Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be mostly cloudy with scattered thunderstorms and a high near 84 degrees. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low around 68. Tomorrow will be partly sunny with a high near 86, Sunday will be partly sunny with a high near 91 and there’s a chance for thunderstorms each day.

Top story

For Jennifer Hudson, playing Aretha Franklin meant showing ‘her faith was always present’

The first time we see Jennifer Hudson as a teenage Aretha Franklin in the sweeping and rousing biopic “Respect,” she’s singing in church.

Much deeper into the story, after Franklin has been crowned the Queen of Soul and has been through every high and low imaginable through the decades, she’s singing … in church.

Faith and spirituality are a theme in “Respect,” which has sneak-preview screenings Sunday before opening in theaters next Thursday and is sure to have Hudson — who won best supporting actress for her feature debut in 2006’s “Dreamgirls” — in the conversation for a second Academy Award.

“Faith is very important,” Hudson said in an interview on a hotel terrace on a sunny summer afternoon in her hometown of Chicago. “It’s the base of her and myself. It’s the thing that helped me get through the film. And it’s the thing that felt most at home.

“When we were shooting that scene [with Aretha as a teenager], I felt like, ‘This is church.’ You can’t really script that. … That was the most important thing to me to maintain throughout the film: her faith. And the gospel in her music, no matter what genre she sang, no matter where she was in life, gospel was always the blueprint. And her faith was always present.”

Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper has more with Hudson and her upcoming film here.

More news you need

1. The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police is opposed to Gov. Pritzker’s vaccine requirement for some of its members, calling the mandate “vaccine shaming” for public employees. In a statement last night, the group said it isn’t opposed to the vaccine, but “we are opposed to being forced to take it.”
2. Nancy Rotering, a Democrat in her third term as mayor of Highland Park, vowed today to “ensure access to justice for all” while launching her bid for a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court. The move sets the stage for what could be a hotly contested race to represent the newly redrawn North Shore district on the state’s top court.
3. The Rev. Jesse Jackson joined other local leaders today to call on Congress to pass legislation that would hamper state laws restricting access to the ballot. The group said the passage of two bills would make it easier to register to vote and eliminate voter suppression tactics.
4. The South Side home where blues icon Muddy Waters lived and raised a family moved another step closer to official landmark status yesterday. Waters’ great-granddaughter’s quest for the designation now moves to the City Council for approval.
5. A group that represents Chicago’s Magnificent Mile wants a Baltimore businessman to stop using the phrase while marketing his business located on that city’s “Charm’tastic Mile.” The Magnificent Mile Association sent a cease and desist notice telling Derrick E. Vaughan to stop “piggybacking” off Mag Mile’s “brand, prestige and good will.”
6. Many are mourning the loss of house music DJ Paul Johnson — a legend in the genre who inspired the likes of Daft Punk. Johnson, a South Side native, died Wednesday from COVID-19 complications at the age of 50.
7. Yue Bao will make her debut Sunday as guest conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia Festival. The stint will be one of Bao’s biggest career milestones and is part of a larger shift that has more women on the podiums of symphony orchestras.

A bright one

Ducky Derby races 70,000 rubber ducks in the Chicago River, raises money for Special Olympics Illinois

A fleet of yellow rubber duckies sporting sunglasses bobbed down the Chicago River on yesterday afternoon for the Ducky Derby race.

Crowds of smiling spectators, children blowing duck beak whistles, boat riders, kayakers and drivers cheered on the 70,000 toy ducks raising money for Special Olympics Illinois.

A truckload of them was dropped into the Chicago River from the Columbus Bridge at the 1 p.m. “Splashdown.” With the help of the Chicago Park District and Coast Guard, the ducks floated to the finish line halfway to the Michigan Avenue Bridge.

Chicago residents could “adopt” a duck for $5 to enter the race. As of Thursday afternoon, the Derby has raised about $310,340 for Special Olympics Illinois.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Before the race, families milled around the festival of games, music and food at 401 N. Michigan Ave. Visitors lined the Riverwalk, Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive. The Derby also hosted a virtual festival for those who could not attend in person.

Many Special Olympics Illinois athletes brought their families to support the cause.

“We love what Special Olympics Illinois does for our children,” said Holly Simon, whose son Nate has won over 100 Special Olympics medals. “He’s met amazing people and friends, and he’s had a blast along the way.”

Read Nina Molina’s full dispatch from yesterday’s downtown race.

From the press box

Your daily question ?

It’s International Beer Day, so we want to know, what’s your favorite Chicago brewery to visit? Tell us why.

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday we asked you: What’s your favorite “L” line? Tell us why. Here’s some of what you said…

“The Red Line — I’ve taken it from downtown all the way back to 95th since the 1970s, most of my life. I hated when they ran the train underground instead of going around the “S” curve at Harrison and through the Loop.” — Tracey Hail

“The Original Howard 63rd Street line. I loved how the A train went west to Ashland and the B train went east to Cottage Grove.” — Pic Anderson

“The Red Line — it takes me home!” — Mary Ann Wong

“Brown and I like Pink because it’s all elevated. Red only because it runs through Lincoln Park and near Wrigley.” — Jackie Waldhier

“The Brown line as you enter the city offers the best views of all.” — James Scalfani

“Red Line. I remember riding when it was the A and B lines. My grandparents lived in Rogers Park, Howard and Jarvis stations. Now I’m between Morse and Loyola. It’s my history.” — Sharon Michalove

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

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A man was killed in a shooting Thursday on the South Side.

He was near the sidewalk about 2 p.m. in the 7100 block of South Bennett Avenue when someone fired shots at him from a vehicle, Chicago police said.

The 25-year-old was struck in the chest and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

An autopsy released Friday found he died of multiple gunshot wounds and ruled his death a homicide, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He hasn’t been identified.

Area Two detectives are investigating.

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As his 46-yard field goal drifted wide left and the Bears’ opening drive against the Falcons fell flat thanks to his miss, a familiar fear rose in Cairo Santos’ chest. It might sound like an overreaction for him to worry that this would cost him his job, but he’d been cut six times in three years — once by the Bears.

The end is always right around the corner for kickers, and Santos felt himself sliding toward it. He thought about everything from his soon-to-be-born son to the prospect of finding a new career after football. That’s quite a swirl of emotions while standing on the sideline of an NFL game.

It was in that moment, though, that he untangled himself from his anxiety. Enough. Santos couldn’t keep living that way. He let it all go. Maybe that miss would get him cut, and if not that one, maybe another one down the line. So be it.

“I put that pressure on myself that this has to be the opportunity that I bounce back — How many more opportunities am I going to keep getting?” he said Friday after practice. “I thought about [getting cut by] the Bucs, the Titans, so there we go again, I missed a kick in Atlanta.

“I just kind of accepted it. I started playing a little looser and put everything in God’s hands and went one kick at a time and here we are. It’s just humbling to go through that in the middle of a game and to just accept it and just kind of, it’s outside of my hands. Let me just go with it, one kick at a time.”

He made every field goal the rest of the season.

Santos made 93.8% to finish seventh in the NFL and will look to continue his streak of 27 in a row this season. Both of those numbers are franchise records, and he ended years of kicker turmoil for the Bears. They signed him to a three-year, $9 million contract extension in March.

A year ago, he got this chance only because Eddy Pineiro suffered a preseason groin injury. Santos missed four field goals for the Titans in a loss in October 2019, got cut the next day and sat unsigned for more than 10 months before the Bears called.

Now, everything is coming together nicely for Santos. His son was born in November, and by then he was firmly cemented as the Bears’ kicker. Now he has career stability, or as much of it as a kicker can realistically hope to have, after years of bouncing around.

“It’s a blessing — something that I was praying for for a long time,” he said. “I was already in that mode of maybe I’m transitioning to being a dad and a second career. Then I got a shot here.”

There’s genuine gratitude in his voice when he talks about the Bears, but that feeling is absolutely mutual. It’s hard to say who rescued whom.

Santos, 29, is their fifth kicker since releasing Robbie Gould shortly before the 2016 season. They went through a circuslike search after cutting Parkey and still weren’t sure if they had their answer going into Pineiro’s second season. It seemed ludicrous that they turned to Santos after his career spiraled.

But they got that one right. The Bears and Santos were exactly what each other needed.

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Lindsey Stirling is excited about marking her first concert appearance in Chicago since her 2017 Lollapalooza performance.

“Getting to now stand on stage and perform music and see what it means to people in-person after so long makes me remember how powerful music is to not only connect people,” said Stirling, an Arizona native. “It’s a language that goes beyond words.”

The show, scheduled for Tuesday, is one of 35 that Stirling has as part of her Artemis Tour (which is scheduled to end Sept. 10 at Milwaukee’s Summerfest). The show features tracks from Stirling’s fifth and latest album, “Artemis,” which debuted in September 2019 at No. 1 on Billboard’s dance/electronic albums chart before the pandemic rocked the live entertainment industry into desolation for over a year. Kiesza, an uptempo Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist who transcends genre, will join Stirling in her Chicago show, performing songs from her latest album, “Crave.”

Stirling’s tour name is inspired by the Greek goddess Artemis, a huntress with a wild nature and proclivity to dance. Stirling is known for her ability to draw her bow across the strings of her violin with an electric enthusiasm while dancing en pointe in a modern ballet style.

“This tour and this album is all inspired by [the “Artemis”] comic book that I wrote,” Stirling said. “It really gives a new life to the whole process of writing and touring… And it’s been especially fun trying to bring that story to life, not only through the music videos, but then to really think outside the box for the tour, from the costuming to the videos we play on the screen to the style of dancing we do. It makes for a very entertaining, colorful show.”

Her tour costumes are reminiscent of a wilderness left behind in the modernization of society. Folklore is ever-present in the thematic approach, fused with electronic dance music and classical violin. The set is bold and colorful, pulling from the storyline of her comic book series to bring light to her life and others’ during dark times.

“We’ve all been so deprived of these kinds of experiences and interactions, so there is just this really special feeling of gratitude that’s very powerful and very tangible,” Stirling said. “Even if you don’t come to my show, I highly recommend going to anyone’s show at this time because I think it’s a special time that won’t last forever. It’s something that anyone who experiences it is going to remember for the rest of their life.”

Stirling has been in the spotlight for more than a decade, getting her start as one of the first YouTube music sensations and appearing on “America’s Got Talent” in 2010.

Over the course of the past year (Stirling had not performed since 2019), she said she’s battled with a feeling of inadequacy. The first few tour shows were the most difficult because of that struggle; she cried in her dressing room after performing.

But her battle for perfection is something Stirling said she has long dealt with, driving her to anorexia, and ultimately overcoming her eating disorder through therapy.

“Now when I feel those feelings, I get reminded that I’m stepping onto the stage in the wrong way, if I’m stepping on the stage worrying that people are going to think I’m not enough,” Stirling said. “The show is about them — the fans. I really hope that when people hear my music they believe they can fight, because we often build the box that we live in.”

She continues to promote her nonprofit charity, The Upside Fund, to help families in need during the ongoing pandemic.

In Stirling’s spare time, she enjoys watching the TV show “Nashville” because of its authentic depiction of the music scene and multi-dimensional characters. Her guilty pleasure, though, is hit sitcom “New Girl.”

“I’m very excited to come back to Chicago,” Stirling said. “Back in the day before I ever had a band and I was just playing on my own with an iPod and a violin, one of the first shows I ever did was a showcase in Chicago. I’ll never forget that I walked a long way to Lou Malnati’s and learned I could only order a really large pizza and not eat by the slice. I asked a random guy on the street if he would like to split a pizza with me. I still have him in my phone as Chicago Tom.”

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Vowing to “ensure access to justice for all, the mayor of Highland Park launched her bid for a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday, setting the stage for what could be a hotly contested race to represent a newly redrawn district on the state’s top court.

Making her third run for higher office in five years, Nancy Rotering, a Democrat in her third term as mayor of the North Shore suburb, joins Democratic and Republican judges in Lake County who are also vying for the seat formerly held by Justice Robert Thomas.

“My mission is to uphold the rule of law and make sure that all Illinoisans have an unbiased, fair and balanced adjudication of the major cases facing our state,” Rotering said in a statement announcing her candidacy.

“I look forward to continuing to put my background in law and business, coupled with my public service commitment to ethics and accountability, to work for the people of Illinois.”

Erin Brown/Sun-Times file

The Highland Park mayor has worked as an attorney for over 30 years and previously served on the Highland Park City Council, according to a news release announcing her candidacy.

With her Illinois Supreme Court run, the veteran attorney will have run for offices in all three branches of government, executive, legislative and judicial.

Rotering ran unsuccessfully in 2018 for Illinois attorney general, coming in fourth in the eight-candidate Democratic primary. Kwame Raoul won that primary and the general election.

Two years earlier, Rotering waged a campaign to represent the north suburban 10th Congressional District, losing in the Democratic primary to Brad Schneider, who garnered 54% of the vote and went on to beat Republican incumbent Bob Dold in November of 2016.

Rich Hein/Sun-Times file

Kicking off her run for the state’s top court, Rotering announced a slew of endorsements, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Newman, the mayors of Deerfield, Buffalo Grove and Fox Lake as well as Democratic state Representatives Bob Morgan of Deerfield, Dan Didech of Buffalo Grove, Sam Yingling of Grayslake and Joyce Mason of Gurnee.

Elizabeth Rochford, an associate judge in Lake County, is also running as a Democrat for the Supreme Court seat, which includes Rockford, Galena, Dixon and Plano.

State Supreme Court Justice Michael Burke was appointed to the Second District seat on the state’s highest court last March after Thomas retired.

A conservative Republican and former Chicago Bears kicker, Thomas held the seat for two decades. His retirement sparked GOP fears that the party would lose the seat.

A Republican, Burke would likely face Daniel Shanes, a Lake County judge, should Burke decide to run for a full term. Burke and the treasurer of his campaign fund did not immediately respond to a request for comment about any election plans.

Democrats in the General Assembly redrew the boundaries for the Illinois Supreme Court districts earlier this year for the first time since 1963 — though Republicans attempted to change the lines in 1997 with their Judicial Redistricting Act before it was ruled unconstitutional.

Under the new maps, which were signed into law in early June, the number of residents in the Supreme Court’s Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth districts will be “substantially equalized to better reflect the population and demographic shifts that have occurred in the state of Illinois over the course of the last sixty years,” according to a news release at the time on the proposed judicial boundaries.

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The Cubs placed five-time Gold Glove outfielder Jason Heyward on the 10-day injured list Friday because of inflammation in his left index finger.

Manager David Ross said the finger has been bothering Heyward for “a pretty good bit” and he aggravated it taking batting practice at Colorado this week. Heyward is batting .198 with six homers and 22 RBIs.

The Cubs also recalled outfielder Greg Deichmann from Triple-A Iowa. He was acquired July 26 from Oakland in the deal that sent reliever Andrew Chafin to the Athletics.

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SAITAMA, Japan — For USA Basketball, some eras will end Saturday. It will be Jerry Colangelo’s last game as managing director of the men’s national team. It’ll mark the end of Gregg Popovich’s commitment as the team’s coach. Some players will likely be wearing the U.S. jersey for the final time.

Change is coming.

The Americans just don’t want it to be atop the medal stand.

France — the new official nemesis of USA Basketball — awaits the Americans in the gold-medal game on Saturday. France has won the last two meetings between the programs, denying the U.S. a chance to play for a medal at the 2019 Basketball World Cup and then winning again in both teams’ opener at the Tokyo Olympics.

“We came here with one goal and that’s to win a gold medal,” U.S. guard Damian Lillard said. “And now we’re in a position to do it.”

It would be a fourth consecutive gold for the U.S., and if secured that would mark the longest run of American dominance at an Olympics since the program won golds in each of the first seven tournaments from 1936 through 1968. Kevin Durant can join Carmelo Anthony as the only men in U.S. history with three gold medals, and Popovich — who served his country at the United States Air Force Academy and tried to play for his country at the 1972 Olympics but wasn’t selected — can only add to his lengthy list of accomplishments by winning gold.

“It’s been a tough run for us, and for us to be back is exciting,” Durant said.

Later Saturday, Luka Doncic and Slovenia will meet Patty Mills and Australia for the bronze, the winning side assured of claiming its first Olympic men’s basketball medal.

The summer for the Americans started with two exhibition losses, then the loss to France in the Olympic opener, and the U.S. had to pull off double-digit comebacks — 10 against Spain, 15 against Australia — in each of their last two games just to make the final.

Yet the Americans have clearly gotten better. The French, who have Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier among others with lengthy NBA experience on their roster, agree.

“This is not the same team we played two weeks ago,” said France’s Nicolas Batum, another of the NBA players on that roster.

The only national team that has defeated the U.S. men three consecutive times at the top level of international competition — the Olympics or what is now called the World Cup, formerly the world championships — was the Soviet Union. They garnered the still-debated gold-medal win at the 1972 Olympics and then topped the Americans at worlds in 1974 and 1978.

France is one win from matching that feat.

“I think, I hope, that we will be ready Saturday,” France coach Vincent Collet said. “We know Team USA is the favorite of this final. They have been (the) favorite for the last couple games. But I hope when we play against them we sustain our fire, we sustain our energy, even if we know they are favored.”

That doesn’t seem like it’ll be a problem for the French. After France survived the semifinals against Slovenia with a 90-89 win — secured when Batum blocked a layup try with 2.4 seconds remaining — Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot was asked his thoughts on playing the U.S. for gold.

“I think it will represent something pretty special,” Luwawu-Cabarrot said, “because it’s the first one we’re going to win.”

That isn’t a level of confidence often heard before teams play the U.S., at least not in this era of sending NBA players to the Olympics. But the French have reason for that swagger right now, given the win in China then rallying to beat the Americans in the group-play opener. They believe they can win, despite being listed as double-digit underdogs.

“We all knew from the beginning what they were capable of and we know how they’ve stepped up every time during the tournament,” France’s Nando de Colo said. “We did a good game the first time, and we’ve got a lot of respect for their team. But we will play this final with a lot of confidence, and the most important thing is to stay focused on what we do as a team.”

This game marks only the second time that the U.S. will have gotten a rematch in the same Olympics against a team that defeated the Americans earlier in the tournament. The other instance came in 2004, when the U.S. lost to Lithuania in group play before winning the rematch in the bronze-medal game.

That was the tournament where the Americans realized everything had to change. Colangelo was brought in to rebuild the program, Mike Krzyzewski was hired to coach what became the first three Olympic runs and then the baton was passed to Popovich.

Colangelo has talked many times about how he’d like nothing more than to end his tenure with another gold.

France is assured of, at worst, matching its best Olympic performance; it got silvers after losing gold-medal games to the U.S. in 1948 and 2000.

The Americans — looking for a 16th gold medal in 19 Olympic appearances — don’t have that luxury. For them, only one outcome will be good enough.

“We’re here for the gold medal,” U.S. center Bam Adebayo said. “We’re not here to be second.”

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Next month Frank Lloyd Wright and Prairie School architecture will be celebrated at the annual Wright Plus housewalk in Oak Park and River Forest. But what makes these two neighboring western suburbs truly special is not just the 31 Wright-designed structures, but the wide variety of historic architecture that can be found here. Many of the houses come with impressive architectural pedigrees, whether it is Oak Park’s most “intact” Victorian designed by local architect Henry G. Fiddelke (who also worked on Ernest Hemingway’s childhood home) or a disputed River Forest residence done by either Wright himself or one of his young draftsmen, Harry Robinson.

If you’re an architecture geek like me, walking around OPRF can be like visiting an outdoor museum. Located just nine miles west of downtown Chicago, it’s a convenient place to live if you want to be close to the city. And though it can be a bit pricey, you can buy into the suburb’s architectural heritage.

Let’s start with the crème de la crème. When I lived near the intersection of Pleasant and Grove I’d always admire the impressive Victorians that sit on all four corners. This home at 139 South Grove Avenue designed by Fiddelke & Ellis is one of them. In our current world of HGTV renovations, it’s pretty shocking to see a home in such original condition with ornate millwork, stained glass windows, pocket doors, built-in furniture like bookcases and sideboards, as well as six fireplaces with hand-carved mantels. Five different types of wood was used throughout the home and none of it has been painted. It’s a miracle! Although the kitchen has been modernized, it still preserves the historical flair of the home. The one-bedroom coach house can be rented out or used for whatever suits your needs, whether as a guest house or office. But the best part is its walkability—not just to stores and restaurants in the Hemingway District but to public transportation. 

Located a few doors down from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Winslow House, this 1960 ranch-style design was one of twelve built by architect and developer Martin H. Braun on the former estate of Edward C. Waller. Chicago Tribune advertisements for Braun’s “tomorrow’s houses” lured potential owners with amenities like rumpus rooms and built-in televisions. Some of those original details survive, but this 10-room home has been updated for life in today’s world. Plus it has a yard to die for! You’ll find a surrounding deck, garden ponds, green house, and above ground pool. That might explain the hefty price, but who wouldn’t want a private oasis on an acre lot that backs up to the woods and the Des Plaines River?

Roy J. Hotchkiss was the draftsmen for local architect E.E. Roberts and these two men were responsible for hundreds of buildings in Oak Park, including the town’s art deco masterpiece, the Medical Arts Building. He designed this Craftsman-style Foursquare in 1924. Almost a hundred years later the home is a blend of historic charm on the exterior with modern day decor on the inside. You’ll find plenty of space here with 15 rooms offering different options for further renovation, plus a large coach house out back. And you’re just steps away from a Green Line stop.

This 1914 Prairie-style home comes with controversy. Frank Lloyd Wright famously did “bootleg houses” on the sly, which led to his boss Louis Sullivan firing him. Well, history repeats itself. Architectural historian William Allin Storrer declared an entire block of homes in River Forest to be Frank Lloyd Wright designs, although evidence shows they are “bootlegs” by Wright’s draftsman Harry Robinson. One of these disputed homes is currently for sale. Historically appropriate details include art glass and a roman brick fireplace. There is also a bright sun room for reading and relaxation and contemplation… who *actually* designed this house?

Located in between two Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes on Oak Park’s beautiful Forest Avenue, this understated 1890 Queen Anne was designed by Patton & Fisher, architects responsible for a number of buildings in town, as well as one of Chicago’s most visible architectural landmarks: the vividly red-brick Main Building at the Illinois Institute of Technology, completed three years after this house. While preserving the original woodwork, the home has been tastefully updated inside with new bathrooms and a bright white kitchen that opens up to a spacious family room. Compared to the Victorian on Grove, which seems like a museum, this old home is quite livable for modern tastes.

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It seems that Zach LaVine’s shooting range is about 6,300 miles out.

According to a source, the Bulls guard was in constant contact with not only his front office with the start of free agency, but with several of the targeted players the Bulls had been in discussions with, all the while working with Team USA from the Olympics in Tokyo.

He took his best shot to play the role of recruiter and delivered.

Not that it should come as much of a surprise, considering how LaVine was talking about his role in the free agent process at the start of this week.

“I should have a good idea of what’s going on,” LaVine said. “I take that very serious. I’m going to keep up to date on what’s going on back home, but obviously still get my rest.”

He did both even if it did make him the fourth-highest paid player on the roster for the upcoming season.

With the Bulls reaching agreements with Lonzo Ball for four years, $85 million, and then a day later DeMar DeRozan at $85 million over three years, that drops LaVine to that payroll clean-up spot.

Depending on the details of both deals, Ball still breaks down to an average of $21.3 million a season, while DeRozan is at $28 million. Big man Nikola Vucevic will make $24 million for the upcoming season, while LaVine is in the final season of a deal that will pay him $19.5 this year.

Obviously that could drastically change at this time next offseason, but what LaVine showed the last few weeks is he has no problem putting the salary ego in check for the betterment of his organization.

Not all former Bulls All-Star quality players thought that way.

That’s why LaVine should be applauded. Even when the Olympic team came together for training in Las Vegas last month, the guard acknowledged that the recruiting process between elite talent was undoubtedly going to happen, and if that meant immediate changes of address or a few years down the road for it to happen, so be it.

He was still all in.

“I mean players is gonna be players, man. You gonna mingle and talk,” LaVine said.

And for LaVine that obviously didn’t mean mingling and talking to only the players in the Team USA camp. It doesn’t mean he was done, either.

There’s still the ongoing drama with restricted free agent Lauri Markkanen and what the Bulls could try and turn him into in a possible sign-and-trade for another piece. Especially with Markkanen reiterating on Friday how he would like a fresh start elsewhere in an interview he did with a media member from Finland.

Markkanen had been expressing — both privately and publicly — that same sentiment with the Chicago media for the past two seasons.

So how did LaVine do in his first real major push in helping the organization talk to guys about joining him? He should be proud.

Free agent grades for the Bulls:

Lonzo Ball – PG – It’s been the worst-kept secret since 2019, when the Sun-Times reported the old Bulls regime was kicking the tires on Ball. Then a Laker, Ball’s camp leaked that Chicago was a destination place for the former No. 2 pick, and GarPax definitely gave it a sniff.

With this current roster needing a true point guard, as well as a player who can control tempo and be a willing defender for coach Billy Donovan, the timing was perfect. More importantly, Ball can be a star for the second wave of talent that executive vice president of basketball Arturas Karnisovas is building — along with Patrick Williams — so a complete home run. Grade: A

Alex Caruso – G – It’s pretty simple why this signing happened. The Bulls guards were terrible at disrupting the pick-and-roll at the point of attack, and that’s Caruso’s specialty. Is $9.2 million a year pricey for the former Laker? Maybe, but they were paying Cristiano Felicio $8 million a year the past few seasons to guard the end of the bench and model street clothes. Grade: B-

DeMar DeRozan – SF – The third year of the deal could hurt, but for the immediate upcoming season, DeRozan could be a perfect fit. Yes, the 20 points a night are nice, but it’s his ability to be a play-maker from that position that will shine in Donovan’s system. Grade: B+

Tony Bradley – C – The big man is a rim protector who could have a few solid moments off the bench. Great pickup for the money and the need. Grade: B

NOTE: Combo guard/forward Javonte Green is reportedly returning to the Bulls on a two-year deal. The front office and coaching staff loved his defensive energy last season, and have put an emphasis on that side of the ball this summer.

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TOKYO — Allyson Felix finished third in the 400 meters Friday to win her 10th career medal and become the most-decorated woman in the history of Olympic track.

The 35-year-old Felix, a stalwart of American track and field, started in the outside lane and outraced Stephanie Ann McPherson of Jamaica to take third place by 0.15 seconds.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo blew away the field, winning in 48.36 seconds to defend her Olympic title from Rio de Janeiro.

Felix’s 10th Olympic medal broke a tie with Jamaican runner Merlene Ottey, and matches Carl Lewis, who also won 10 medals and was alone as the most decorated U.S. athlete in track.

The victory for Felix comes nearly three years after she helped spearhead a conversation about the way women are treated in track, and sports in general. She severed ties with Nike, which wrote in pay reductions to women’s contracts if they became pregnant. Felix had a daughter in 2018.

She won the race wearing a shoe she designed for a company she created.

This is the first bronze medal of an Olympic career that spans back to the 2004 Athens Games. Earlier, she had won six gold and three silver. She could go for No. 11 if the U.S. puts her in the 4×400 relay final, which is set for Saturday night.

While third place might have been a letdown in the past for Felix — famous are the snapshots of her crying in the recesses of the stadium after some hard-luck losses in Athens and Beijing — this one was nothing but sweet.

Felix has spoken candidly about the struggle to come back from a difficult pregnancy that led to an emergency C-section and put the lives of both her and her baby in jeopardy.

She’s spoken of the pressure she felt to return quickly, even when her body wasn’t responding the way it once did.

She also overcame one of her biggest hurdles — leaving her well-cultivated private image behind to become a spokesperson for something much bigger.

This week, she gave voice to the topic that’s been filtering through the Tokyo Olympics — the pressure to win.

“When I line up for a race, I’m normally afraid,” she said in a heartfelt essay on social media, posted only hours before the race. “I’m not afraid of losing. I lose much more than I win. That’s life and I think that’s how it’s supposed to be.”

After a semifinal heat in which she had to run full-out to make it to the medal race, she conceded that merely getting this far was quite an accomplishment. She’s not as young as she used to be, she quipped. Unspoken was the thought that she might walk away without a medal in her last individual Olympic race.

Her result in the semifinals relegated her to Lane 9, the far outside — a spot where you cannot see any of the runners until reaching the homestretch. Felix resisted the urge to go out too quickly, and when she rounded the last bend, she was in a battle for third with McPherson.

Felix won it, then collapsed on the ground — smiling wide this time for third place, a result that put her alone in the record books.

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