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Thursday thoughts: Now that Magic Johnson is among the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers, maybe a similar scenario can play out in Chicago with Michael Jordan having an ownership role when Jerry Reinsdorf decides to sell the White Sox. OK, so that’s less likely than the Sox winning a World Series this season.
* Speaking of likely occurrences, which would be more unlikely: Tiger Woods failing to win the 2012 Masters, or Augusta National admitting its first female member?
* John Groce will be judged as Illinois basketball not on the results of some search firm hired by athletic director Mike Thomas (the same one that selected him for the Illini) but on his results on the court.
April Rose, a favorite of this site, has been busy lately. Thankfully, there is a record of some of her activity. Even more thankfully, the video is of her riding a bull. Even more thankfully than that, it’s a mechanical bull. All of which makes for an entertaining video — for those of us who are entertained by such things (and the guess around here is that most visitors to this site fall into that category).
Here you go:
OK, a little basketball video? Well, if it’s from Playboy, then OK:
A little March madness? Well, this is Playboy’s March cover girl, UFC ring girl Brittney Palmer:
Comcast SportsNet has put together a two-part series on the Chicago Luvabulls’ recent diva halftime performance. Recommended viewing. To view part one, you can click here.
Speaking of Comcast SportsNet, Chicago Blackhawks president and CEO John McDonough is the latest interview subject for CSN’s “Inside Look.”
The show debuts Saturday (March 31) at 6 p.m. with Pat Boyle interviewing McDonough, who talks about the Hawks’ 2010 Stanley Cup crown, his time with the Chicago Cubs and more.
Additional material will be available at CSNChicago.com. Included will be interview footage with Hawks chairman Rocky Wirtz and executive vice president Jay Blunk. Replays of the McDonough show will be April 5 at 11 p.m., April 6 at 11 a.m., April at 2:30 p.m. and April 13 at 4:30 p.m.
Among the highlights from McDonough:
* On rebuilding the Hawks organization: “The first couple weeks I would be driving home on the Eisenhower and I would be saying to myself, ‘I think I made a mistake.’ Now, this was to myself. Because again, this was much grander than I thought and the franchise, I thought, needed a complete overhaul from top to bottom and I almost didn’t know where to start. And I am thinking, ‘We have to start from scratch.’ And that, at that point, is exactly what we did. It almost became personal.”
* On the state of the franchise when he accepted the job as Hawks president: “I didn’t feel it was in a very good place. This was a much more daunting ordeal than I had ever anticipated, but not insurmountable. I remember, after the press conference, I gathered the entire organization or the people that were here at the time and I really remember the message very clearly – the expectations are going to be higher, the pace is going to be swifter and you are going to need to be onboard. And as I looked out at this group, I could see in their eyes, a good number of them were not onboard. They just were not onboard. And then it got into that we had to make seismic, profound change. This wasn’t an assignment. This was not an assessment where I could have sat back, looked at the terrain, kind of a two-year plan and report back to [Rocky]. This was a 911. There was a great sense of urgency.”
* On thinking about the Cubs on his way to the Stanley Cup championship parade: “I remember driving down to the parade with my wife, and I remember having this moment saying, ‘I really thought this would be with the Cubs … I really thought this moment would be with the Cubs.’ I will tell you something that I never said publicly before. In my mind’s eye — I don’t know why I had this indelible snapshot, but I did — in my mind’s eye, about eight to 10 years ago I had envisioned a fly ball to centervfield Corey Patterson catches it. National bedlam ensues. The Cubs win the World Series, and it’s the biggest civic celebration in the history of sports. That is what I thought would happen. I believed that was going to happen. I never envisioned it would be with the Blackhawks.”
* On the Stanley Cup parade and moving forward the following week: “While I was on the bus and there were a few million people at this parade, I felt how proud I was to be from Chicago and whether it’s with the Cubs or the Blackhawks that I am really fortunate to play a small role and be a part of this. I needed to savor that moment … I never wanted that parade ride to end. I wanted to continue to go down North Michigan Avenue and go down Lake Shore Drive and just go on forever. Unfortunately that couldn’t happen. I remember coming back on Monday, the parade was on a Friday, and really sending a simple message to the staff, business operations and hockey operations: ‘Party’s over, let’s move on.'”
A reminder that “Sports & Torts” with David Spada and Elliott Harris will feature personal trainer Hadley Allen and Earl Lloyd, the first African-American to play in the NBA, on Thursday (March 29) at noon Chicago time on talkzone.com. The program also will be available later in the day on podcast.
And, yes, that is a photo of Hadley. And, no, she will not be wearing that outfit for her in-studio visit. Maybe next time? We can only hope and/or imagine.
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