Nearly 30 years ago, Michael Jordan came back too soon from the only major injury of his career, and even today, Bulls’ chairman Jerry Reinsdorf counts his fortunes every night before he goes to sleep. Okay, he probably doesn’t do that. The man has buckets of money. He sleeps fine at night. But he still says the team listened too much to Michael about his body, and ended up taking a risk by bringing him back before the doctors said he was ready. Jordan had missed 64 games with a broken left foot before coming back to finish the season. The ruthless assassin in him told everyone he was indestructible, and could play even when a few doctors weren’t so sure. Thankfully, MJ knew more about his body than everyone else. Back then, Jordan didn’t want to hear anything. He was playing, and that was that. But now that he has a different perspective on the game, he admits his stance has changed somewhat. Take Derrick Rose. Reinsdorf said on WMVP’s “Talking Baseball” the Bulls point guard can forget about stepping onto the court until he is fully healthy from his knee injury. Jordan actually backs him somewhat, but still cautions not all players are the same, and a few (like himself) shouldn’t have their opinion taken for granted. If Rose believes he’s ready at some point next year, Jordan says, then Chicago’s brass should follow, and allow him to play … ESPN Dallas tweeted yesterday that Stan Van Gundy told them he blames the Magic’s front office and not Dwight Howard for how everything went down in Orlando. Huh? We never thought we’d hear a Van Gundy backing Howard, especially after the big man tried to get rid of Stan last season. Is he playing the P.C. card? Most definitely. But for what reasons? … A little offseason news: Carlos Delfino finally has a team, signing with Houston on a one-year deal with a team option on the second year, reports Jonathan Feigan … We hope you saw Jason Terry‘s newest ink. He’s quickly closing in on such tattoo Hall of Famers like J.R. Smith, Chris Andersen and Cherokee Parks … And speaking of the Birdman, ESPNNewYork.com reports a few teams are indeed interested in him. Despite the off court issues he’s having – what is going on with that by the way? We haven’t heard a thing in weeks. It’s like the issue dropped off the map – there are teams offering between $1.2 million and $5 million. Hopefully he hooks on somewhere. League Pass won’t be the same without him … Keep reading to hear what surgery Andrew Bynum is going to get …
Speaking on more knee issues, Philly can’t exactly be happy to hear this. Andrew Bynum is going to Germany later this summer to undergo what reports are calling “experimental knee surgery.” John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer says the big man will get the same surgery made famous by Kobe, A-Rod and Brandon Roy on either one or both of his knees. While it has worked for nearly everyone, it’s a little scary he’s going through this procedure at 24 years old. Will it wear off in a few years like microfracture surgery? Will it make him susceptible to more injuries once he hits 30? Or does this secretly turn the patient into a sort of cyborg? It’s still such a new procedure that no one can really prove one way or another what the long-term effects are … Anyways, we actually LOVE what the Sixers have done this summer. Look at their roster. Outside of the point guard spot – someone might want to get Jrue Holiday a backup. Just saying – they have Jason Richardson and Nick Young at the two guard, Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young at the three, and inside, there’s Bynum, Spencer Hawes, Lavoy Allen and we guess we’ll include Kwame Brown. As long as Bynum doesn’t go all crazy on us and start launching pull-up threes while completely zoning out on Doug Collins, they’ll make it an interesting race in the Atlantic Division … We’re hearing that Metta World Peace will have a movie role soon. The movie is called “Real Vampire Housewives” and Metta’s role will be as a “gregarious and overly sexual vampire elder.” Basically, exactly what you’d expect from MWP … And finally, with the London Olympics over and a Gold Medal secured for Team USA, we got to the juicy stuff: the after parties. LeBron hasn’t stopped partying this whole summer because he hasn’t stopped winning. Carmelo was there as well, but what we thought was funny was seeing a picture of Nas and Kobe Bryant together. We guess Kobe forgave him for “These Are Our Heroes.” Also, Bryant would be that guy who rocks big ass headphones to the club … They weren’t the only ones holding it down either. It sounds like Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and the rest of the French team dropped big money (think $20,000) at Chinawhite Nightclub in London. They all left poor Boris with the tab too … We’re out like Jason Terry’s ink.
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