Chicago Bulls: I Miss Luol Deng…Bulls Fans Will Too!

This article goes out to Luol Deng. This is from me and the real knowledgeable Chicago Bulls fans out there. This column is for you. Believe me Mr. Deng, you will know  your fan base who  know about basketball based on the comments that is written down below. This article goes out to the single most loyal player in Chicago Bulls history…

Luol Deng.

It’s a real shame that Luol Deng’s name has been connected to one of the seemingly hundreds of sports scandals that have gone on lately. If it wasn’t for the NFL seemingly deactivating  players by the day, the racism scandal with the dysfunctional Atlanta Hawks would be stealing the sports headlines. But you know what is sad. The fact that this incident and seemingly little amount of attention that it received is symbolic of Deng’s career.

For the first time in Luol Deng’s career, he will be not playing in a Bulls uniform on opening night. He will be down in South Beach starting the post LeBron era in Miami. It’s amazing that his signing went for the most part under the radar. It was almost as if Deng was a consolation prize for LeBron James running home after getting “Daddied” in the Finals last summer.

This just in to Pippen Ain’t Easy…Luol Deng is going to be a major factor this year playing for the Miami Heat. Deep down, the knowledgeable Chicago Bulls fans know it.

Feb 26, 2014; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers small forward Luol Deng (9) handles the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Derek Fisher (6) during the second quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s just forget Deng’s tenure in Cleveland last year. We all knew that Luol Deng was in no danger of staying in that clown show up there. Remember, Mike Brown was the head coach at that time. The general manager had just gotten fired and Floyd Mayweather probably could have used some players in the Cavaliers locker room for the undercard of his  last fight from all the rumors of the fighting that was going on. Oh, let’s just wrap up the dysfunction in Cleveland with this nugget of information. It seems that Atlanta Hawks GM, Danny Ferry wasn’t lying when he said he was reading a scouting report about Deng in that ill-fated meeting when he said Deng “…had a little African in him.” Guess where that scouting report came from?

You heard it here first on Pippen Ain’t Easy, from the Editor…

Luol Deng will win the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

You see, everyone seems to think there is gloom and doom in Miami now that James is gone. Have you noticed any panic from Pat Riley and company? Outside of replacing a couple of coaches on the bench, the Heat made a couple of additions and basically resigned everyone back.

Deng will be written off because of two reasons here.

Number one, everything Deng does will be compared to the way LeBron James did things for the last four years. But will things get better? I think so. Now that Deng is town, NBA fans don’t have to look at him crying for every call in games. NBA fans don’t have to watch the Heat feel entitled to win every game just by showing up.

Check out what a Heat official told Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.

"“We can’t just show up and expect to win it in the fourth quarter anymore.”"

Guess what. They won’t. Why? Because Luol Deng won’t. When have you seen Luol Deng take a night off in Chicago? I’ll wait. Luol Deng is the ultimate professional that will put it all on the line to help his team win. If that wasn’t the case, do you really think that Pat Riley would sign this guy? The Heat will be a different team, but that doesn’t mean they are worse.

Jun 10, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Danny Green (4) shoots against Miami Heat center Chris Bosh (1) during the first half of game three of the 2014 NBA Finals at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Number two, Luol Deng will not be run into the ground in Miami because he has weapons to play with as well. Last I heard Chris Bosh was still there. He’s an All-Star!  He still has Dwyane Wade who still had his best year in terms of efficiency. Even when LeBron was in Miami, I always thought that Wade was the key to the Heat winning NBA titles, no matter what James did. As everyone saw in the NBA Finals when Wade disappeared, so did the Heat title hopes. Everyone saw how the Heat handled Wade’s minutes during the season last year. Expect more of the same with Deng’s minutes. He doesn’t have to worry about a coach combining marathons and basketball as one sport. They monitor minutes in Miami.

Speaking of being run into the ground. The Chicago Bulls are not totally exempt from all of this. This so-called scouting report came from somewhere. Remember, Luol Deng was only up in Cleveland long enough to have  a cup of coffee. All of that information couldn’t  have come from the Cavs.

If there is one thing in life that drives me nuts, it’s when anyone tries to throw people under the bus to cover up the dirt that they are doing. The Chicago Bulls seems to fit the description in this case.

Look the NBA is a business. We all know this and if you don’t think that there’s more to basketball than what goes on courtside, I have a Michael Jordan statue in front of the United Center I can sell real cheap. Just meet me at 1060 West Addison with the check.

Oct 31, 2012; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls vice president of basketball operations John Paxson (left) and general manager Gar Forman (right) chat prior to a game against the Sacramento Kings at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

If the Bulls floated this scouting report out, there is a underlying problem here. Why?  Because it portrays Deng as a “problem” in the locker room when it seems that he was a proud man who wasn’t going to be run over by the Bulls front office.

Why shouldn’t he feel that way? Since Deng laced up his sneakers in 2004, he has helped turn around one of the biggest laughingstock franchises of the NBA at the time. He looked at his situation like any other working stiff in America. He wanted to be respected for what he brought to the table every night. Playing on a Tom Thibodeau team that had the man expected to play 40 minutes a night constitutes a lot of respect.

The Bulls seemed to forget the words to the song Aretha Franklin made famous. Let’s look over the history shall we?

How about that broken leg that happened earlier in his career?

How about that Bulls mandated spinal tap he had to take when he was sick in the 2013 playoffs versus the Heat. Did I mention that the whole team had the illness? Did I mention that he was the only one to take the spinal tap? Well when he had the reaction to the tap, he got violently sick putting him in the hospital for several days where he lost a ton of weight. If you remember, the Bulls showed all the support of someone removing a ran over dog off to the side of a highway.

How about the torn wrist ligaments in which the Bulls wanted operated on? Both sides clashed because Deng wanted to play on the Great Britain national team in the Olympics.

I’ve always had a problem with the way the Bulls handled Deng’s exit. The ‘take it or leave it’ offer (allegedly) that was given to Deng before he was traded.

Danny Ferry will fall on the sword for what he read on the conference call in that meeting. He may get fired, he may not. It is what it is with him. But the way Luol Deng handled the situation was so classy, that I am rooting for him to be successful in Miami. But if what Ferry read was Chicago’s words in that scouting report, the Bulls front office should be ashamed because that is a completely classless way of treating someone who has gone way beyond what was required to bring this franchise back from complete embarrassment.

Luol Deng. This article is for you. I’ll miss you sir. I admire and will try to emulate what you did if I ever get caught in a situation like yours. It won’t be the same in the United Center on opening night.

The real Chicago Bulls fans will miss you too.

I  hope you can hang out with your brother at the All-Star weekend like old times.

Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Hopefully, all Bulls fans won’t miss you if you help lead the Miami Heat over the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.