Not In The Stars For Bulls

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Feb 1, 2008 4:45PM

The NBA finalized the All-Star game rosters, announcing the reserves on Thursday. It should come as no surprise that the Bulls will not represented. Again.

When the All-Stars take the court on February 17 game in New Orleans, it will mark the tenth consecutive year without an All-Star for the Bulls. Not since MJ suited up in a Bulls uniform have they been represented in the game. Prior to this decade-long drought, the Bulls had only failed to send a player to the game three times -- 1975, 1980 and 1984.

Before the season began, we thought that the Bulls would have sent at least one, possibly two, players to New Orleans. We were fairly certain that Luol Deng would continue to blossom and become of the league's top players. Ben Gordon also looked like he might be able justify a place among the league's elite. However, this year has been a disaster for the Bulls in good part because of their play, as well as injuries.

With no star to take the team on his shoulders or motivate the rest of the squad, they've played an uninspired form of basketball unlike anything we've seen from what used to be a scrappy, hard working team. We believed - as did GM John Paxson - that this team could continue to improve in spite of a true star player. Guess we were all a bit optimistic.

Maybe Pax can address this deficiency before the trading deadline. More likely, it's what he'll have to address this summer. Perhaps he's better off Deng and Gordon didn't sign the long-term extensions offered to them. At least he'll have money and cap room to go after somebody who can lead the Bulls and give Bulls fans a reason to watch the All Star Game.