Chicago Bulls Pre Season Press Media Day

[PrepP]

Bulls Owner: We'd like to welcome everyone to the Chicago Bulls Media Day. Thanks for coming. We will start off with a bit of an introduction and then open it up for questions for the GM or players. Later on we'd like to take a quick poll on some ideas the organization is kicking around to build better player/fan interaction. So let's get started.......

LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING BROTHER! WE ARE GONNA LAY THE SMACKDOWN ON YOUR SORRY ......I'm sorry...My apologies......still a little hype after returning from the presser I was at earlier.

So... Back to business. After making what we feel were positive changes to our franchise last year by bringing in PrepP as our GM/Coach mid season and turning the direction of our team to a new era, we are pleased to say things are looking up. We want our fans to know that we are working hard to put together a championship caliber team for this city and Bulls fans everywhere. Prep brings a culture of hard-nosed, do what it takes, underdog type mentality that we think will help produce winning results in the seasons to come. He specializes in scouting/developing young talent for the SLOE and is well respected by vets for his basketball knowledge and past experience in Sim league. Without further ado, let me introduce Your Bulls GM/Coach, Mr. PrepP.

PrepP: Thank you ..... Thanks....Ok. Well, I just first want to thank the Bulls organization for giving me the chance to return to do something I love. Now that I am here it's time to work towards the future. I also want to apologize to our fans for last years performance. We are a better team than that and we expect better from ourselves. But please keep in mind that the SLOE league is the pinnacle of basketball talent in the world and we made some big changes in the middle of the season by changing GM's, changing our coaching style, and some roster changes. It was expected to be a "down" season in terms of wins so that we can start rebuilding for the future.

I like what we are building here in Chicago. We have All Star, All League talent in Kobe who is still improving everyday and even at a young age is the leader of our team. We have young guys in Tim Thomas, Brad Miller, Mike Bibby,newly acquired Eric Dampier and rookie Stephen Jackson who are all developing nicely and willing to do what it takes to win. This offseason we brought in veterans like Scottie Pippen, Tim Hardaway, and Ervin Johnshon who not only are going to fill in key roles for us but be mentors for our guys at each position and share some of that veteran wisdom with them.

This is a big upcoming year for us. We are looking to improve our record from last year, continue to develop our young guys, and looking for opportunities through trade to strengthen our team for the future. Our goal this year is to make the playoffs and let these young guys get some experience on the big stage and let the world see what Bulls basketball is all about! We are looking forward to the start of the season. And with that we will open it up for questions for any players or myself now. Thanks

Be sure to stick around for the Poll and give us your input.

League/Fan Poll:

Bulls Media Team:We have been in discussions with local affiliate WGN on producing a few pilot episodes for a program starring one of your favorite Bulls players. Please read the descriptions below and let us know which program you would like to see produced. You can also submit your own idea in the comments. Thanks.

Pilot #1 - Title : Eating Skittles with Kittles - Synopsis: Kerry Kittles reviews different kinds of candy and talks about current SLOE league basketball news.

Pilot #2 - Title : small talk with Earl Boykins - Synopsis: little guy with a BIG Heart. Earl spends the day with celebrities, athletes, giants, and elementary school aged kids that he looks up to.........literally.

Pilot #3 - Title : Tea Time with Tim Thomas - Synopsis: Tim sits down for tea with retired SLOE league legends and looks back on their career.

Pilot #4 - Title : Off the Top with Brian Cardinal - Synopsis: Medical advice type show focusing on early on-set Male Pattern Baldness and reviewing different types of treatments.

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: What led to your decision to let go of the recently-acquired Eric Strickland? Did the drafting of another wing in Stephen Jackson play into that decision any?

[NOLa.]

Is there any added pressure to tey and surround Kobe with high caliber talent to finally get this team to win? Its among one of the most losing-ness teams in the league and its been a long time since Chicago made the playoffs.

[PrepP]

Random Reporter: What led to your decision to let go of the recently-acquired Eric Strickland? Did the drafting of another wing in Stephen Jackson play into that decision any?

Eric Strickland wasn't really viewed as a long term piece for us. We would have liked to keep him but were planning to move him for more assets to speed up the rebuilding process. This offseason Eric was offered a very lucrative contract that we felt would put are organization in a difficult position financially and made his trade value go down. At that point we decided to let Eric go.

[PrepP]

Is there any added pressure to tey and surround Kobe with high caliber talent to finally get this team to win? Its among one of the most losing-ness teams in the league and its been a long time since Chicago made the playoffs.

We view Kobe very highly and as the cornerstone of our organization and we would like to bring in someone that fits well with him that would help us win.......At the same time we are not willing to sacrifice everything on one guy. If an opportunity presents itself that we feel is fair for BOTH teams we will pull the trigger.

[WigNosy]

Was Ervin Johnson's famous picture blog a consideration in bringing him to your team?

[NickMalone77]

Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: Going into your first offseason, you tied up a lot of money into two defensive minded centers in Dampier and Ervin Johnson. Do you see Brad Miller primarily as a 4 more than a Center? Does this mean lessen minutes for your young big? Did you talk to him at all before going in this direction? Also, when you signed Kobe, how in the world did you not give him the key(s) to the Sears Tower and every show suggestion you came up with for Kobe? Also, your bloggers could learn a thing or two from the blogging prowess of Ervin Johnson...

[PrepP]

Was Ervin Johnson's famous picture blog a consideration in bringing him to your team?

I wasn't aware of Ervin Johnson's blog under past management. While I am okay with players using social media as a way to interact with fans in a positive manner, as a GM I make roster moves purely for basketball purposes. We think Ervin is a great locker room guy and from what I hear he's a pretty popular blogger on the interwebs.

[PrepP]

Nick Melon; Charlotte Observer: Going into your first offseason, you tied up a lot of money into two defensive minded centers in Dampier and Ervin Johnson. Do you see Brad Miller primarily as a 4 more than a Center? Does this mean lessen minutes for your young big? Did you talk to him at all before going in this direction? Also, when you signed Kobe, how in the world did you not give him the key(s) to the Sears Tower and every show suggestion you came up with for Kobe? Also, your bloggers could learn a thing or two from the blogging prowess of Ervin Johnson...

When I became GM of the Bulls I set in place a plan to turn this team around from a direction which we feel wasn't working out very well for us. We have a goal in place but my plan to get us there changes given the direction of the league. While this roster is still under construction we felt our back court was filling in nicely. I felt we needed some more help in rebounding and defending down low and we went out the offseason and got 2 guys who do just that.

Brad is a team guy. One of the reasons we are very high on him. We didn't need to talk to Brad because he has made it clear that he will do what it takes for our team to win. We feel his skillset allows him to play most of his minutes at the 4 position but he will see some minutes at the 5 also. He's ready to play any position we put him at and a lot of that will be my decision when game planning for different teams.

Believe me Kobe is popular in Chicago. Initially the producers at WGN first asked us about doing a show centered around Kobe. But Kobe quickly turned it down and told them "I'll be right here in the gym. Sun up to sun down. Just me and this ball. If you can make a guy shooting 800 shots a day.........EVERYDAY....... exciting enough for people on TV......then be my guest." The producers ultimately decided to pursue other players to build a show around.

[LoCo89]

Jean Baptiste Étienne, of La Révolution de Vancouver (Memphis Branch) newspaper:

One of the more interesting off-season happenings was your failed signing of Predrag Danilovich and his subsequent signing with the Van Memphis Grizzlies. We actually asked GM Enrique about this and his response was and I quote, "if you want a pizza delivery and you call Wal-Mart, you can't get mad at anyone but yourself for calling the wrong place. He made the call first just to the wrong place and Danilo came to us."

Do you have any further comments on that situation?

[IamQuailman]

Awarded 5 Points! Thanks for your contribution!