Wallace's headband? Banned no longer

The final obstacle to a Bulls' championship season has been removed: Center Ben Wallace received clearance to wear a headband during games.

Actually, the headband issue has been more of a running joke than anything ever since Wallace was benched twice during a game at New York last Nov. 25 for wearing the elastic strip in violation of team rules.

"Hopefully, that will translate into more blocked shots, more rebounds and more steals," joked teammate Ben Gordon.

Wallace celebrated by wearing a black headband throughout Monday's annual media night at the Berto Center, where the first practice of training camp will be held this morning.

"We had a team meeting," Wallace said. "We sat down and talked about it. It doesn't change my game one way or another."

Coach Scott Skiles warned that the headband edict was lifted for Wallace only. There was no word on whether any other players made a formal request to don headwear.

"They could ask," Skiles said. "They won't have any success."

With one important issue out of the way, the Bulls can now concentrate on mounting a challenge in the Eastern Conference. Considering they finished 1 win short of securing the No. 2 playoff seed last year, the Bulls' chances of reaching the NBA Finals seem as good as any team in the East.

High expectations were a hot topic last year at the start of training camp, then it took the players some time to jell and the Bulls got off to a 3-9 start.

This time, 10 of the 14 players on the roster are back from last season and several have room to improve. The only veteran newcomer is power forward Joe Smith.

Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng and Tyrus Thomas appear to have added muscle since the spring. Andres Nocioni, on the other hand, has slimmed down.

"As a group, we're excited," Hinrich said. "We're probably more confident than last year at this time. It's always an exciting time of year. Everybody's got predictions and expectations."

"We keep raising the bar for ourselves," Deng added. "I feel like we have a team that can compete with anybody."

The top two teams in the East last year, Cleveland and Detroit, mostly stood pat during the summer. The Cavaliers are actually short-handed at the moment since restricted free agents Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic are unsigned.

But several other teams in the East appear to have improved, most notably Boston by adding Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Toronto is another young team that should keep improving and Washington was in the race last year until losing two top scorers to injury.

"I don't get the feeling that the guys are getting caught up in where people are picking us or anything," Skiles said. "I feel like last year's experience was beneficial to us. We had some expectations last year for the first time. It wasn't terrible or anything, but it had some effect on certain guys. It's something you need to go through to mature as a player."

Before embarking on a publicity tour for his low-cost line of sneakers, Wallace reported that he spent the summer at his home in Virginia and worked on winning.

"I think a lot of people get in the gym and just go through the motions," Wallace said. "Sometimes you've got to go in there and work on winning. That's what I try to do. Everything I did during the summer was based on game situations.

"It's different going out every night as the underdogs. Now we're going out as the favorites. We've just got to stay focused."