A Bulls-Less All-Star Weekend in Chicago and Other Bulls Bullets

Happy Friday!

AKA: Super Bowl Eve Eve!

  • The results are in … and Zach LaVine is not an All-Star. Technically the Bulls go-to scorer can find his way into the game if he’s chosen as an injury replacement, but through all the proper voting, he didn’t make the cut.
  • The All-Star Game will be held in Chicago and, at the moment, nobody is representing the home team over the course of the weekend (UPDATE: Word just dropped that Wendell Carter Jr. is on the 2020 Rising Stars roster – more on that in a bit). Whether or not LaVine deserved it isn’t the true issue here. The problem is the continued failure of this rebuild. After trading away Jimmy Butler (who, by the way, will be making his 5th All-Star appearance this season), three years later, the Chicago Bulls were supposed to be in the win column.
  • The All-Star Game itself may not feel like it matters all that much, but having an All-Star player does. Multiple years into a rebuild and the Bulls haven’t found someone who can be anything more than a borderline All-Star candidate. The Bulls banked on two young stars as their potential All-Stars, and they failed. Now, with all eyes turned toward Chicago over the weekend of February 14th, that failure will be on full display for the nation to see.
  • To be fair, a bit of light can be shined on the Bulls if Zach LaVine does opt to do the dunk contest. In a lot of ways, a dunk contest victory on a home court may taste far more appetizing to the fans than a dunk or two in the All-Star Game. Yesterday, Aaron Gordon announced he will be participating, so is LaVine truly going to let him potentially take the crown in Chicago?
  • Fact: LaVine has more points per game than several All-Stars. Also fact: Several All-Stars have more wins and provide more all-around contribution than LaVine. I agree LaVine is an elite scorer in this league and deserves respect, but I also understand why he isn’t balling with the big boys on February 15th.
  • On Wednesday night, I guess Jim Boylen helped the Pacers.
  • NBC Sports’ Dan Feldman wrote a little more about this, but basically Boylen was a good sport and told the refs to send the right guy (a better free throw shooter) to the line. Are we really mad about this? I’m all for any justified criticism of Boylen – he’s deserved it and I’ve dished out plenty. But, I feel like this is just piling on. (1) The refs probably would have figured it out before Sabonis shot and (2) Boylen was just acting as a head coach confused with the foul call. If a coach saw an opposing player he didn’t see get fouled head to the line, he’d most likely want to know what the heck is going on. This might even be a display of Boylen actually doing his job. I don’t know about you, but who got fouled and who did the fouling seems like an important thing for a head coach to know. I’m still ready to move on from Boylen, but let’s focus on all his other reasonable faults.
  • Out with the new in with the old! That’s the phrase, right?
  • Denzel Valentine dropped his first rap song and music video. No comment at this time.
  • https://twitter.com/Jay_Cutty/status/1223048879580512258?s=20

  • The All-Star Game has some pretty cool rules.
  • Awww, Coby.
  • written by

    Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.

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