.......in the form of making fun of the things he says.
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mariotti/384565,CST-SPT-jay14.article
Though it's not as bad as his earlier work "In a hole lot of trouble", there's a couple gems in here.
If [the Bulls' game 4 victory] was a token tease, a Mother's Day bouquet that wilts in two days, then the Bulls shouldn't bother traveling to Michigan and attempting a Palace coup. Because awakening in Game 4 will mean nothing if they go comatose again Tuesday, if they don't continue to surf the playoff growth curve, if they revert to gagging away colossal leads after shakily maintaining one Sunday.
So...if the Bulls lose a game after being down 3-1, it's like the one win doesn't even matter. Interesting analysis there, JayBird.
What the organization doesn't need right now is phony hope, a perception that one victory over the sluggish Pistons means the Bulls are on a championship course for the future.
Dear Bulls,
Please lose all games until you are ready to win the NBA Title.
Love,
Jay Mariotti and pnoles, your only two level-headed supporters.
In an arena where six banners hang in the rafters and a famous statue keeps standards high, settling for a 4-1 series loss in the Eastern Conference semifinals shouldn't fly.
So....what course of action are you suggesting? I'm forgoing any possible opportunity to be humorous here. I want to know what the hell that means. Do you think the players are just satisfied to be in the 2nd round? Do you expect the team to as good as the championship teams of the 90's every year? Michael Jordans aren't just found wandering the street. The team has showed steady progress over the past 4 years as the young players have improved. Not to say I'm satisfied with losing to the Pistons, but you need a serious grip on reality, Jay.
Look at it this way: Had the Bulls blown a 23-point lead after blowing a 19-point lead the previous game, the franchise could have ceased to exist and no one would have minded.
Well, even if you were the only person in existence, that's false, because the failure of Chicago teams is your only inspiration for writing anything.
Yes, it was nice to see Ben Wallace show up on time, answer swarms of local criticism, not fraternize with the enemy and produce the monster defensive game demanded. Sure, it was fun to see Luol Deng return to his Miami-series form, Kirk Hinrich active and smart again, Ty Thomas growing up before our eyes and Ben Gordon hitting critical three-pointers as the Pistons made an inevitable fourth-quarter charge. But it's hardly a reason to scream and dance, as too many of the United Center fans were doing after the 102-87 victory, after the Bulls let that lead shrink to seven points with 3:55 left.
You know what, you're right. Why don't the fans just turn their backs and exit quietly after a win???? It's fucking stupid, cheering like that when the team wins. Don't these fans even know that the Bulls winning the game didn't secure the NBA title?
If nothing else, the Bulls have commanded the Pistons' interest and earned some self-respect. It's hard to figure why they could look sharp and shoot almost 50 percent after mostly playing stinker ball five of the previous six halves.
Because.....shooting quality is a very luck dependent thing when you're talking about an individual game? Call me crazy Jay, but a pattern of shooting quality between halves that goes bad, bad, bad, bad, good, bad, good, good.......it just doesn't have "conundrum" written all over it. More like "random".
Or did they? Who are the real Bulls? Tuesday, the riddle is answered at last.
What is the true quality of this team? Surely, the results of one game will finally answer this with complete confidence.
