What’s New

The Bulls might be better served to rest some key players over the final eight games and hope for lottery luck, rather than chase a fading play-in dream. But coach Billy Donovan said there has been no such talk from executive VP Arturas Karnisovas.

It sure felt like a night to all of a sudden decide to go the tanky route.

Bulls head coach Billy Donovan, however, insisted that wasn’t the case.

Asked if there was any discussions with executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas about sitting guys with just eight games left in the regular season, Donovan said, “No, I haven’t had any conversations like that. Our focus [was on Atlanta Saturday] and then it will be coming back on Philly [Monday], but we have not had any discussions along those lines at all.’’

Considering how transparent Donovan has been with the media this season, there’s no reason to doubt him, but there’s also the reality of dealing with the league and how much they frown upon teams even hinting about tanking.

Yet, there the Bulls were against the Hawks, still without All-Star Zach LaVine and reserve guard Troy Brown Jr., and then minutes before tip-off announcing that All-Star center Nikola Vucevic was a late scratch after dealing with tightness in his right adductor.

So what would be the incentive to be overly-cautious with players at the expense of games at this point for the Bulls? After all, they are still in the running for a play-in spot, and could be until the final few games of the season.

It comes down to math.

While the Bulls are not eliminated, they are still in a very tough situation in the chase down of the Wizards. Not only does Washington have an easier schedule, but has been playing much more consistent basketball the last few weeks.

All the Bulls have on their side is the tie-breaker over the Wizards, and the hope that LaVine could be returning from the health and safety protocol at some point next week.

However, if the Bulls nose dive down the stretch here, miss the play-in and fall deeper into the lottery, there’s a chance that they could still salvage something from the 2021 draft with lottery luck. The Vucevic trade cost them a first round pick, but it is protected one through four.

As of Saturday, the Bulls were sitting in the No. 7 spot, having just a 6% chance to land No. 1, but a 26.3% chance to land in the top four and retain the pick.

The best-case scenario at this point would be they added Vucevic to go along with LaVine, can continue the development of 2020 first-round pick Patrick Williams, and then hit a top four spot in the 2021 lottery and land a Cade Cunningham or Jalen Suggs to solve the point guard issues.

Obviously, a lot would have to break their way and there’s a definite gamble going that route, but it’s much better than a scenario in which they miss the postseason and lose the draft pick to the Magic, walking out of the season with little to show for it.

Sound advice

Vucevic is admittedly not the most vocal leader, but he will speak up when he feels it’s time to. With so much still at stake for the Bulls and an uphill climb in front of them, the veteran big man did talk about the best philosophy to take down the stretch now.

“We can sit here and cry about it and be disappointed, but it won’t do us any good,’’ Vucevic said. “We just have to move on, take the wins and losses as they come and continue to move forward. You have to have a short memory.’’

Read More

A capsule look at the Bears’ 2021 draft class:

A capsule look at the Bears’ 2021 draft class:

Round 1, Pick 11
Justin Fields
Ohio State QB
6-2, 227 pounds
Age: 22

Background: A star high school baseball player and five-star football player in Kennesaw, Ga., 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, Fields stayed in-state to play at Georgia. After one year as the backup, he transferred to Ohio State, where he was simply dominant. He went 20-2 as a starter — both losses were in the playoffs — and threw 63 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He lost the national title game to Alabama this year; he was clearly hampered after a hit to his side.

The skinny: Trevor Lawrence was the only quarterback in college football with a two-year resume more impressive than Fields, who was a captain last year. His nimble feet and muscular build will enable him to run away from pressure and survive when he can’t. His accuracy will play well in the NFL, though his reads and progressions will need to speed up.

He said: “I feel like when big moments present themselves, I feel like there’s just another thing that kicks inside of me.”

Round 2, Pick 39
Teven Jenkins
Oklahoma State OT
6-5, 317 pounds
Age: 23

Background: The Topeka, Kansas, native started 35 games — 26 at right tackle, seven at left tackle and two at right guard — over four seasons at Oklahoma State. He opted out of the 2020 season after seven games.

The skinny: Jenkins has played right tackle since grade school. While he helped out on the left side in a pinch, he focused on trying to improve his left-handed steps this offseason. Jenkins said he’s also learned how to snap. Expect him to start at right tackle for the Bears.

He said: “I’m ready right now. I’m ready forever.”

Round 5, Pick 151
Larry Borom
Missouri OT
6-4, 322 pounds
Age: 22

Background: Borom was a basketball nut — his dad was 6-8 — until he played football for the first time his freshman year of high school. The last two seasons at Missouri, he started at right tackle 16 times, left guard twice and left tackle once.

The skinny: Like new teammate Teven Jenkins, Borom is both giant and physical. While he’ll be a developmental project this season, he could eventually pair with Jenkins to bring a nastiness the Bears’ offensive line lacked in recent years.

He said: “As a player, I’m a mean, physical, dominant big person that’s going to displace people off the line of scrimmage.”

Round 6, Pick 217
Khalil Herbert
Virginia Tech RB
5-9, 210 pounds
Age: 23

Background: Herbert never quite broke through at Kansas, but after transferring to Virginia Tech as a grad student, he piled up 1,183 yards and eight touchdowns last season. Also, he was born with six fingers on each hand (one on each hand was removed) and has a sixth toe on his left foot.

The skinny: The Bears are set at running back with David Montgomery starting and Damien Williams behind him. Herbert will have to fight off Artavis Pierce, who made the roster as an undrafted free agent last year, to claim a spot on the team. It’s more likely he ends up on the practice squad.

He said: “[I’m a] home-run hitter… I’m able to do everything out of the backfield.”

Round 6, Pick 221
Dazz Newsome
North Carolina WR
5-10, 190 pounds
Age: 21

Background: Versatile athlete from Hampton, Va. who played cornerback, wide receiver, running back and returned kicks in high school. Recruited to North Carolina as a cornerback, but switched to slot receiver as a freshman. Had 126 receptions for 1,702 yards and 16 touchdowns in his last two seasons.

The skinny: Sturdily built, tough receiver who is effective in the middle of the field. Route-running and attention-to-detail not yet what they need to be to succeed in the NFL.

He said: “I’m gonna come in and make an immediate impact. I’m gonna come in and do what needs to be done.”

Round 6, Pick 228
Thomas Graham Jr.
Oregon CB
5-10, 192 pounds
Age: 21

Background: Graham started 39 times and recorded eight interceptions in his first three years at Oregon before sitting out last year because of coronavirus concerns. He worked on his straight-line speed and showed it off at the Senior Bowl.

The skinny: Graham’s athleticism doesn’t jump off the page, but he’s been a productive, smart player since his freshman year. Pro Football Focus considered him the No. 76 prospect in the entire draft; if he comes close to that, he’ll be a steal.

He said: “[After opting out] I listened and learned from everybody and what they had to say about my game, and I just tried to see what I agreed on …”

Round 7, Pick 250
Khyiris Tonga
Brigham Young NT
6-2, 325 pounds
Age: 24

Background: A three-star recruit who did not play football as a senior in high school, Tonga did not play at BYU until he was 21 in 2017 after a two-year LDS mission. Started 32 games, including 22-of-24 games as a junior and senior.

The skinny: Typically stout run-stopping nose tackle with good, strong hands but also athletic enough to impact the pass game with rush ability and 12 career pass deflections.

He said: “[I’m] somebody who tries to be powerful — that’s something I pride myself in — being a powerful player and being disruptive and winning most of my one-on-ones and being able to find the ball.”

Read More

Read More

The Bears now have four incoming rookies, led by Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields.

The Bears drafted Virginia Tech running back Khalil Herbert in the sixth round at No. 217 overall. He averaged 7.6 yards per carry on his way to 1,183 for the season and rushed for eight touchdowns.

The Bears originally held the No. 208 pick, but traded it to the Seahawks for No. 217 and a seventh-rounder at No. 250.

Herbert, 23, was born with six fingers on each hand — one on each hand was removed when he was an infant — and he has six toes on his left foot and they are webbed. That doesn’t seem to have impacted him football-wise, and Herbert said at Big XII media day in 2018, “It’s all I know, so it doesn’t feel any different to me.”

The Bears have third-year running back David Montgomery in place as their starter, followed by veteran Damien Williams and developmental project Artavis Pierce.

The Bears opened the draft Thursday by trading up from No. 20 to 11 to land quarterback Justin Fields, then trading up in the second round Friday to get offensive tackle Teven Jenkins. Their next pick was No. 151 overall in the fifth round, and they added another offensive tackle in Missouri’s Larry Borom.

The Bears have two picks remaining at Nos. 221 and 228 overall in the sixth round.

Read More

A man was critically injured after being struck by a Metra train Saturday in Gresham on the South Side.

The man was struck by a train on the Rock Island line about 11 a.m. near the Gresham station, 820 W. 87th St., according to the Metra Rock Island Twitter account.

Paramedics transported the man to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was listed in critical condition, Chicago fire officials said.

Trains were stopped for over an hour as emergency crews responded to the scene, but were running with delays by Saturday afternoon.

Read More

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. — Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actress whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Cher’s mother in the romantic comedy “Moonstruck,” has died. She was 89.

Dukakis died Saturday morning in her home in New York City, according to Allison Levy, her agent at Innovative Artists. A cause of death was not immediately released.

Dukakis won her Oscar through a surprising chain of circumstances, beginning with author Nora Ephron’s recommendation that she play Meryl Streep’s mother in the film version of Ephron’s book “Heartburn.” Dukakis got the role, but her scenes were cut from the film. To make it up to her, director Mike Nichols cast her in his hit play “Social Security.” Director Norman Jewison saw her in that role and cast her in “Moonstruck.”

Dukakis won the Oscar for best supporting actress and Cher took home the trophy for best actress.

Reed Saxon/AP

She referred to her 1988 win as “the year of the Dukakii” because it was also the year Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, her cousin, was the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. At the ceremony, she held her Oscar high over her head and called out: “OK, Michael, let’s go!”

Dukakis, who was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, had yearned to be an actress from an early age and had hoped to study drama in college. Her Greek immigrant parents insisted she pursue a more practical education, so she studied physical therapy at Boston University on a scholarship from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

After earning her bachelor’s degree, she worked at an understaffed hospital in Marmet, West Virginia, and at the Hospital for Contagious Diseases in Boston.

But the lure of the theater eventually led her to study drama at Boston University.

It was a shocking change, she told an interviewer in 1988, noting that she had gone from the calm world of science to one where students routinely screamed at the teachers.

“I thought they were all nuts,” she said. “It was wonderful.”

Her first graduate school performance was a disaster, however, as she sat wordless on the stage.

After a teacher helped cure her stage fright, she began working in summer stock theaters. In 1960, she made her off-Broadway debut and two years later had a small part in “The Aspen Papers” on Broadway.

After three years with a Boston regional theater, Dukakis moved to New York and married actor Louis Zorich.

During their first years of marriage, acting jobs were scarce, and Dukakis worked as a bartender, waitress and other jobs.

She and Zorich had three children — Christina, Peter and Stefan. They decided it was too hard to raise children in New York with limited income, so they moved the family to a century-old house in Montclair, a New Jersey suburb of New York.

Jeff Chiu/AP

Her Oscar victory kept the motherly film roles coming. She was Kirstie Alley’s mom in “Look Who’s Talking” and its sequel “Look Who’s Talking Too,” the sardonic widow in “Steel Magnolias” and the overbearing wife of Jack Lemmon (and mother of Ted Danson) in “Dad.”

Her recent projects included the 2019 TV miniseries “Tales of the City” and the upcoming film “Not to Forgot.”

But the stage was her first love.

“My ambition wasn’t to win the Oscar,” she commented after her “Moonstruck” win. “It was to play the great parts.”

She accomplished that in such New York productions as Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children,” Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night” and Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo.”

For two decades she ran the Whole Theater Company in Montclair, New Jersey, specializing in classic dramas.

Zorich died in January 2018 at age 93.

While her passion lay in stage, a line from her Oscar-winning performance as Rose nonetheless seemed fitting: “I just want you to know no matter what you do, you’re gonna die, just like everybody else.”

___

The late Associated Press writer Bob Thomas in Los Angeles was the primary writer of this obituary.

Read More

One firefighter was hospitalized for “a minor eye injury,” fire officials said.

By

Sun-Times Wire

May 1, 2021, 3:13pm CDT

Read More

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s governor told members of the Sikh community and others who gathered at a downtown Indianapolis football stadium Saturday to remember the eight people killed in a mass shooting at a FedEx warehouse that he knows their anguish from the attack is far from over.

The three-hour event at Lucas Oil Stadium came two weeks after a former FedEx employee fatally shot the eight people, including four members of Indianapolis’ Sikh community, before killing himself. Authorities have not released a motive in the April 15 shooting.

Under the stadium’s open roof, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb said in his opening remarks that the capital city “is still reeling from the impact of that dark night.”

“Never in my wildest imagination did I see this day or this cause of gathering as a reason for our unification,” Holcomb told the hundreds of people in attendance at the stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play. “Why must any day be that dark? Why must tragedy strike and tear a community, tear humanity apart? This pain will for sure persist as we continue to live with the loss in all of our days to come.”

In a letter read aloud during the ceremony, former Vice President Mike Pence emphasized particular grief for the Sikh community, whose members “add to the tapestry of this country.”

“Know that our hearts and our prayers are with you all,” Pence, a former Indiana governor, said in his letter. “We join fellow Hoosiers across the state of Indiana and Americans across the country in expressing our heartfelt condolences. … You have been in our hearts since that horrific night, and you remain in our prayers today.”

A monotheistic faith founded more than 500 years ago in India’s Punjab region, Sikhism is the world’s fifth-largest religion with about 25 million followers, including about 500,000 in the United States.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said his message to the Sikh community, to immigrants and “to anyone who feels threatened by this act simply because of who they are” is that they are “welcome in Indianapolis, and it is the responsibility of every one of our residents to make sure you know that to be true.”

Hogsett, a Democrat, also reiterated his previous calls for changes to gun policy, saying the shooting could have been prevented. He said the city, state and country are “far past due for transformative action.”

Authorities have said that Brandon Scott Hole, 19, had two rifles that he was able to purchase legally, even after his mother called police last year to say her son might undertake “suicide by cop.” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears has faced sharp criticism for choosing not to pursue court hearings that could have prevented Hole from accessing the guns.

“When gun violence takes a life, it affects us all,” Hogsett said.

Private services for victims from the Sikh community are also expected to take place in the coming week. The proceedings will begin with cremation, followed by up to 20 days of reading of the 1,400-page Guru Granth Sahib scripture.

The victims’ families were granted roughly two-dozen fast-tracked visas so relatives overseas can travel for the funeral rites, said Amrith Kaur, legal director at the Sikh Coalition. They’re arriving just days before the U.S. restricts travel from India — a response spurred by a rise in COVID-19 cases in the country and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus.

___

Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Read More

Chicago Bears Draft: Charles Leno not safe after Larry Borom pick by Ryan Heckman

Back on October 12, 2020, Nick Foles led the Chicago Bears to a win over the Carolina Panthers, 23-16, on the road for his third straight start of the season.

After the game, Foles told reporters Meek Mill’s song Dreams and Nightmares, “got his juices going” in the locker room before the game and helped him get the win.

Now, after Ryan Pace has been a dream general manager for the Bears — snagging Justin Fields, Teven Jenkins, and Larry Borom in the NFL draft — Nagy has to turn his nightmare 2020 campaign around.

To paraphrase Philadelphia legend Meek Mill, “It’s time to marry the game and Matt Nagy needs to say ‘Yeah, I do.'”

Nick Foles is now shouting out Meek Mill because they played “Dreams and Nightmares” in the locker room and it got him juiced up and reminded him of Philly.

— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) October 18, 2020

Pace has developed an offensively-driven offseason for the Bears. With his job on the line, he is giving the offense a roster that Nagy can work with.

Let’s quickly sum up Pace’s offseason thus far.

In free agency, Pace went after Super Bowl-star running back Damien Williams, who stepped up for 104 rushing yards, 29 receiving yards, and two touchdowns with the Chiefs. His veteran presence will be good for David Montgomery, especially to take a physical workload off his back.

Recently, Pace captured Marquise Goodwin from free agency on a cheap deal. The veteran wideout is injury prone, having played only one full season. Yet, he will fill the gap for a bonafide third receiver.

Finally, Pace obviously acquired Andy Dalton on an expensive $10 million deal. Not a fan favorite, but has had his moments in his prime. A solid veteran presence is definite. Solid football player? Not so sure.

Now to the draft, Pace traded up to snag Justin Fields out of Ohio State University. For a long time, Fields was the unanimous second overall quarterback in the draft behind generational talent Trevor Lawrence. After having some rough starts against Big Ten opponents Northwestern and Indiana, his stock dropped. Nonetheless, he’s an NFL-ready quarterback.

To sum up, the Bears stole Teven Jenkins out of the second round and Larry Borom in the fifth round. The offensive line is improving, with these two rookies likely to start with James Daniels, Cody Whitehair, and possibly Alex Bars.

Percentage of passing yards that came before the catch (air yards) for Ohio State QBs + Power 5 Rank:

Justin Fields, 2020 — 70% (1st)
Justin Fields, 2019 — 72% (1st)

…

Dwayne Haskins, 2018 — 51% (41st)
JT Barrett, 2017 — 48% (52nd)

— Austin Gayle (@PFF_AustinGayle) March 31, 2021

Overall, the offense is rounding out.

The Bears offense is looking well. How so?

They have their franchise quarterback now and veterans to coach him up. The offensive line was awful last year, no debate there. Now, they added two high-profile rookies to spice up the line. The wide receiver core is solid — backed by Allen Robinson, Darnell Mooney, and Marquise Goodwin. David Montgomery has a true backup running back to share the field with Williams.

Now, the ball is in head coach Matt Nagy’s court.

Matt Nagy next season is finally exposed to having no more excuses for an unproductive offense. His offense was a nightmare last season, ranking 22nd in points per game and 28th in total yards per game.

Next season, at the helm of Justin Fields, Nagy should be able to get more creative with a versatile quarterback. Fields can run, air out the ball, etc. There are a lot of things Fields can do, but Nagy has to put it into action.

Let’s not forget, the run game needs credit too. David Montgomery threw the team on his back in the back half of last season to give himself his first 1,000 rushing yard season. They need to keep him and Williams more involved (37.73 rushing play percentage last season, 27th in the NFL).

Next: Chicago Bears: The Bears are quietly winning the NFL Draft

Pace’s dream offseason is coming together and tasking Nagy’s nightmare offense to come alive for the 2021 season. Can they pull it together? If not, it could be the end for at least one of them.

Read More

Is more trouble between the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers brewing? According to the latest report, it appears that way…

The post More trouble brewing in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers? first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More