The Chicago Bulls are on a very impressive four-game winning streak. They have defeated some good teams this season and are now 21-10 which is good enough for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. For a team following a COVID-19 outbreak, they are doing really well now that they are starting to get healthy again.

The good news is that they are in a stretch of games right now that they should be able to win. Of course, anything can happen in pro sports but they will be favored in all of these games. There is a realistic chance that they get their winning streak up to ten. It is possible to lose to a team that is worse than you so they still need to play at their best but it could end up being a great run.

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Kirby Dach has been introspectively rubbing his goatee a lot lately.

As the Blackhawks’ holiday break has lengthened into a two-week pause, engulfing the end of the franchise’s chaotic 2021 calendar year, the franchise’s anointed future cornerstone has found arguably too much time to reflect on his own frustratingly fruitless year.

“I just want to become the player that I know I am,” Dach, who will turn 21 in January, said Tuesday. “It has been 2.5 years. The ups and downs, the lulls [and] the highs, it’s frustrating. It sucks.

“As much as an athlete shouldn’t be really paying attention to outside noise, it’s tough to run away from that stuff. I know I’ve got to be better. That’s all it really comes down to.”

Exactly one year ago Tuesday, he seemed to surprise him by recalling, he was undergoing surgery on the wrist he flukily broke in last year’s World Junior Championships.

His wrist feels fine now, and has since late summer. But the obstacle that recovery period shoved into his development path — limiting him to just 18 games at less-than-100% health last season and just 48 total this calendar year — has proven more difficult than expected to move on from.

“It has been a long year,” he said. “Obviously, I don’t think I’m where I should be, but that’s for me to clean up and get better at. There’s a lot left on the table, [and] there’s still a lot of season left to get to that point.”

In those 48 games, Dach tallied 23 points — seven goals, 16 assists — and won only 35.7% of his 485 faceoffs.

There are several indicators he’s playing better than it seems outwardly. He excels with offensive zone entries — 75.0% of his entries are with puck control, dwarfing the league average of 52.4%, per analyst Corey Snzajder’s data. And his passing is deceptively good, too — he averages 4.2 scoring chance assists per 60 minutes, well above the league average of 2.6, per Snazjder. He’s the Hawks’ second-best forward in both categories.

But Dach’s reputation continues to be shaped — in a negative way — by his unwillingness to shoot the puck and by his lack of overall production, partially as a result.

Expectations are so high for a third overall pick by his third season that those weaknesses simply aren’t acceptable anymore. The Sun-Times’ Dec. 18 Polling Place survey found only 58.9% of Hawks fans still believe Dach can become a first-line center, much less a Jonathan Toews-esque star. He hears that criticism, too.

“I never really want to be a guy that’s known [for getting] a bunch of grade-A chances and can’t score,” he said.

He insists it’s not the pressure of playing in the NHL that is getting to him, though. Instead, it’s his own — the pressure he puts on himself “to be better for the team, [for] the organization.”

As a team, the Hawks have collectively stopped overthinking and started trusting their instincts since Derek King took over. Instigating that mentality shift has been King’s biggest success as interim coach.

Dach, however, remains stuck in his own head, trying perhaps too hard to make something great happen every shift. Unlocking his immense natural talent has proven to be a difficult task. But King remains optimistic he’ll eventually break through.

“He’s his worst critic,” King said. “He’s hard on himself and takes a lot of pride in his game, which sometimes [is] hard to find in a young player. Sometimes I forget, and a lot of people forget, how [young] he is. He’s just a kid.

“It’s not like it’s an overnight thing, but it’s not going to be three or four years down the road until he figures it out. He’s figuring it out now and he’s just got to hone [his game] now. I like the way he’s going.”

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The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have a very interesting history. They are one of the most well-known programs in college football history. They get themselves into trouble from time to time because of the fact that they aren’t in a conference but they play good football. They have done a lot of winning over the last ten years.

They have had a good coaching staff and athletic director which led to a lot of that winning but having good quarterbacks has also helped a lot. They never had a Joe Burrow or Trevor Lawrence level player but that hasn’t been needed. All they needed was a good college quarterback to get the job done, not a future NFL superstar.

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A man was wounded by gunfire on Interstate 94 on the South Side Monday night.

The shooting happened about 8:20 p.m. near 47th Street, when someone inside an unknown vehicle opened fire, striking the 44-year-old man, according to the Illinois State Police.

He was hospitalized with injuries not life-threatening, police said.

The northbound lanes of I-94 were closed at Garfield Boulevard during the investigation, but reopened about 10:45 p.m., police said.

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NEW YORK — Harvey Evans, an actor, singer and dancer who had a knack for landing roles in the original Broadway productions of such classics as “West Side Story,” “Follies” “Hello, Dolly!” and “Gypsy,” has died. He was 80.

Evans died Christmas Eve at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, said Lawrence Leritz, a friend and Broadway actor, dancer, singer, producer and director. “He was dearly loved by the Broadway community. Very kind, embracing, funny and always had a smile on his face. I can’t ever remember not being hugged by this loving man,” Leritz said.

“We lost a great one,” wrote Harvey Fierstein on Twitter in tribute. “He’s why we love musicals,” wrote playwright and author Paul Rudnick. Added Bernadette Peters, Harvey “was the dearest most talented being one could ever have the privilege of knowing.”

Evans was rarely cast in leading Broadway roles but found a place in timeless shows. He starred opposite Angela Lansbury in “Anyone Can Whistle” and played Barnaby in “Hello, Dolly!” opposite Carol Channing, then Betty Grable and then Eve Arden.

“When I look back,” Evans told Playbill in 2007, “I think I’ve had some kind of angel on my shoulder, leading me toward the best shows of Broadway’s golden years. I didn’t pick and choose them — they just came around that way.”

Evans, who was born Harvey Hohnecker, grew up in Cincinnati and fell in love with musical theater after seeing a touring production of “Song of Norway.” “My entire childhood was spent waiting to graduate from high school so I could go to New York and be in a Broadway show,” he told Playbill.

Evans made it to New York in 1955 and would become friendly with choreographers Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins. Evans’ first musical as a dancer on Broadway was “New Girl in Town,” which starred Gwen Verdon and was choreographed by Fosse.

He changed his name while filming a small role in 1962’s “Experiment in Terror” directed by Blake Edwards and starring Glenn Ford and Lee Remick. He and fellow actress Taffy Paul decided to remake themselves — he became Evans and she became Stefanie Powers.

Evans also was cast by Fosse for “Redhead,” with Verdon, and the movie of “The Pajama Game.” Other highlights were starring on Broadway with Henry Fonda and Margaret Hamilton in a revival of “Our Town” in 1969 and being a standby for Jim Dale in “Barnum” in the early 1980s. He was a chimney sweep when Julie Andrews immortalized “Mary Poppins” on film in 1964.

“I’ve had my name above the title and I’ve had it way down low,” he told Playbill. “It doesn’t matter to me. It’s just wonderful to be part of this community.”

His later Broadway credits include the mid-1990s revival of “Sunset Boulevard,” “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and as an understudy in “Oklahoma!” in 2002. He also snagged a cameo in the film “Enchanted” with Amy Adams in 2007. He was on Broadway in the original “West Side Story” and later in the 1961 film version.

“Really hard to put into words what Harvey Evans meant to me,” said Tony Yazbeck on Twitter. “He was kindness personified. So funny and supportive. He came to every show I ever did and inspired me to keep going! A true triple threat who’s heart was as big as his incredible career.”

Bebe Neuwirth added: “One of the kindest, most delightful, loveliest gentlemen I’ve ever had the blessing to know.” Betty Buckley also sent her regards: “With so much love.”

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ESPN 1000 Bears reporter Jeff Dickerson, 44, died Tuesday after battling colon cancer. Dickerson is survived by his 11-year-old son, Parker, and parents, George and Sandy Dickerson.

Dickerson’s wife, Caitlin, died from melanoma at 36 in 2019. According to ESPN, Dickerson died at the same hospice facility where Caitlin died.

“He was simply the best,” ESPN 1000 morning-show host David Kaplan said. “It sounds like when people die, everyone says nice things. He was truly that guy. Never had a mean bone in his body.”

“When I walked in there last [Thursday], all these guys were there because we all loved him. Jeff said to me, ‘I just gotta get to my next chemo treatment.’ That was today.”

Dickerson had many roles with ESPN. He began covering the Bears in 2001 with ESPN 1000, then added ESPNChicago.com to his plate in 2009. He moved to ESPN.com full-time in 2013, becoming part of the website’s NFL Nation vertical.

“Jeff did as good a job as anybody can do on what might be the most competitive beat in the city,” Kaplan said. “We all want to work hard, but that Bears beat, you’ve gotta come up with content, the team usually stinks. Jeff was able to be opinionated and break news.”

Dickerson also hosted a national radio show with Jonathan Hood, was a TV analyst for Loyola men’s basketball and reported for ABC 7. Dickerson graduated from Buffalo Grove High School and attended the University of Illinois.

More to come.

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Jeff Dickerson, a fixture at ESPN and in the Chicago sports market for two decades, died Tuesday of complications from colon cancer. He was 44.

In a cruel twist, Dickerson died at the same hospice care facility that his wife, Caitlin, died in two years ago. Caitlin Dickerson had undergone treatment for melanoma and its complications for eight years. Jeff Dickerson is survived by their son, Parker, and his parents, George and Sandy Dickerson.

“JD was one of the most positive people you will ever meet,” ESPN deputy editor for digital NFL coverage Heather Burns said in a statement. “We all got together in October for an event, and there he was lifting our spirits and assuring us he was going to beat cancer. That’s just who he was. We are holding Jeff’s family, and especially his son, Parker, in our prayers.”

Jeff Dickerson was known for his friendly demeanor as well as his straight talk during his two decades covering the Bears for ESPN. Melissa Rawlins/ESPN Images

Dickerson said in 2019 that he considered Caitlin an “inspiration” because “she refused to let cancer dictate her life.” He channeled that determination upon receiving his own cancer diagnosis in early 2021, plowing ahead with a full schedule that included parenting Parker, fundraising for cancer research and covering the Chicago Bears for ESPN digital and ESPN 1000 radio. He also joined the board of the Vaughn McClure Foundation, a non-profit he helped establish to honor the memory of McClure, a former Bears beat writer and Atlanta Falcons reporter for ESPN who died in 2020.

On Oct. 14, Dickerson served as the emcee for the foundation’s inaugural charity gala in suburban Chicago. Few at the event knew that his disease was advancing.

“If you need something to encapsulate or describe who Jeff Dickerson was, that’s it,” said ESPN 1000 host Tom Waddle, a former Bears receiver and close friend of Dickerson’s. “He was there for a colleague that he had the utmost respect for and loved like a brother. He’s at Vaughn’s event honoring Vaughn for a great cause, despite struggling through something himself.”

Dickerson never wavered in his belief that he would beat back cancer, joking with dark humor that he had too much experience with it. In addition to treatment and his work responsibilities, he spent the past year chronicling Parker’s sports activities, traveling with him to basketball and baseball tournaments and attending his fall football games.

Even after being placed in hospice last week, he told colleagues he was there merely to humor his doctors. No one around him heard a word of self-pity, and he disarmed those who expressed concern by asking them about their own lives.

“JD always wants to know how you’re doing,” Waddle said. “I’d ask him how he’s doing and his first response is, ‘How are you doing? How are [my daughters]?’ The dignity with which he has carried himself through some of the most difficult times any human being would be asked to go through, what his wife went through and the dignity and strength and grace that he showed at her side throughout all of this … I don’t know anybody I’ve met in my 54 years in life who has handled adversity over the last decade with more grace and strength and dignity than Jeff Dickerson. I know a lot of people go through [stuff]. I do. I’m sympathetic to all of it. But what Jeff Dickerson has had to go through the last decade is cruel.

“I never heard him once, whether it was what Caitlin was going through, with what he has had to go through, I never once heard him pity himself. Ever. Not once have I ever heard him say that this has gotten the best of me, that I didn’t deserve this. It’s amazing when faced with stuff like this, what strength some individuals have. I never heard a cross word, and it never felt like he thought he has been cheated out of anything.”

Known for his friendly demeanor, clear voice and straight talk, Dickerson reported the facts but was not afraid to tell his listeners and readers what he thought about the Bears. He confronted team management when necessary, but never made a show of it.

During a news conference after the 2020 season, Dickerson politely asked owner George McCaskey if reduced revenues during the COVID-19 pandemic had influenced his decision to retain general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy, rather than fire them and pay out their contracts. McCaskey said that finances did not impact the verdict, prompting additional questions about what did.

Despite rampant skepticism from fans angry about McCaskey’s response, Dickerson reported it without bias, writing simply in a tweet, “George McCaskey says the league wide loss of revenue due to COVID-19 played no role in the decision to retain Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy.”

Jeff Dickerson, second from left, seen here in 2018 with a few of his ESPN NFL Nation colleagues in Bristol. ESPN

San Francisco 49ers place-kicker Robbie Gould, who spent 11 seasons with the Bears from 2005 to 2015, remembered Dickerson as a straight shooter who earned the respect of players who appreciated his commitment to accuracy.

“He always carried a care for the subject that he was going to write about,” said Gould, who co-hosted an ESPN 1000 radio show with Dickerson during a portion of his Bears career. “As a player you can appreciate that the wisdom he put on paper was as neutral and correct as it ever was going to be. It was always going to be your words. It was always going to be what the story was. It was never going to be someone filling in the blanks …

“Players definitely noticed. He always wrote a true story. He always wrote what was happening at the moment. He didn’t try to back the bus up over somebody. He tried to get it exactly how the story was. … I think you saw a lot of guys give him a lot of credit because they knew he would write it right.”

Gould said he continued to tune in to Dickerson’s radio appearances and seek out his digital stories, after leaving the Bears to sign with the Giants and later the 49ers.

“He was a mentor to me as someone who aspires to get into the media world when football is over,” Gould said, “and I looked up to him.”

Dickerson graduated from Buffalo Grove High School in suburban Chicago and attended the University of Illinois-Champaign. He began covering the Bears for ESPN 1000 radio in 2001, added digital coverage to his duties in 2009 at ESPNChicago.com and then transitioned to ESPN.com in 2013. Along the way, he hosted “Dickerson and Hood” on ESPN radio, served as a television analyst for Loyola men’s basketball and worked as a sports reporter for ABC Channel 7 in Chicago.

Radio was his first love, and over the years he helped dozens of colleagues navigate the medium. One of them was ESPN Minnesota Vikings reporter Courtney Cronin, who approached Dickerson in 2019 for advice about hosting shows.

“Instead of helping me get my foot in the door, JD swung that door wide open for me,” Cronin said. “Not only did he connect me with the people I have grown to consider a part of my family, but he also held my hand and taught me how to walk, so to speak, as I added radio sportscaster to my list of job responsibilities.”

Cronin’s first appearance on ESPN radio came on Memorial Day weekend in 2019 — as a co-host alongside Dickerson. She now regularly appears as a host across ESPN’s schedule.

“Jeff Dickerson owed me nothing, nor did he have to help me get an opportunity that changed the trajectory of my career,” Cronin said. “He taught me what it means to be a great teammate, and he put me on a path that wouldn’t have been possible without his guidance. I’m eternally grateful for the time I was gifted with JD in my life and will carry my teammate, my co-host and my dear friend in my heart with me for the rest of my days.”

Dickerson’s deep personal relationships with colleagues extended to his overnight trips when covering the Bears. Instead of staying in a hotel during his annual excursion to Green Bay, Wisconsin, Dickerson always spent the night as an honored guest of ESPN Packers reporter Rob Demovsky and his family.

“That’s how good of a friend JD was,” Demovsky said. “He was the only sports reporter willing to give up those treasured Marriott points to stay with a friend. There’s not a game we looked forward to more than when the Bears came to Green Bay, because it meant JD was staying with us for the weekend.

“On his last trip up here before the pandemic, we went out to dinner and he bought the first bottle of wine — a Pinot Noir he loved called ‘The Prisoner.’ When he first got sick, I told him I would get a bottle of it so we could share it the next time he came to town. A few weeks ago, he told me he wouldn’t be able to make the trip this year because his health had worsened, but he told me not to worry because he would be back next year to share that bottle and redeem his ‘Demovsky points’ for another night’s stay.

“In his last days, he sensed the fear in my voice that it would never happen. At a time when I should’ve been comforting him, he was comforting me. We should all hope to be the friend to others that JD was to us.”

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