Pregame introductions are tricky. Through the use of bad music and cheesey animation, the public announce team tries to make 20 000 people excited to watch sports. I’ve only seen a couple live intros, The Clippers (mediocre) and the Oilers (the use of an inflatable oil derek makes it very unenjoyable). That said, I love the intro at Bulls games. I saw it tonight on WGN and found myself raising my arms and cheering along with everyone in the United Center. Deh deh deh dehdeh deh deh deh…”AND NOW, THE STARTING LINEUP, FOR YOUR CHICAGO BULLS!” It makes me so excited to watch the game, not to mention a little nostalgic for the threepeat teams. I even looked up prices to fly to Chicago from Edmonton over spring break ($550 on Air Canada).
As for the game…not as exciting. The Raps blew it open in the third and by the fourth the Bulls had completely fallen apart, turning the ball over and missing easy shots. Swirsky put it best when he said, “I know it’s early, but there’s something wrong with this Bulls team.” Now at 1-5, it seems like an obvious statement but this is a team that a lot of people picked to come out of the east. They played with no heart and looked completely lost on offense. The low-point had to be in the fourth quarter when the crowd started a Ko-be Ko-be Ko-be chant. That had to hurt. They were down by 36 at the time. I wouldn’t want to be in the Bulls locker room with Scott Skiles after this one. He’s intense.
Some good things from the Raptors: Jamario Moon chipping in with 12 points in his first NBA start; six raptors in double figures; Toronto shooting 54% from the field. I really loved that they didn’t let up in the fourth. Kapono and Calderon kept bombing threes and everyone on the floor kept up the defensive intensity. Good game.
2 Comments
November 11, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Good call on the AP Project. I thought they had stopped doing that intro for a while. Maybe the organization thought the team would be good again so they went back to it. I was talking with a guy at the U of A game last night about the Bulls and he said they needed Kobe. I don’t know if it’s the trade rumours that have them all messed up or if they just don’t mesh as a team, but whether they pull Kobe or not, something has to happen with their roster. The Bulls should be better than 1-5, and right now, I don’t think the Raps are that good that they should be spanking the Bulls like that.
Did you have to listen to Swirsky or the WGN announcers last night?
November 11, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I watched on tsn. I found the Bulls guys were too biased the other way. I figured if I was going to watch a biased broadcast, it might as well be in favour of the team I’m pulling for.
I really think they’d be giving up too much to get Kobe. They’ll be a good East team but not a contender. This Bulls team is good. It’s too early to blow them up. I think Skiles and Paxson are good enough to get this team going. They’ve got a lot of talent, they just need to make it work.
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