NBA star trolls Chicago Bulls' Gasol
Pau Gasol played in his 1,000th regular-season game Saturday night, becoming the 116th NBA player to reach that milestone.
Longtime rival Dirk Nowitzki helped Gasol celebrate in style.
Earlier in the day, Gasol sent out a tweet inviting fans to post their favorite highlight from the veteran center's long career. Nowitzki responded by submitting a clip of Gasol getting poster-dunked by Orlando's Nikola Vucevic last season at the United Center, along with the message “congrats.”
Gasol came back with, “There have been a few of those too. Thanks for sharing mate!” Of course, there were crying emojis tacked on to the end.
Nowitzki's final response was, “Hahahha. My bad amigo. Tell me what prize I won.”
Maybe someday Gasol will catch Nowitzki on the games played list. The Dallas forward ranks 20th with 1,284 games played. Short-time Bull Robert Parish is No. 1 with 1,611. The active leader is Kevin Garnett with 1,440.
With the next game he plays, Gasol will pass former Bulls teammate Nazr Mohammed, who retired (for now) with exactly 1,000 games played.
Rose shoots straighter:
Before Saturday's game, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg talked about how he helped tweak Derrick Rose's shot in practice.
“The big thing is balance,” Hoiberg said. “He had a tendency to lean to his left a little bit, especially when he was shooting his floater. He was off balance. And when you're off balance that kind of creates a little bit of a flat shot.
“Human nature, I guess. You want to get as close to the rim as possible. It creates a little bit of a flat release. Do a lot of one-handed shooting, and really work on finishing high. … He's shooting the heck out of it in practice. He's getting a lot of reps. I anticipate him having a good one here soon.''
Coach misses Thibs:
Charlotte coach Steve Clifford is one of Tom Thibodeau's best friends in the coaching world. But Clifford didn't meet up with the ex-Bulls coach at the East Bank Club on Friday night or anything.
“We'll text and stuff,” Clifford said. “But frankly, you get going in the season, you don't spend a lot of time on the phone. We text a lot, but I don't have any shattering news to share with you.
“People don't realize, if you're on the phone, you're not watching film. He's one of my closest friends; you just don't have time to do all that.”
Clifford did get some coach bonding done during training camp when Thibodeau spent three days visiting the Hornets.
“It was great. He helped me a lot,” Clifford said. “He sat back, took notes and we sat down at night and he gave me suggestions about everything. So it was really good.”
Bull horns:
Nikola Mirotic was back in the starting lineup Saturday after getting cleared via the NBA's concussion protocol. Mirotic took an elbow to the face from Denver guard Emmanuel Mudiay on Wednesday. … Kirk Hinrich returned after missing two games with a hip pointer. … The Bulls moved into the No. 1 spot in the East on Friday night when Cleveland lost at New Orleans in overtime.