Larry Brown Sports

Lil Wayne is the biggest bandwaggon fan in sports. That has been long established. He also has a dislike for the Miami Heat that goes back to 2011 when he complained that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade ignored him at games. He even went off on Chris Bosh in February.

Apparently Lil Wayne’s dislike for the Heat is so strong he has joined the Chicago Bulls bandwaggon.

The Bulls beat the Heat 93-86 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinals playoff series on Monday night. Bulls guard Rip Hamilton shared a photo on Instagram that he says was of him and his Bulls teammates celebrating the win with Lil Wayne. You can see Taj Gibson, Nazr Mohammed, Vladimir Radmanovich, and Rip in the photo with Weezy. Rip says that was after they all went to dinner.

Tunechi was also rooting for the Bulls during the game. He sent this tweet about Nate Robinson, who had a 24-point second half:

Nate the Great!

— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) May 7, 2013

First Lil Wayne was cheering against the Heat when they played the Lakers. Now he’s rooting on the Bulls. I bet if you paid him enough money he’d root for your team, too.

Photo: Instagram/Rip Hamilton

The Chicago Bulls somehow continue to win games despite their plethora of significant injuries. Already without the 2011 NBA MVP in Derrick Rose, Chicago is also missing Luol Deng. The big man was suffering from flu-like symptoms before Game 6 against the Brooklyn Nets and has not been able to suit up since because of complications stemming from a spinal tap he underwent to test for viral meningitis.

On Monday night, Deng watched the Bulls take a 1-0 series lead of the Miami Heat from his hospital bed. He shared the photo you see above along with the following tweet:

Read The Rest of the Story…

The Chicago Bulls had the Brooklyn Nets right where they wanted them when they took a 3-1 series lead last weekend, but now the tables have turned completely. Following their 95-92 win over Chicago in Game 6 on Thursday night, the Nets now get to host Game 7 in Brooklyn. Joakim Noah does not seem concerned.

“We’re a team of fighters,” Noah said Thursday, via ESPNChicago.com. “We keep getting punched in the face but we fight back. I’m proud of this team, and we’re going to go into a hostile environment in Brooklyn and we’re going to win.”

There was really nothing else Noah could say, but the odds are stacked against Chicago at the moment. For starters, winning a Game 7 on the road is an incredibly difficult task. Nets fans will be at their loudest looking for their first playoff series win in their new building and city, which will be tough for the Bulls to overcome.

Then, there’s the issue of health. Game 7 is Saturday night. On Thursday night, Nate Robinson was puking into a trash can during timeouts and Taj Gibson was held to three points and three rebounds while battling a similar illness. Luol Deng, who underwent a spinal tap to test for viral meningitis (which came back negative), was unable to play. Noah has also been battling a foot issue that he admitted is incredibly painful at times.

Simply put, Chicago is battling illness at the worst time possible. If Robinson, Gibson and Deng are all able to recover over the next two days, there’s no reason they can’t defeat the Nets on the road. If not, Brooklyn will have the upper hand in a variety of ways.

Photo credit: Mike DiNovo-US PRESSWIRE

LeBron James is not used to losing. Why should he be? The Miami Heat had won 27 games in a row prior to Wednesday night’s loss to the Chicago Bulls. After the game, LeBron was understandably frustrated after being called for a questionable flagrant foul and having a fan try to snatch his headband. He also thought the physicality that Chicago played with crossed the line.

“First of all Kirk Hinrich in the first quarter basically grabbed me with two hands and brought me to the ground,” LeBron told reporters after the game, via CSNChicago.com. “And the last one, Taj Gibson was able to collar me around my shoulder and bring me to the ground.Those are not basketball plays and it’s been happening all year. And I was able to keep my cool and try to spell [Spoelstra], ‘Let’s not worry about it too much.’ But it is getting to me.”

It was after the Gibson foul that James lowered a shoulder into Carlos Boozer and was called for a flagrant foul. I’m sure LeBron has been dealing with physical play all season, but it’s no coincidence that we haven’t heard much from him about it.

“I’m not sitting here crying about anything,” he continued. “I play the game at a high level, I play with a lot of aggression, I understand that some of the plays are on the borderline of a basketball play or not. But sometimes, you know, I don’t know … it’s frustrating.”

Just stop right there, Bron Bron. Don’t make us think the only reason we’ve started to like you and your quirky antics is that you’ve been winning. Are we about to see the old LeBron now that the Heat can’t break the record for most consecutive regular season wins? I sure hope not.

Photo credit: David Butler II-US PRESSWIRE

The Chicago Bulls lost a heartbreaking game to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, and the game’s ending has created a great deal of controversy. The Bulls converted what looked like the go-ahead basket with 1.7 seconds left in overtime, but the officials ruled that Joakim’s Noah’s tip-in occurred as the ball was above the cylinder, thus resulting in offensive interference.

As you can see from the video above, this sent Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau into a frenzy. Thibodeau and the Bulls felt as though the ball was going to come up short when Noah tipped it in.

“It’s a tough play,” Thibodeau after the game, via USA Today Sports. “From my angle, it looked like it was a good play, it looked like the ball was short.”

Chicago forward Carlos Boozer said the team felt like the game had been “stolen” from them, and many fans feel the same way. In my opinion, it certainly looked like Noah got his hand on the ball before it was directly above the cylinder. However, referee Ken Mauer said there is more to the rule than that.

Read The Rest of the Story…

Mark Cuban is one of the most opinionated owners in all of sports. Let’s not sugarcoat it — he’s downright obnoxious at times. However, the Chicago Bulls would tell you that the Dallas Mavericks owner can also be incredibly generous.

On Saturday night, the Bulls were flying to Indianapolis for their Sunday game against the Pacers when they had some frightening mechanical issues with their plane.

“Apparently a compressor in engine No. 3 had some trouble, and it sounded like it exploded, but I guess it’s like a jet engine backfire, which is very loud,” Bulls radio analyst Bill Wennington told ESPN 1000′s “Waddle & Silvy Show” on Monday. “Sparks fly out of it. It happened actually right after … the captain thrusts the engines forward and it revs up and starts to go, about three seconds after that you hear a ‘Boom!’ ‘Oh, what was that, are we stopping?’ The plane keeps going down [the runway] and you’re thinking, ‘Oh no, why aren’t we stopping?’”

Fortunately, the plane’s pilots were able to safely turn around and get the team back to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, where they were sent home and returned the next morning to use the Chicago Blackhawks’ plane to get to Indianapolis. They used their hockey compadres’ plane to get back to Chicago after a loss to the Pacers, but Cuban came to the rescue after that.

Read The Rest of the Story…

Chicago Bulls fans miss Derrick Rose. The team has handled itself well during his absence, but you have to wonder how long they are capable of holding it together with a former NBA MVP watching from the sidelines. On Sunday before the Bulls were blown out by the Oklahoma City Thunder, Rose was shown doing something that should put a smile on the face of Bulls fans.

He dunked.

Of course, Rose wasn’t exactly exploding to the basket and landed on his “good” knee. But a couple of weeks ago the point guard was talking about how he still lacks burst and is unable to dunk. Unless we were seeing things, he has made some progress.

It’s still not out of the question that Rose could miss the entire season, but it’s certainly encouraging to see that his rehab now includes warming up with basketball activity and not being afraid to go up for a dunk. Is he close to returning? That’s doubtful, but any dunk is a a sign of confidence at the very least.

Video via Game On!