The Bulls Are Honored by the Little City Foundation for their Charitable Work

The Chicago Bulls will be honored this week by Little City, a Chicago-based foundation widely-regarded for its work in support of children and adults with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Former Bulls legend Bob Love will accept the Little City Partnership Award on behalf of the Chicago Bulls at the Foundation’s Annual Awards Dinner on Friday, November 16th at 7 p.m., at The Standard Club on South Plymouth Court in the windy city. The Bulls were recognized for their dedicated service to the Foundation, just another one of their many philanthropic contributions. The Bulls have made several very generous donations to the foundation and have also hosted Little City residents at home basketball games and invited them to shoot around on the United Center court during pre-game activities. The “Paint the Town” event last month also allowed members of Little City to meet the entire basketball team one-on-one.

Little City was established in 1959 and according to press notes the foundation “remains committed to developing innovative, personalized programs to fully assist and empower people with disabilities in all stages of life. Little City offers a variety of residential options for children and adults, as well as vocational and employment opportunities, a special needs foster care and adoption program, in-home support to families raising a child with developmental disabilities, and an award-winning Center for the Arts that features visual, performance, media and fabric arts.” It’s safe to say that the Bulls are making an important and inspiring contribution in their work with Little City, and although they may not be doing as well as they’d like on the court this season, there’s no doubt that they have a huge and dedicated fan-base backing them up.

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The Chicago Bulls Read To Achieve Program Holds a Reading Session for Blind Children Tonight

Despite their dire record, the Chicago Bulls are all about doing good deeds. This week a few of the Bulls will get together to hold a reading session for blind children. Some of the team’s players – namely Joakim Noah, Joe Smith, Adrian Griffin, Thomas Gardner and JamesOn Curry – will celebrate reading with more than 20 children from the Chicago Lighthouse today as a part of the Chicago Bulls Read To Achieve program. The event will take place at the Bulls practice facility, the Berto Center, in Deerfield, Illinois and is sure to be widely-attended. According to press notes, the Chicago Lighthouse is a non-profit agency “committed to providing the highest quality educational, clinical, vocational and rehabilitation services for children, youth and adults who are blind or visually impaired.”

After today’s team practice, the participating Bulls players will read aloud to the attending group and some of the children will show the Bulls how to read from their Braille books. The team members will then participate in a question and answer session with the kids. The Chicago Bulls Read To Achieve program inspires literacy among windy city youth by encouraging families and adults to read regularly with young children. “As part of its annual commitment, the Bulls host Reading Time Outs with local children, distribute more than 5,000 new books and organize literacy activities,” explains press notes.

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Chicago Struggles With a 1-5 Start to their Highly Anticipated Season

The Chicago Bulls are now 1-5 after their loss on Saturday night to the Toronto Raptors. The final score was Raptors 101-Bulls 71, and you can bet that coach Scott Skiles and his players were not too happy about the follow-up to their first win of the season. The Raptors were playing their fourth game in five nights, but still managed to clean up the Bulls without too much effort. The Raptors were leading 41-30 at the half and sealed the game when they opened the third quarter by outscoring the Bulls 14-1 for a 52-31 lead. The sellout crowd at the United Center was not pleased with the Bulls performance, and boos began to echo throughout the stadium as the Raptors 21-point lead ensued.

Although coach Scott Skiles took all of his starters off the floor with 9:35 left in the third quarter, it didn’t seem to do much for Chicago’s game. “I never want to do that. On a night when the boo-birds are out I don’t want to embarrass the group like that. I thought I would take a gamble right there to see if someone could come into the game and be a catalyst for us. I felt like in unison that group was not performing really well,” said Skiles. Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, Ben Wallace, Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich never returned to the game. Andres Nocioni was the high-scorer for the floundering team, leading Chicago with 20 points.

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Bulls Get their First Win of the Season

Hoorah! They’ve done it! To the delight of fans everywhere the Chicago Bulls have finally pulled out their very first win of the season. The Bulls took the Pistons 97-93 at the sold-out United Center, making their current season’s record 1-4. Coach Scott Skiles was more than satisfied to look at the stat sheet and see his old team back on track. The Bulls outrebounded Detroit with 45-36 and outscored them 42-26 in the paint and 14-7 on second-chance points. The Pistons are now 3-1 for the season and the Bulls seem to have tuned out the distracting Kobe rumors to get themselves back on track. Of the win Coach Skiles said, “There’s no question we looked a lot like ourselves out there for sure. I felt like we were after everything and stayed into every possession, which is our trademark. Our execution was much better. All the numbers bear that out: 24 to 18 assists to turnovers. They just seemed much more relaxed and confident.”

Tyrus Thomas was the high-scorer for the Bulls, leading them with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Wallace was the game-high scorer for the Pistons, finished with 36 points and missed two ten-foot jumpers thanks to Thomas’ defense. Skiles praised Wallace’s defensive efforts, saying that “they were good for momentum, crowd, possession, the game. They couldn’t have come at a better time. We just came out and played hard; that’s what we have to do.” Fans are hoping that the Bulls have put the chaos of the beginning of the season behind them – it’s time for them to step it up and keep winning some games.

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Bulls Lose to the Clippers

The Bulls were hoping this week’s game against the undefeated Los Angeles Clippers would be the turning point in their season that so far has been off to a very rocky start. Sadly, it wasn’t. The Clippers’ Cuttino Mobley scored 33 points and Corey Maggette had 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in the Clippers 97-91 win over Chicago. The Clippers were at 2-0 before their match-up with Chicago, which left the Bulls with a 0-4 record for the start of the highly-anticipated season – the first 0-4 record since Chicago’s 2004-2005 season. Chicago was down by 13 in the third quarter, but came back to the tie game briefly, with about 4:08 left in the fourth quarter. A series of events, including a call on Ben Wallace for goaltending, gave the Clippers a 92-89 advantage with 2:12 left in the game.

As far as the Bulls high-scorers are concerned, Luol Deng scored 22 points and Joe Smith added 17. Forward Joakim Noah made his regular season debut after missing the first three games due to a sprained ankle – he finished with two points and four rebounds. The Bulls were able to hold the Clippers to 27.3 percent shooting in the period after Los Angeles shot 60 percent in the second quarter. “The frustration continues for the Bulls, who came into the season with high expectations. Ben Wallace missed an open layup in transition in the second quarter that led to Sam Cassell’s jumper. Bulls general manager John Paxson put to rest the Kobe Bryant trade rumors less than a week ago, but some fans continue to chant ‘Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!’ in the final minutes,” explains press notes.

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Chicago Takes on the Undefeated Clippers Tonight

The Bulls are off to a rocky start – that’s apparent – as their current record is 0-3. The question is, why? Chicago, who has one of the top two or three rosters in the entire Eastern Conference, has lost to New Jersey, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, three teams whose rosters don’t even come close. The Bulls will take on the undefeated Los Angeles Clippers at the United Center tonight, and Chicago fans are hoping that they will get their game together. There’s no doubt that recent Kobe trade talks may have been distracting for this team, but there’s also no reason that they shouldn’t be able to pull it together and give the Clippers a run for their money tonight.

According to Bulls General Manager John Paxson, the proposed trade is pretty much dead, so the question of whether or not the young Bulls will be joined by all-star Kobe isn’t even relevant anymore. Some sports fans are speculating that all the “Kobe hype” may have been damaging to the growing young team. According to press notes, “the Bulls have played uninspired basketball this week, and there isn’t a whole lot of good explanation aside from the fact that, in some sense, it appears that this team is playing as though it is in a state of limbo. Part of this is team is awaiting its great savior from the West Coast, and the other part of it is waiting for the other shoe to drop on a deal that ships them out of Chicago. Both lead to the same result: Tentative play.” Hopefully Bulls coach Scott Skiles will be able to pull them out of this funk and remind them that with their superior roster and immense amount of talent, they deserve to be winning some basketball games.

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The Bulls Are Off to a Rough Start With a 0-3 Record

The Chicago Bulls have had a rough start to their season – with three losses and no wins they are hoping things start to improve. Luol Deng was an important contributor to the Bulls’ success last season, scoring double figures in 78 of the team’s 82 games. So far Deng’s scoring hasn’t been as “on,” as he recently missed an open mid-range jump shot. Ben Gordon was also a high-scorer last season, but so far has failed to make an offensive impact. Kirk Hinrich shot a career-best of 44.8 percent last season and was one of the best defensive players on the court. This season fans have yet to see Hinrich’s double-threat. It seems that the Bulls have started the season without the strong “core” that they had last season. They have been giving their opponents turnovers like it’s their job and the team’s players look like they’re lacking confidence on offense.

Of the season’s start, Hinrich said, “We aren’t playing with any kind of composure on offense. We’re helter-skelter. We need to do a better job of playing together and moving the ball. It seems like we’re rushing a lot. The more we miss, the more we rush.” So far the Bulls are only shooting 37.8 percent and Deng, Gordon and Hinrich have contributed to 31 of the team’s 51 turnovers. “There are nights in the NBA when you can’t buy a bucket. But you have to do something to get yourself going, whether it’s transition baskets or getting to the line,” said Deng. More than anything, it seems that the Bulls need to get their heads back in the game – as they have most definitely been distracted by rumors of a possible Kobe Bryant trade as well as Deng and Gordon’s decisions to turn down multimillion-dollar contract extensions. Just play the game guys!

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Chicago Has a Difficult Start to a Highly-Hyped Season

The Bulls opened their home season at the United Center against the Philadelphia 76ers on November 2nd, and sadly the game was not what Chicago fans were hoping for. The Bulls were down for most of the game and fans were given some hope when they had a late comeback. Sadly though, they were not able to pull through as the 76ers two Andres – Iguodala and Miller – scored a total of 47 points between the two of them, helping their team to withstand the Bulls late-game drive. Ben Gordon had 25 for Chicago and Tyrus Thomas added 21 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, but their contributions weren’t enough to pull the Bulls through the difficult game. The final score was Philadelphia 96, Chicago 85. Bulls fans were not pleased and expressed their frustration with the team’s loss by chanting for the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant in the games final minute.

Rumors have been swirling lately that a Bryant trade was in the works with the Bulls. Apparently the Lakers wanted to trade Bryant to the Bulls in return for Luol Deng, but the Bulls were not willing to lose their 22-year-old small forward. Although no trade has been made yet, Lakers owner Jerry Buss recently said he would listen to offers for the superstar while coach Phil Jackson confirmed rumors of trade talks. If Bryant was going to head to the Bulls, then why hasn’t it happened already? Well, it could be that a trade is really not realistically going to happen – perhaps because of loss of a “valuable” deal. Bulls (and Lakers) fans will just have to wait and see.

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The Bulls Face Off Against the 76ers Tonight

The Chicago Bulls open their home schedule tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers at the United Center and there’s no doubt that Bulls fans will pack the stadium to see their team battle it out. The Bulls lost in overtime to the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday with a score of 112-103 and coach Scott Skiles is hoping that his team will come out much sharper tonight. Of reviewing Wednesday’s game tape Skiles said, “The third look was worse than the second look. You’ve got to come mentally ready to play. We still appear to be battling being ready and on mentally, but at the same time, not being uptight and nervous. Each guy has to get himself ready.”

It seems that the Bulls may have just had a case of nerves in their season opener – and if that’s the case we should expect to see them step it up in tonight’s game. Skiles says that he plans to start Tyrus Thomas in the power forward position again tonight. The second-year forward scored four points on 1-for-7 shooting and had six rebounds in 22 minutes against the Nets. According to press notes, Skiles seems to think his guys just need a little time to get back into the groove of things. “He (Thomas) started four games last year. He’s going to get more than four starts right now. He’s going to get an opportunity to be out there. He needs to take advantage of the opportunity just like every other player. I’m not going to bust up the starting lineup too early in the season (as long as) we can play well and win some games.”

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Bulls Lose their Season Opener to the Nets 112-103

The Chicago Bulls didn’t have the season opener they had hoped for last night. The Bulls lost last night’s game to the New Jersey Nets 112-103, marking their 12th straight loss to the team since 2001. Chicago had a bad start as their sloppy playing early on in the game seemed to cost them the loss. Of the game, Coach Scott Skiles said, “For 2 ½ quarters or so, we were just a step slow. BG (Ben Gordon) got us going with his shot-making. Then we got into the game and had our chances. But [not getting offensive] boards, falling asleep on a critical out-of-bounds play…just a bunch of little things. We had balls passed to us right in our hands, and they went out of bounds. All kinds of plays we need to make in key moments, we weren’t able to make them.”

Ben Gordon scored 16 of his team-high 27 points in the third quarter, giving the Bulls an opportunity to pull out a win. The team’s intended winning play in the final seconds of the fourth quarter broke down and left Ben Gordon launching a desperate three-pointer that was deflected by the Knicks’ Vince Carter. Center Ben Wallace rebounded but failed to get the ball in the hole at the buzzer. The game went into overtime and with 3:19 left New Jersey was up 101-98. With 37.6 seconds left Richard Jefferson hit a three-pointer to make the game 108-102. The Bulls didn’t get the game they were hoping for, and with things still unsettled in terms of a possible Kobe Bryant trade, things seem still up in the air.

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