On the John
Originally completed March 25, 2009
First, he was the replacement. Jay Williams crashed his motorcycle a week before the draft, and suddenly the Bulls needed a point guard. Had Williams not hopped on that bike, maybe Pax would have nabbed Mike Sweetney or Jarvis Hayes or Nick Collison. Instead, it was Kirk Hinrich.
Next, he was the surprise. Williams was done, gone. The progress the Bulls made in 2003, a 30-win season that prompted the 2003-04 slogan “History In the Making,” was fading. They fired their coach, traded their star, and may have slumped over and died once and for all. And yet here was Hinrich, this floppy-haired kid from Kansas, rising above the chaos of that particular Bulls season and giving them a face. And when the all-rookie 1st team was announced, it was James, Anthony, Wade, Bosh…and our man Hinrich.
That next season, he became the captain. Captain Kirk. Captain of an oh and nine, going nowhere, too many rookies and young guys squad…but then they started winning, winning, winning, and soon the Bulls had gone from a 4-15 cellar-dweller to a 22-19 playoff hopeful. The four rooks, the two baby Bulls, Antonio Davis and the veterans, and Kirk, the leader of the pack.
He got better as they got better. And then a contract extension on Halloween of ’06 finalized it: Captain Kirk was officially a cornerstone.
A sweep of the defending champs in the first round of the ’07 playoffs, a six-game dance with the Detroit Pistons in the second round, another lottery pick yielding more front-court power—all of it had NBA followers pegging the Bulls as the team to beat in the East in 2008.
But then, chaos. Losing, losing, losing. Out goes Skiles. Out goes Wallace. The core of Gordon, Deng, Hinrich, Nocioni, and Duhon—to a man, they saw their PPG drop from the year before, for a total of 12 points lost per game. Hinrich’s drop (16.6 to 11.5) was the most severe.
Disarray. Confusion.
But hope was reborn with the convergence of two unlikely events: the Bulls lucking into the first pick of the 2008 draft, and Chicago-native Derrick Rose playing his way into that top spot. Now the Bulls had their star. They had their point guard. So what of Hinrich? Duhon was definitely out, signing with the Knicks, leaving Gordon and Hinrich to fight for the other guard spot. And the winner would be…Thabo Sefolosha?
Kirk rode the pine for five games, and when the Thabo experiment ended, it was the captain reclaiming his job in game 6…
…before an injury forced him to miss the next 31.
Now it was Ben Gordon’s turn, and the man from UConn did not disappoint. Rose-Gordon was the solidified backcourt. When Kirk returned, he returned to the bench.
With Rose a late scratch for last night’s game against Detroit, Hinrich was called upon, the starting point guard once more, if only for a night. And what did we get from the forgotten man? A game high 24 points, a team high 8 assists, and a Bulls win.
It was wonderful to see Hinrich out there running the floor. Great to see him doing his thing on the defensive end, meshing so well with Gordon and Tyrus and our man Johnny Fishsticks. And while I wouldn’t expect him to say it, and it didn’t necessarily show on his face, five’ll get you ten that “Captain Backup” was sticking it to more than just the Pistons with his fabulous play.
So what now? The Rose-Gordon-Hinrich trio poses the same problem that the Duhon-Hinrich-Gordon problem once posed: three short guys. The difference here is that one of those short guys is the franchise player. Gordon’s contract is up, so he might be gone. But nobody bit last August when Ben tried for a new contract elsewhere. Combine that with the economic squeeze all teams are under and a possible successful playoff run with the Rose-Gordon backcourt, and who knows what might happen? And now, with Salmons leading the team in scoring this past month, the club is facing an issue of minutes, usage, and starts between Salmons and the currently-injured and monstrously-contracted Deng.
Keep Hinrich, Gordon, and Deng? Lose one, two, or all three of them? Lose Gordon or Hinrich and you still need a big guard. Keep Salmons and Deng and you still need to give one of them the start and the minutes…
In a flash, this is no longer my beloved 2004-05 Bulls. That team holds a special place in my Bulls heart—after all, I’d fought through Kornel David and Dedric Willoughby and Chris Anstey and Chris Carr and Cory Carr and Corey Benjamin and John freaking Starks to get there.
Now, as it should be, everything is filling in around Rose. Tyrus is developing, Salmons is playing serious ball, and we have a new core, one that could make us proud even if they get swept from the playoffs. This is the world of professional sports. Players come and players go. But can’t we save some room for the guy so full of surprises?
Copyright 2009, jm silverstein