest half of basketball I've seen in a very long time. The two teams scored 31 points combined in the second quarter. The Suns and Mavericks could score 31 points getting off the team buses. So after all that, here is my sum observations from last night's game: the bench played well in the third quarter.

So, the Bulls game failed to get me out of my rut. What now? And, does this happen after every football season, but I've never been self-aware enough to notice. I mean, do we all kind of go into a post-NFL sports depression every year? I'm not sure. But I do know this: there is a cure. I'm going to Vegas. No, really, that's not a joke. My buddies from law school and I happen to be going to Vegas this weekend, and I believe that nothing can better disrupt this malaise than "investing" heavily in several college basketball games. So, thank goodness for modern medicine, and, uh, the sports book at Mandalay Bay.