When the Bulls visited the Meadowlands on opening night – Halloween night, appropriately enough – no team in the league could have been described as more dysfunctional. Not even the Knicks.
Ben Gordon and Luol Deng had just turned down lucrative contracts, and Kobe-to-Chicago rumors were swirling around the team. The Bulls are back in Jersey tonight with their 21-31 record, minus coach Scott Skiles, with Gordon and Deng still in Bulls uniforms, and with Kobe Bryant happily chasing another championship with Pau Gasol in L.A.
Gordon and Deng have been wondering if their names will be called with the trading deadline coming tomorrow at 3 p.m. Doesn’t look that way.
Deng, who turned down a $57.5 million extension before the season, was in no mood to share his thoughts with reporters before the game, offering mostly one-word answers. At one point, one of the Chicago-based beat writers said, “You seem to be in a bad mood lately. Is anything wrong?”
“I just don’t like talking before games,” Deng said, with an icy stare.
Ben Wallace, who was rumored to be heading to the Knicks a few weeks ago, said before the game he’s pretty sure he’s not going anywhere. There are no takers for the declining, 33-year-old Wallace and the $28.5 million he has left on his contract.
I asked interim coach Jim Boylan how confident he was that the team he puts on the floor tonight will be the same team that faces Denver Friday night. “Fairly confident,” Boylan said, after wondering aloud if it was a trick question.
After asking which term was stronger – fairly or very – Boylan corrected himself: “Then I’ll go with very.”
Nets coach Lawrence Frank also expressed confidence that his team is finished dealing, which certainly appears to be the case – at least where Vince Carter is concerned – despite reports to the contrary.
“I’m under every impression that the group we have tonight is going to be the same group we have when we play Indiana [Friday night],” L-Frank said. “Can anything happen with the trading deadline? Anything can happen. It affects every team.
“The difference for us is, our captain wanted to be traded. We had to address that. We’ve been in a holding pattern for so long, and we had to move on.”
Kidd’s replacement, Devin Harris, will be out 10-14 days with a sprained left ankle. Once he’s back, the Nets want to see what they are with Harris, Carter, Richard Jefferson, Nenad Krstic and Josh Boone before they decide what to do with Carter. At least that’s the plan with 19 hours to go before the deadline.