From Isola:


The bad blood that exists between John Paxson's Chicago Bulls and Isiah Thomas' Knicks has been years in the making. Paxson was with the Bulls when Thomas and the Detroit Pistons, in a show of poor sportsmanship, defiantly marched off the court in the final seconds of a playoff loss to Chicago.

Paxson and Thomas have made two major deals over the past three years which have helped solidify Chicago as a top team in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, the Knicks have yet to win 35 games since acquiring both Jamal Crawford and Eddy Curry from the Bulls.

The Curry deal remains a delicate subject around Chicago where the Bulls were prepared to hand Curry a long-term contract before he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition. The Bulls insist they made a moral decision on Curry’s future, while Thomas was willing to take a chance on Curry and thus traded expiring contracts and a pair of draft picks, not lottery protected, to Chicago.

Part of the deal, according to sources, was that the Knicks made a gentlemen’s agreement to release Antonio Davis and allow him to rejoin the Bulls. Such a deal is a violation of NBA rules and when the Knicks reneged, Paxson and the Bulls were incensed.

Unless the Knicks win their remaining four games and Orlando loses its last five or Indiana loses three of its last four games, the Knicks will miss the playoffs and Chicago will get another lottery pick.

Although the Knicks are encouraged by Curry’s development this season, Bulls head coach Scott Skiles appears angered by the suggestion that his team never got Curry to perform at a high level. Prior to yesterday’s game, Skiles reminded reporters that Curry is averaging three more points this season than he did two years ago with Chicago and is playing five more minutes per game. It is also worth noting that Curry’s only winning season in the NBA was in 2004-05 with Chicago.

“I don’t want to minimize what he’s doing, Eddy’s having a very good year,” Skiles said. “But it seems like he’s being put on a pedestal awful quickly here, which I don’t think is necessarily fair to him. He’s such a young player. He’s still improving. I like to watch him play because I like him as a person.”

Several Knicks were upset with Skiles for allowing his players to try to score 100 points during the Bulls 98-69 victory. If Chicago had scored 100, every fan would have won a free Big Mac.

Even NBA Commissioner David Stern weighed in on the controversy, saying during a conference call: “It’s a technique teams use and everybody understands it. It’s been around for about 20 years. It used to be about the fries; now it’s about the whole Mac. I’m not going to have an opinion about it, other to say it’s here and there are no rules against it. Our players shouldn’t complain about it.”

It’s hard to make a case that the Bulls were running up the score when they only outscored the Knicks 20-19 in the 4th quarter. If anything, the one time the Bulls were running up the score was in the first half as they were building a 45-27 lead.

Of course, the Knicks could have done something about it. It’s called defense.





[Edited by - TrueBlue on 04-11-2007 4:13 PM]

i remember there was a big hubbub about antonio davis reporting late to camp and isiah saying that he will play for us.

so maybe there's some legs behind the "renegging" of the AD part of the deal.

Posted by Nalod:


Isiah should get GM of the year.

For the Bulls.

he also helped out the raptors get out of the jalen rose contract so colaneglo could go out and sign parker and garbajosa this summer (2 of their starters).

i know. it was the same thing vs Denver, it was their fault they were in a place to be run-up-on to begin with. I can understand if it's a team like Charlotte or Boston where you've got 90% of your roster young players, vs a team loaded with vets pouring it on. but blah.

Posted by highfivesucka:

i know. it was the same thing vs Denver, it was their fault they were in a place to be run-up-on to begin with. I can understand if it's a team like Charlotte or Boston where you've got 90% of your roster young players, vs a team loaded with vets pouring it on. but blah.

The Bulls pulled most of their starters before the 4th quarter and had nothing but their young backups in for the entire 4th quarter.

The Knicks had 4 out of their 5 starters in for most of the 4th quarter.

Bulls outscored the Knicks 20-19 in the 4th.

Isiah scumbagged somebody?

Wow, there's a shocker.

Supposidely Isiah asked Mardy to come into the game and start doing some flying drop kicks, but the rookie refused.

Isiah has to be fired, because we are looking up at Toronto, Orlando and the Bulls all teams that isiah gave major cap room and not increasing the knicks win total

Posted by MS:

Isiah has to be fired, because we are looking up at Toronto, Orlando and the Bulls all teams that isiah gave major cap room and not increasing the knicks win total

And despite giving up so much for Curry we have the worst starting big man in our division.