Another forgettable finishing performance, indeed.  Skiles and Gordon both said after the game that they are not panicked.  I think however, any random sampling of 2 people from the city of Chicago is panicked enough for the whole team.  While Kobe chants were not heard inside the UC last night, walking out of the United Center yesterday people could be heard screaming for KOBE!  My take:  We are still being too quick to judge this team. Even if we end up starting 0-6, we ought to give em a chance to play out of it.  Too many fans want results now.  The Bulls had a bad week.  Agreed.  But lets be honest, they are shooting horrendously.  They are 29th in the league in FG%.  27th in the league in 3pt%.  Opponents are shooting the lights out on us (see last night).  And oh yeah, there's also the list of ten other things I mentioned yesterday.

Chicago sports fans in general are too demanding.  People seem to forget that in the last 12 months, we've had the Bears in the Super Bowl, the Cubs winning the division and making the playoffs, and the Bulls going deeper into the playoffs than they have been since the '98 championship season.

T.J. Simers from the LA Times thinks Kobe is worth practically "everyone on our roster, Alfonso Soriano, Brian Urlacher, and The Picasso."  Those are the kind of trade talks that really send me far and away against a possible Kobe trade.  The truth of the matter though? Simers is correct in the sense that there cannot really be a deal worked out unless it does include at least 3 Bulls players.  We just have to completely gut our team to get Kobe.  Try the ESPN trade machine.  See what you can get to work and you will see what I mean.  The salaries below speak for themselves.  How can we make a trade without Wallace (whom the Lakers apparently want no part of due to his contract), or Hinrich (whom we cannot afford to lose)?  If there is not a third team involved, we basically cannot trade unless we give up some serious stars (Deng, Hinrich AND Gordon), in return for Kobe and some lower paid Lakers.

                                                                              Bulls vs. Lakers Salaries

 In other news, Luol Deng will be interviewed today on Nike Basketball.