Former Bulls Great Calls Out Carlos Boozer; Kobe Bryant’s Super Knee Injection

Horace Grant had some words for Carlos Boozer and his former team, the Chicago Bulls, recently. Here’s a small dose: “Boozer needs to be, for a lack of a better phrase, Scottie Pippen to a Michael Jordan.” Rose, in this case, is taking the place of Michael Jordan. Grant went on to say that Boozer needs to become more assertive and accept his role as the number two or three scorer on the team. He also said that Boozer needs to be more physical as well as a more dominant rebounder, that he needs to help out Joakim Noah and become more aggressive on the boards. Who doesn’t agree with him? Look, Boozer is an undersized four. He’s not one of those guys who can fly down the lane, catch a bounce pass and dunk on someone like Amar’e Stoudemire. What he can do is score from the low block, and hit the 15-18 footer. But in terms of becoming a more aggressive rebounder, absolutely. There were definitely times last year where Boozer was a spectator when the ball went up. And as your team’s starting power forward, that’s simply unacceptable. Rose and Boozer have the potential to be absolutely lethal. They’re both talented and have the skills to complement each other. But these things take time, and last year it wasn’t so much during the season (Boozer’s regular season numbers were pretty much the same as they were in Utah) as it was the problems in the playoffs. Throughout his career, Boozer has been a beast in the playoffs. Even against some of the West’s biggest frontlines, the dude never averaged less than 12 boards a night in the postseason. But for some reason, it didn’t happen at times this year … Alright Andrew Bogut, it’s time. Either s— or get off the pot. If you have no idea what we’re talking about, Bogut has been deciding for months which club team in Australia he will play for. According to The Age, Bogut has already made his decision and plans to announce it soon, but until certain insurance policies are approved, the decision will remain unknown. It’s not really his fault, but still this one is taking awhile. It’s been speculated that Bogut will join the Sydney Kings … We know the story has been beaten to death, but it looks clear that Kobe Bryant will join the Italian club team Virtus Bolgna. Their president, Claudio Sabatini, told a local radio station that the deal is 95% done and will be $3 million for the first 40 days of the Italian league season. Not too shabby. But what’s more interesting is the work Dr. Peter Wehling is doing with Kobe Bryant and his banged-up right knee. According to ESPN.com, Bryant flew to Dusseldorf, Germany in June to meet with Dr. Wehling, a molecular orthopedist who has been insisting on his breakthrough work with repairing aging joints with the manipulation of his patients’ blood. According to a source close to the situation, Bryant’s blood was treated to isolate growth factors that attack inflammation. The blood was then cultured to increase its potency before being injected into his arthritic right knee. Pretty interesting stuff if you ask us. Almost too interesting (we couldn’t tell you what any of that really meant). But there’s a lot of bad karma around this thing. First Kobe says he was introduced to the doctor through Tracy McGrady. He’s not exactly the guy you look to if you’re investing in injury prevention. Then, this is the same doc who used to treat Pope John Paul II. He’s dead now, although at least he was really old … The Minnesota Timberwolves introduced Rick Adelman last Wednesday as their next head coach, handing him the keys to the NBA’s youngest team. Adelman told ESPN that he sees a lot of talent with this group. This team does have some nice pieces, but until we see them all on the court together, we’re keeping our Simon Cowell arms crossed. It’s just too early to tell with this team. Do they have talent? Of course. But do they also have some head cases and a point guard who has never played in the NBA? They do. The T’Wolves are definitely a team to keep your eyes on, as their ceiling is sky high (they also have a man in the front office who could make anything an entertaining story). Just don’t be surprised if things start out slow. And by slow, we mean Brad Miller on a fast break … We’re out like covering Megatron.