The first week of training camp is over. Do you know where Jamal Crawford, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah are?
The ex-Bulls and longtime fan favorites all remain unsigned.
Crawford, the only three-time winner of the Sixth Man of the Year award in NBA history, averaged 7.9 points in 18.9 minutes over 64 games for the Suns last season, his 19th. In the Suns’ final game, Crawford scored 51 points, becoming, at 39, the oldest player to hit the 50-point plateau and first to do so for four different teams.
Noah, who won Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2013-14 and owns two All-Star appearances, averaged 7.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.1 steals in 16.5 minutes over 42 games for the Grizzlies last season, his 12th. He tried out for a Lakers reserve big man role that went to Dwight Howard.
It’s certainly conceivable one, if not both, of Crawford and Noah could latch on with a team at some point this season.
Deng is the more curious case. Like Noah, he’s 34 and a two-time All-Star. But he has played just 23 games the last two seasons, one with the Lakers and 22 with the Timberwolves, for whom he averaged 7.1 points in 17.8 minutes per game last season.
If this is the end for him, or any of the three, they left Bulls fans with some memories. Save for one of Deng’s 9 ½ seasons in Chicago, I covered the entire Bulls careers of all three players.
NBA
Here’s one on- and off-court moment for each player that I’ll remember most:
JAMAL CRAWFORD, 2000-04
On-court memory: Before an April 11, 2004, game in Toronto, Crawford, long one of the league’s most accessible players, talked casually with two Chicago writers. The topic of scoring 50 points in a game arose. Crawford told Roman Modrowski, then the Chicago Sun-Times Bulls beat writer and now an NBA editor for ESPN.com, he could do it. Modrowski, somewhat playfully, expressed skepticism. Crawford turned serious, saying he’d do it that night.
Thirty-four shots later, 18 of which he made, including six 3-pointers, Crawford bagged his first of four 50-point games in a six-point overtime victory.
"Coach [Scott Skiles] drew up some great plays and my teammates kept looking for me,” Crawford said humbly afterward.
He had done his talking before the game.
Off-court memory: During Crawford’s rookie season, he invited me to his Evanston apartment for an interview for a feature story. Inside, he had pictures of his hometown Seattle everywhere. He also had plenty of basketballs and boxes of shoes.
Crawford doesn’t work out in the offseason, opting to play pick-up games all the time instead. He keeps a basketball in his car, just in case he happens upon a game that suits him. As he showed me this, I realized my parked car was running---with the keys locked inside.
Crawford offered to drive me home. I declined. Evanston being my hometown, I felt obligated to overcome my absent-mindedness on my own.
LUOL DENG, 2004-14
On-court memory: It would be remiss of me to write about Deng’s Bulls career without acknowledging his flourishing under Tom Thibodeau, who trusted him as an indefatigable two-way player. Nowhere was that trust more evident than in the Bulls’ three-game, regular-season sweep of the Heat in Miami's first season with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Setting the stage for their eventual showdown in the 2011 Eastern Conference finals, the Bulls won the three games by a combined eight points. And in their matchup on Feb. 24, Deng capped a 20-point, 10-rebound effort by hitting a corner 3-pointer that snapped an 89-89 tie with just under 16 seconds remaining. The Bulls went on to win the game 93-89.
In a rare demonstrative moment for him, Deng held his follow through on the shot, briefly soaking in the adulation from the United Center faithful. Then he had to hustle back. He had to guard James.
Off-court memory: The United Kingdom offered Deng’s father, Aldo, who was a member of the Sudanese parliament, political asylum from their native war-torn Sudan. Deng moved to the Brixton neighborhood in South London at age 9.
So when London landed the 2012 Summer Olympics, Deng quickly became the face of British basketball. He wore it well. In interview after interview, Deng talked proudly of becoming a British citizen, about his youth basketball camps and his efforts to advance basketball in a country where it doesn’t rank highly.
When I told him I spent a day with Jimmy Rogers, Deng’s beloved youth coach who has since passed, his face lit up like the Olympic flame. “Jimmy is everything,” Deng told me at those Olympics. “I’m just lucky I fell into his hands.”
What made the entire process even more impressive is that Deng played through and rehabilitated a torn ligament in his left wrist that he had suffered that January for two reasons: He believed the Bulls could win the 2012 NBA championship, and he refused to miss his chance to promote British basketball to the world.
JOAKIM NOAH, 2007-16
On-court memory: There are so many layers to Noah’s 24-point, 14-rebound, six-blocks effort in the Bulls' Game 7 road victory over the Nets on May 4, 2013 that it’s hard to know where to begin.
Noah, as proud a competitor as there is, didn’t think he’d play in the first-round series because of painful plantar fasciitis. But the New York native perservered, in part for the chance to play in front of family and friends, including his youth coach, Tyrone Green, whom Noah always called a second father and who passed away unexpectedly a year later.
And Noah not only guaranteed victory before Game 7, he also authored his dominant performance with Deng, Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich all sidelined. Afterward, Noah talked passionately about several subjects, but most prominently his love for Rose, who drew criticism from some circles for his decision to sit out the season following left ACL surgery.
Off-court memory: For close to five days in January 2014, Noah refused to talk to reporters. Known for his accessibility, humor and honesty, Noah needed time to process the Bulls’ decision to duck the luxury tax in the wake of Rose’s second season-ending knee injury and trade Deng to the Cavaliers.
When Noah finally spoke, following the Bulls’ fifth straight victory, the wait proved worth it.
In lengthy comments detailing his love for Deng and also his prevailing belief in management, Noah perfectly put why he plays basketball the way he does.
“The guy selling the newspapers on the streets, cold outside, sees me driving by, he's excited. He's like, 'Let's go Bulls. Get it done tonight.' I feel like I play for that guy," Noah said. "When I look at the top of the arena, teams call timeout, and I see that guy who looks this big and he's up cheering and jumping up and down, that's the guy I play for.
“To me, that's what the city represents. There is a lot of hardship and adversity in the city. When I play basketball, I want people to be proud of their team."
Here’s hoping each of the three get another chance.
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