Are you gonna pay Derrick Rose's Rent?

Everyone's your brother until the rent comes due. - Ronin 1998

The Chicago Bulls season ended last week with a trouncing by the LeFlop James led Miami Heat. Derrick Rose the erstwhile Bulls Superstar did not play a single minute during the Regular Season or Playoffs while rehabbing his knee. Rose suffered a torn ACL during the 2012 playoffs .

Now, the injury rehabilation became a sticking point for Rose, his family, the Bulls Organization and Fans. According to the post-operation schedule, the Doctor who performed the ACL reconstruction suggested Rose would be ready to play by early April and that a month of games in the regular season would be the final step in the healing process.

Starting in late March, Derrick Rose through his brother Reggie and his own Twitter account let it be known that he was listening to his family and while he might come back it was only when he could "dunk of his left foot" and his knee 'felt comfortable'.

This caused much confusion and consternation in Chicago Sports scene. As the regular season dragged on and various other players gutted through injuries or missed games themselves. Luol Deng missed the entire playoff series with the Heat because of a vicious flu strain which Doctors were worried was Viral Meningitis.

As the Bulls struggled the confusion morphed into mild displeasure and then grumbling anger towards Rose. Chicago "Fans" questioned his toughness, mental and physical. They accused him of malingering.

I don't know what the collective bargaining agreement betweeen Players and Owners in the NBA stipulates. I do know that the Bulls through insurance recovered 40% of Rose's salary for the Season, roughly $6.5 million of $16.4 million, with whomever, his contract is indemnified.

The story of Hunter Hillenmeyer of the Chicago Bears is illustrative:

On August 28 2010, Hillenmeyer suffered a concussion during a pre-season game. He was placed on injured reserve before the season and has never played again. The Bears terminated his contract Feb. 28, 2011, one month after the team's concussion consultant, Dr. Elizabeth Pieroth, a board certified clinical neuropsychologist, examined him and recommended he no longer play. The Bears cut him with one year and $1.8 million remaining on his contract. According to the union, Article 45 of the collective bargaining agreement stipulates Hillenmeyer is eligible for an injury protection benefit of 50 percent of his base salary up to $1 million.

The Chicago Bears have not paid the 50% of Hillenmeyer's final contract. In the modern world of Sports you're earning a million dollars one day and out of work the next. Careers, most often, end in men's early 30's. Derrick Rose doesn't owe Bulls Fans anything. When his career is over no one in Chicago is going to help him out.

But, this is where the narrative gets most muddled. Through his actions it appears Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf is one of the few sports franchise owners who goes out of his way to help up and look out for his former employees.

Several Bulls players hit upon hard times after their playing careers have ended.

Randy Brown, a fringe player, who averaged 5ppg over his career of 655 games was part of the Bulls Second 3-Peat. Brown had to file for Bankruptcy and auction off his 3 rings. Reinsdorf simply created a "special assistant" job for Brown and hired him in 2009.

Scottie Pippen who made several bad contracts and was outspokenly truculent with the Bulls about his perceived contractual slights also reportedly fell into bankruptcy after his career ended. In 2010, Pippen rejoined the Bulls as an "ambassador".  

“Jerry has been very warm towards me over the years and has never turned me down for anything,” said Pippen.

In 2003, another Bulls Point Guard, Jay Williams injured himself. This time it wasn't on the court but a motorcycle accident during the off-season, which almost resulted in Williams losing his leg and requiring Williams to undoe multiple surgeries, extended hospital time and an arduous long recovery. 

Even though the accident could have been prima facie evidence of a contract violation because the Bulls had written into Williams contract that he was not to ride motorcycles, the Bulls organization helped pay his medical bills and a portion of the second season salary. Williams never played an NBA game again.

Jerry Reinsdorf has a clear track record of being loyal and compassionate towards his former athlete  employees which goes beyond what is normally seen in the cut-throat world of Sports Capitalism.

So, I think Rose has reached an incorrect conclusion about his post playing career but I don't fault him for reaching it.

The March of the Bulls

I managed to get to a Chicago Bulls game this year. I hadn't been to one since early 2002 during the early Post Jordan bleech era.

The United Center is fantastic, my beautiful partner and I walked around the venue, played a Presidential knowledge game, saw former player and current announcer Bill Wennington (he's very tall) and a magician. The layout is excellent and the food choices are vastly superior to what I assumed they would be (I had sat in a corporate box and did not tour the facilities in '02).

Anyway the Bulls played last season's Eastern Conference Champion Magic. Prior to the game, the Bulls honored Derrick Rose for his selection to the 2012 Olympic Team and addition to the NBA All-Star Team. Unfortunately, early on in the game Rose drove the lane and was met mid-air by Dwight Howard. I got a chance to see Dwight Howard during the Magic shoot around prior to the game. Rose is 6'3 and 190 lbs and Howard is 6'11 and 275 lbs of fright inducing muscle. Yikes. We both half-jokingly speculated Howard and the well stretched Magic players were upset with Rose's pre-game ceremony. Rose left the game with a hip pointer and with Joakim Noah out Howard and the Magic quickly jumped out to a 20-6 lead and won the game easily 87-107.

I don't know if Howard is Superman or not but while his final stat line looked good with 18 points and 14 rebounds, Howard utterly dominated the game after he sent Rose sprawling. Howard did whatever he wanted to on the floor from monster alley-oop dunks and effortless rebounds to taking whatever position he wanted on the court. For the Bulls, John Salmons tried to fill in but had a terrible game and paved the way for his eventual trade.

However, the Bulls have been playing good basketball since that loss and after the return of Rose and Hinrich from early season injuries and will probably finish as the 5th/6th seed barring some late season collapse. Last year the Bulls outplayed the Celtics in the first round of the Playoffs but lost the series 3 to 4 due to dirty play from the Big Baby Celtics team.

Besides the aforementioned trade of Salmons the Bulls unloaded the uber-talented but undermotivated Tyrus Thomas and acquired the interesting Hakim Warrick and role-player Flip Murray but more importantly they freed up cap space for the chase of the Mystical 2010 Free Agents but until then the Bulls look poised for a first round show and possible victory.

Justice (as seen through a hoop)

The quality of mercy is not strain'd Portia, from Shakspear's The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I

Ach, too easy... How's about:

You are the Enemy I name Thee now... and this I swear: to my last breath I shall block You on earth.... ~ Amadeus: A Play by Peter Shaffer

The Bulls did end up losing to the Celtics in Game 7 of a very exciting playoff series. Too bad, however, the Bulls players did not resort to cheap shots on the Celtic players in order to win the game or in retaliation for the Celtics dirty play through the series, mainly by Rajon Rondo.

What struck me as pertienent was the Bulls’ fans reactions to the perceived injustice in the foul calling. The actions of Rondo were against the rules and the spirit of the game. When the fans saw his actions were not be penalized they wished the Bulls players would exact some measure of revenge.

Humans have an evolved sense of right and wrong. What the fans wanted was a variation of the Tit-for-Tat, Retaliator or other system given to the evolutionary defense mechanism of reciprocal altruism.

Tit-for-Tat is not the best strategy ever and has been defeated but only when others have worked out detailed attempts to specifically defeat it. The one I favor and have used (playfully) is nicknamed Grim. Grim punishes cheats with ETERNAL vengeance. I do seem to recall "someone" else favoring the Grim strategy.

The Case for Special Pleading

Besides politics, sports creates the most opportunities for man to engage in Special Pleading.

Those who fall prey to the Special Pleading often defend actions committed by members of their party while condemning members of the other party for those same actions.

Yesterday, the Bulls lost a tough game to the Celtics. With the Bulls losing by 2 and a few seconds remaining, Brad Miller received an in-bounds pass and lumbered to the basket for a game tying shot. While en route, Rajon Rondo of the Celts swung and hacked him across the face, opening up a cut and knocking Miller down. It took several minutes for play to resume and a clearly woozy Miller short-armed the first free throw pretty much ensuring the Bulls loss. The foul probably should have been called a flagrant foul.

After the goonish behavior of some teams (mainly the Pistons and Knicks) in the late 80's and early 90's, the NBA instituted the flagrant foul to distinguish between hard contact fouls and attempts to strike the player to stop them from scoring. Rondo intent was to strike Miller to stop him from scoring. It was not a play on the ball, it was not a hustle play with incidental yet forceful contact but a wild swing of the arm with a deliberate intent. The so-called 'no easy lay-ups in the playoffs'.

But, in comes the Special Pleading by Celtic fans. To wit: Rondo's smaller than Miller! The refs called Ray Allen for bogus fouls, this (non) call makes up for them. Miller is dirty so this is justice. Bulls fans are cry-babies. Kevin Garnett is classy!

I don't blame referees for calls (unless they actually commit a crime) as they have an extremely difficult job. However, it is why I favor instant replay as an aid to getting calls correct.

Of course, the ironic thing is, Boston fans and the Boston Globe recently hyped a referee/Bulls conspiracy. Of course, crying conspiracy now allows the Celtics fans to angrily denounce the non-flagrant call as sweet, sweet revenge. And it also affords them the mental gymnastics to never face the proposition the Bulls are the better team in this series and should have won. But, the Bulls lost and might not have the energy to pull out the series in 7.

Update:
Listening to 670 The Score on the day after the Flagrant game was interesting. The key overlooked position is the NBA assumed unwritten policy of make-up calls during a game. Perhaps the Ray Allen foul out call was wrong, so the refs made up for that by not calling a flagrant on Rondo to "even" the score. Sports blogs are full of Celtic fans espousing the two wrong calls make a right and citing earlier "examples" of refs missing calls as a defense for the non-flagrant call.

Being an NBA referee sucks. I wouldn't want the job. They immediately anger 50+% of the fans who watch the game for human mistakes. Rondo's head chopping call was an obvious foul call but much of what they do is interept fast paced action involving incredibly gifted men (but not women since they shouldn't play basketball). They are going to make mistakes, they are going to miss minute details. It fucking happens. They should not be derided for that, but any intentional direction to even out missed calls by missing future ones is unacceptable.