Bulls plan to attack circus trip one game at a time
Phil Jackson used to pass out personally selected books to the players during the Bulls' annual circus road trip.
First-year coach Tom Thibodeau delivered his own style of reading material before the team left town on Monday.
“We just give them a personnel report on Houston,” Thibodeau said at the Berto Center. “That's it.”
Derrick Rose, meanwhile, should be in a suitably nasty mood when the trek tips off Tuesday against the Rockets. He talked about downloading a couple of television series onto his new MacBook Air.
Rose's selections were “Dexter,” a Showtime series about a serial killer, and “The Walking Dead,” an AMC series set in the days after the impending zombie apocalypse.
“I can't wait to get to it,” Rose said before rushing home to pack.
The November road trek, which coincides with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus taking residence at the United Center, hasn't been kind to the Bulls during the past decade.
This year's journey includes seven games over 13 days, five Western Conference playoff teams from last season and keeps the Bulls on the road through Thanksgiving weekend for the first time since 1995.
Speaking of walking dead, the Bulls' record on the circus trip since the 1999-2000 is a beyond-dismal 10-61. Considering that run began with a 37-game losing streak, though, they're a more reasonably bad 9-23 in the past five seasons.
Thibodeau's strategy for this trip is to ignore all stops that come after Houston. He's pushing the old “one game at a time” philosophy.
“That's been our approach since the start of camp,” he said. “We didn't want to get ahead of ourselves with anything we're doing. Each and every practice, there are certain objectives we're trying to accomplish.
“I like the idea of us being on the road early. I think it will be good.”
Last year, the Bulls won the opening game of the trip at Sacramento, then dropped five in a row. Two years ago, they went 3-4 during Rose's first experience with the circus trek.
“I'm not concerned about it. That was last year. That was the past,” Rose said. “We're just worried about this one game and that's Houston. That's how we're going to take every game.”
Rose admitted he had trouble getting used to spending two weeks on the road. But that's all changed now that he followed Team USA across Europe and into Turkey for the FIBA World Championships this summer.
“This trip shouldn't be nothing, knowing I went overseas for a month and a half,” Rose said. “This should be easy. Last year it killed me, being away that long. But just playing in the NBA, being with my teammates on the road, being with them every day, eating with them, shopping with them it should bring us together.”
Since he mentioned it, where do NBA players like to shop on the road?
“You probably go to Macy's,” he said with a laugh. “Definitely when you're in L.A., you've got to go to Rodeo Drive.”
What about the Galleria in Houston?
“I would spend all day in there if I go there after the flight,” he said. “Shopping, that's (actually) something I try not to do when I'm on the road, spending too much money.”