Nikola Vucevic was on top of his social media game over the summer, especially when it came to the rumors that the Bulls were looking to package him in a trade for Utah’s Rudy Gobert.

Once Gobert was sent to Minnesota in July, however, the Bulls big man tweeted, “Glad my offer for the house I found in Salt Lake got rejected then.”

Asked this week if he was ever concerned with being moved to the Jazz, Vucevic confessed that it was never really a worry.

“I was on Zillow every day … Salt Lake … nah, I’m kidding,” Vucevic said. “Honestly, I didn’t pay attention to it much. By speaking to AK [executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas] here and [Coach] Billy [Donovan], I knew their plan and what they were thinking.

“People asked me about it all the time and it was on my Twitter all the time. So when Gobert got traded to Minnesota I thought it would be a good time to have a little joke.”

That doesn’t mean Vucevic trade rumors have ended there.

The veteran is in the final year of his current contract and will become an unrestricted free agent. If things go south for the Bulls by the trade deadline, an expiring contract could be a huge trade asset for a Bulls organization that doesn’t have a ton of assets to move.

“Rumors are a part of what we do,” Vucevic said. “Whether they’re true or not, it’s out of my control. I focus on what I can control, and in the end I had some fun with [the Jazz rumors].

“At no point did I feel it was going to happen.”

Stay tuned.

Ball out

With Lonzo Ball having his left knee surgery on Wednesday, the waiting game has started.

The plan was a re-evaluation in four to six weeks, and if everything goes well in that time there will be a clearer timetable.

Ball spoke on Tuesday, and what he was concerned with was the emotional toll this latest obstacle has thrown his way.

“I mean it’s tough,” Ball said. “This is my third time working on this knee. I’m at a point where I just want to get it over with and get healthy and get back to playing. I missed the playoffs last year, I haven’t played basketball pretty much all year. So for me, I just want to get out there with my teammates and do what I love to do.”

Weight watcher

Not only did forward Patrick Williams show up to this camp ready to prove something in Season 3, but also thinner.

In his mind, he was overweight last season, and that extra weight led to too many injuries. Williams had a severe ankle sprain going into the 2021-22 camp, and then of course suffered a severe wrist injury just five games into the regular season.

That’s why he wanted to make a change.

“I wasn’t able to move the way I wanted to,” Williams said. “So this summer was a chance to really lock in and kind of see how I felt. I tried a bunch of different lifts, kind of seeing what I like, kind of seeing what weight I wanted to play at.

“I think I feel a little bit more athletic. I just feel ready.”

Read More

At this point, Jack Johnson is accustomed to needing his car’s navigation app for the first few days of training camp each year.

The former Kings and Blue Jackets stalwart defenseman –he spent about six years with each club –has recently become a late-career journeyman. The Blackhawks are his fourth team in as many years, having spent 2019-20 with the Penguins, 2020-21 with the Rangers and 2021-22 with the Avalanche.

But while Johnson is still learning how to get to Fifth Third Arena,he’s already fully comfortable in his role as a veteran mercenary.

After appearing in 1,024 NHL games, blocking 1,580 shots, dishing out 1,715 hits and finally earning his first Stanley Cup ring last season, the 35-year-old Indianapolis native exudes an aura of time-tested knowledge and patience that the otherwise largely inexperienced Hawks will need this season.

“That [role] was made clear,” Johnson said Monday. “But there’s nothing out of the ordinary that goes into that. You’ve just got to be yourself and be a good pro.

“The young guys now are very mature, probably more mature than young guys back when I started. They don’t necessarily need another coach, and we’ve got plenty of those. Sometimes they just need a friend and a teammate and somebody to be there. Because there are going to be ups and downs during the season, as a team and individually, [and] those are things that you have to learn how to navigate and how to deal with yourself. Hopefully as the older guys, we can [help them] navigate their way through.”

Working to his advantage is the fact Johnson already knows Seth Jones and Connor Murphy, the existing nucleus of the Hawks’ defensive core, quite well. Johnson and Jones spent 2.5 years together with the Jackets, while Murphy (as a Columbus native) and Johnson have often trained together during summers off.

With a wide array of young defenseman –from Alec Regula to Alex Vlasic to Ian Mitchell (when healthy again) to Isaak Phillips –on track to receive NHL time this season, those three veterans will be relied upon as mentors.

“[Jack is] a beast,” Murphy said. “Those [types of] guys have a wisdom that’s hard to describe. In the season, there’s always little moments when they’re able to settle things down for everyone, so they’re definitely valuable.”

Added new coach Luke Richardson: “He has been great: great in the dressing room, [great] on the ice in practice. [He’s] a true leader and pro.”

Johnson’s workout habits will also set a good example. Even Murphy, nine years into his own career, still tries to emulate some of Johnson’s favorite exercises, such as one particular resistance-band drill.

There’s no special secret to his longevity, though, other than hard work.

“A lot of people, as they get older, kind of back off,” he said. “I’m completely the opposite. I think as you get older, you almost have to work harder. So far, it has worked for me. It has kept me going.”

That training regimen helped him overcome a difficult pandemic-shortened 2021 season, during which a groin injury and subsequent surgery limited him to just 13 games, to bounce back for a full year in Colorado.

He scored in the season opener (against the Hawks), averaged 16:45 ice time over 74 regular-season appearances and enjoyed a lengthy playoff run for the first time, pushing any thoughts of retirement far out of mind.

“I’d been in the league a long time, but I’d never made it past the first round, so to go all the way was an incredible experience,” he said. “Right from the get-go, there was a definite feeling in the room and a confidence [that] there was no doubt we could do it. It was the most memorable year of my hockey life.

“After all the celebration and everything, I got home…[for] a little bit of normalcy. I was thinking about it: my body felt good, I still enjoyed competing and I had no reason to stop playing. Especially after winning, it just makes you want to do it again.”

The Hawks eventually came calling in August, about a month after free agency opened, offering a one-year, league-minimum contract. Johnson accepted it without hesitation.

“You still have to love the process in order to play the game,” he said. “Until I stop enjoying the process, I’ll want to keep going.”

Read More

The Bears are 2-1 and in a solid position to start their 2022 season. Though, with how the hopeful future of the franchise Justin Fields has played, the surprise start might feel more ominous than optimistic.

To seemingly try and boost the morale of their fans, the Bears had a special guest — NFL legend and Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus — take over their Twitter account on Tuesday night. But it didn’t go as smoothly as they had planned. When Butkus initially introduced himself with a cryptic “hello” that built anticipation for an announcement.

His very next post appeared to be the legend accidentally filming at Halas Hall out of his hand? Out of his pocket? Who knows for sure:

Butkus would then reveal himself with a proper video while standing inside Halas Hall:

Butkus would engage with fans, asking what his first order of business should be inside the main building:

It appears he went with “picture by my number” first, though the number wasn’t visible in a perfect selfie encompassing the entire Twitter chaos:

Not long after, Butkus tweeted a note that he had made a mistake and wasn’t sure how to delete it. Of course, given the spate of tweets and fumbling beforehand, it wasn’t clear which specific tweet he was referring to:

And if it’s any consolation, he did get a great photo next to his customary No. 51:

In fairness to Butkus, this was the sort of havoc he used to wreak on offensive players all the time. But this is probably the first time it happened to the Bears as one of their greatest-ever players tried to figure out their social media.

Read more at usatoday.com

Read More

The original idea for this column was to ask where the 2022 White Sox fit in a discussion about the biggest disappointments in Chicago sports history. How do they compare with the 1969 Cubs, who held a nine-game division lead in mid-August and managed to miss the playoffs? Or the 1986 Bears, a supremely talented bunch that blew a chance to bring back-to-back Super Bowls titles to the city?

And then I thought, no, that sort of exercise doesn’t do justice to what these Sox have done to their fans this season. Doesn’t account for the slow, steady drip of cruelty.

The Sox are in their own shameful category. I’m sure there’s been a Chicago team as hyped as the 2022 team was that also failed to live up to expectations. I’m sure there’s been a team as athletically blessed as this one was that also squandered its gifts.

But no team hit its fan base over the head with a mallet the way this one has on a regular basis. No team with the aforementioned hype and talent failed to offer solid reason for hope or belief the way this one did day after dull day.

I’d argue that it’s better for your mental health to faithfully follow a terrible team than it is to watch a purportedly good team slow dance with mediocrity all season. You know what you have with a bad team. You’re not surprised by its warts. With an underperforming team, it’s subtler. You’re left with psychological scars. After this season, there’s a decent chance Sox fans will be lugging around trust issues for the rest of their lives. This team was supposed to be a World Series contender.

A steady diet of win two games/lose two games has been maddening. The Sox, 76-78 going into Wednesday’s game against the Twins, have been lashed to the mast of the Good Ship .500 all season. There were times when the idea of the ship going down was preferable to the mind-numbing sameness of this season. At least a long losing streak in July would have proved the existence of life. When a team is the numerical definition of average, one can’t be quite sure if there’s a heartbeat.

Even when the Sox won 13 of 18 games after Miguel Cairo replaced ailing manager Tony La Russa in late August, the Sox eventually reverted to the mean, losing seven straight heading into Wednesday’s game. You can’t hide what you are. This was a different form of the same torture.

If there was a slogan for 2022, it would have been, “Don’t just stand there, do something!”

And that was just it: Nobody did anything.

La Russa wasn’t the biggest problem. I know Sox fans, looking for a bull’s-eye for their arrows, don’t want to hear that. But he was a symptom, a massive one, of a bigger organizational problem. He shouldn’t have been the manager in the first place, but, you know … Jerry. Once Jerry Reinsdorf, the team’s chairman, figures out who and what he likes, it’s impossible to loosen his grip. We’ve seen it with the Sox and the Bulls, the other team he owns. He’ll have an out now with La Russa’s heart issue. But, too late. Way too late.

The ups and downs under Cairo proved that La Russa wasn’t to blame for everything. Lance Lynn is 7-7 with a 4.16 earned-run average this season after going 11-6 with a 2.69 ERA last season. He’s the living, breathing example of what the Sox have been in 2022. And there are many other examples.

There’s something wrong when a team of talented players makes fundamental mistakes over and over. There’s something wrong when those talented players don’t have the mental makeup to pull themselves out of a rut. And maybe, just maybe, those talented players aren’t as talented as the Sox thought they were.

One of the hallmarks of getting older is an aversion to change. I know this. I don’t like learning a new computer system. But change is as much a part of professional sports as weightlifting is. If the people you thought were going to help you win games don’t, you move on. That’s how it works in sports. Just not on the South Side.

If Reinsdorf doesn’t fix things in the offseason, it will reinforce the obvious: that he’s his own worst enemy — and possibly yours. General manager Rick Hahn’s job should be in serious jeopardy. But “should be” and “is” are two very different things in Jerry World.

If you’re a Sox fan and feeling trapped by all of this, there indeed is no way out. Nothing can change how this season went, and nothing is going to make Reinsdorf sell the team.

I’d love to be able to give you some good news. But it’s hard to offer a ray of sunlight when a team hangs black curtains over all the windows.

The 2022 White Sox didn’t crush their fans with a heart-wrenching defeat, nothing like a ball getting past Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez in Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series. This is a slow death. A painfully tedious one. And I can’t tell you when it will end.

Read More

One former Bears player beat out Khalil Herbert

Khalil Herbert had a breakout performance in Week 3 for the Chicago Bears. His 20 rushes for 157 yards led the way for the Bears’ 23-20 win over the Houston Texans. Herbert, the Bears’ number two running back on the depth chart, was given significant opportunities in the game after David Montgomery left with an injury. Herbert made the most of his opportunity. However, it wasn’t enough to earn him player of the week.

Two former Bears made the list. Atlanta Falcons Running back Cordarrelle Patterson won NFC offensive player of the week for his 141 yards rushing, 12 yards receiving, and one rushing touchdown. Patterson played for the Bears during the 2019-20 NFL seasons. Former Bears punter Pat O’Donnell won the NFC special teams player of the week as he punted seven times. Five of those punts were placed within the opponent’s 15-yard line. After eight years with the Bears, O’Donnell signed with the Packers this offseason.

Chicago Bears fans feel Herbert was snubbed

Looking at the rushing, receiving, and scoring totals from Week 3, one would have thought Herbert would win the award over Patterson. Herbert had more total yards and one more touchdown than Patterson.

Chicago Bears fans took to Twitter to ask why Herbert was denied the award. Some fans complained that Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham got the defensive player of the week award over Roquan Smith.

For More Great Chicago Sports Content

Follow us on Twitter at @chicitysports23 for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE

Read More