Bulls Discounted Boozer; Lakers Sign Him at Discount

When Carlos Boozer’s joining the Los Angeles Lakers is the highlight of your sports day, it must mean you haven’t had much of a day. Unless, of course, you happen to be Carlos Boozer — which most people are not.

Looks like Stephy C is ready for Bears training camp. Or something like that.

* The Lakers put in the winning amnesty waiver bid of $3.25 million on Boozer. Meaning the Bulls don’t have to eat Boozer’s entire salary after amnesting him. They merely have to pay $13.6 million. Hey, it’s not every day you can say you saved $3.25 million.

* To recap, the Bulls save a bit of money and wipe Boozer’s salary off their books for salary-cap and luxury-tax purposes. In essence, they traded him for Pau Gasol. Well, if you don’t think about the money that Boozer will be receiving in L.A. from the Bulls. And something says the Bulls’ front office would rather not think about that.

* Speaking of the Bulls, their NBA Summer League team played Thursday in Las Vegas and improved to 4-0 with a 79-68 victory vs. the Philadelphia 76ers. Second-round draft pick Cameron Bairstow and second-year player Tony Snell each scored 18. First-round pick Doug McDermott’s odyssey to the Basketball Hall of Fame took a slight detour with 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting. And a reminder: These games and their accompanying statistics mean little. If not less than that when it concerns actually playing against NBA-caliber competition. It is like taking what numbers baseball’s minor leaguers put up and then trying to extrapolate (whatever that means) with certainty how those players will perform in the big leagues (assuming they advance that far).

* Speaking of minor-league baseball, Chicago Cubs fans may continue to look to 2015 — and beyond (some would say well beyond) — and see what some of the team’s farmhands did Thursday. Kris Bryant and Javier Baez homered for Class AAA Iowa. Addison Russell and Jorge Soler homered for Class AA Tennessee. Kyle Schwarber went 2-for-4 for Class A Daytona. Some other guys hit home runs and had multi-hit games, but before any Cubs dieheards become too excited, Iowa right fielder Brett Jackson (remember him and his .175 batting average with 59 strikeouts in 120 at-bats with the Cubs in 2012?) went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two runs batted in. Yes, it is good to do well in the minor leagues, but — similar to those warnings provided by prospectuses (prospecti?) for mutual funds, etc. — past performance is no guarantee of future results.

* Speaking of prospects and future performance, the NFL may hold its 2015 draft in Chicago. Or Los Angeles. Oh, joy. OK, so it’s not exactly the Super Bowl. No word whether the city has guaranteed the NFL any snow from a Chicago winter will be gone by draft day (starting sometime in late April). Pretty certain it will feel like football weather, though.

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