Bulls' Thomas: Thibodeau camp a breeze
By Mike McGraw | Daily Herald StaffContact writer

(0) | read | postBuzz up! Veteran center Kurt Thomas has more experience with new coach Tom Thibodeau than any player in Bulls training camp.

Thomas spent five years with the New York Knicks, from 1998-2003, while Thibodeau was an assistant. During four of those seasons, Jeff Van Gundy was the head coach.

Following Thursday's practice at the Berto Center, Thomas was asked if Thibodeau's camp compares at all to what he experienced with Van Gundy.

"Whoo, no," Thomas said while shaking his head. "Jeff is a guy who would probably keep us in here six hours and Thibodeau will keep us in here only three.

"Some of it is similar, but all coaches have their own style. Thibs has taken some things from Jeff, but he definitely has implemented his own style into this camp."

Thomas, who turns 38 on Monday, felt his most grueling camps were in his first two years as an NBA player, when he played for Pat Riley with the Miami Heat.

"Back when I started with Pat Riley, we'd do two practices a day, full contact, six hours," he said. "It was intense."

Since then, the players association negotiated limits to practice time during training camp four hours per day spread over two sessions. The Bulls have been going three hours in the morning and one at night this week, but called off Thursday's evening session.

"That's the great thing about the players association. They did a great job," Thomas joked. "At the time I was a young player and it was really good. That was the backbone of how I was able to stay in the league this long is because of my experiences in Miami and in New York with Pat and Jeff."

Korver dodges trouble: Just before the start of training camp, Bulls guard Kyle Korver helped sponsor a charity dodgeball tournament in Salt Lake City.

Korver even took the court with a team that included former Utah teammates Deron Williams and Ronnie Price, along with Jazz newcomer Al Jefferson. In an ironic twist, Korver's "Ghostbusters" team lost in the championship to a squad featuring a guy in a Kobe Bryant T-shirt.

So was Korver worried at all about getting knocked out of training camp by a concussion or violating terms of his NBA contract?

"I was not terribly concerned," Korver said. "We did have two broken noses and a couple guys hit in the head pretty hard (on other teams). I don't think dodgeball made the list in the contract, but I don't even know. It was a great time."

Brewer sitting out: Ronnie Brewer has been sitting out contact portions of practice this week as he recovers from a slight hamstring strain.

After being traded from Utah to Memphis last February, Brewer missed the last two months of the season with a partially torn right hamstring.

"It's not the same injury. It's just a little soreness," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "He hasn't done any of the contact stuff yet, but he's coming along fine. He has a really good month of September where he moved fine. So it's more precautionary at this point."

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