Bulls players kept plenty busy during lockout

The Bulls left Friday for Los Angeles, typically a vacation destination during the holidays. But after the NBA lockout delayed the regular season by two months, the players feel as though a business trip is long overdue, even if it falls on Christmas Day.

“I don't think we can complain about days off right now. We've had a lot of them,” forward Kyle Korver said. “So whatever day they say for us to play, I think we'll probably accept it and be OK.”

Asked how they spent their unwanted lockout vacation, the answers varied in length. But here's a sampler of how the Bulls passed the time waiting for the season to begin.

ŸFor some, like MVP Derrick Rose, it was mostly business as usual. Rose talked about working out the same way he always does, but one additional activity was a pair of USO-sponsored exhibition games for military personnel in Hawaii.

“It opened my eyes to a lot of things,” Rose said. “Being on base, meeting the people, meeting the troops. It makes you respect them a little bit more, don't take them for granted.”

ŸCarlos Boozer talked about getting to do more things with his three young sons, who live in Miami, and attending a Thanksgiving program at school.

ŸKorver, on the other hand, added to his family by getting married in August. That's an event that would have happened anyway, but the lockout gave him more time to settle in. He met his bride in Utah, but soon found out they had another location in common — suburban Philadelphia, where he started his NBA career with the 76ers.

“I got introduced by a pastor of a church in Utah. It was after I was out there for a year and a half,” he said. “It's crazy, because we actually hung out in the same neighborhood in Philly, but met in Utah. How that worked out, I don't know.”

And no, Korver is convinced his wife, singer-songwriter Juliet Richardson, didn't secretly follow him to Salt Lake City.

“She didn't know a thing about basketball when we met,” he said. “It was pretty funny.”

ŸJoakim Noah paid a visit to the Hawaiian island of Kauai and called it the most beautiful place he's ever been. He also backtracked in his basketball career and hung out with his old college team, the Florida Gators.

“I love spending time with (coach Bill Donovan),” Noah said. “He's not only my favorite coach I ever had, but also a great mentor to me. It's exciting being around all of these hungry, young athletes who are trying to make it to the next level and have all these questions about it. That was cool for me.”

Did the experience cause Noah to miss his college days?

“I felt old as (heck) around those guys,” he said.

ŸSome NBA players kept right on playing overseas. The only Bull to travel that route was Brian Scalabrine, who brought his wife and two young daughters along as he joined Italian league club Benetton Treviso.

Scalabrine loved playing for that team, but it was tough on his family being temporary visitors in a foreign country.

“It was good to see a different culture,” Scalabrine said. “The hardest thing was my children adapting to things like them going to the playground and not meeting new friends. Or them not seeing their family and things like that.”

In hindsight, Scalabrine would have spent more time preparing his wife and daughters for the experience.

“It was always like, ‘This is a temporary thing.' So we never fully committed,” he said. “If you do it, you've got to jump in full-bore. We were one foot in, one foot out. It was hard for her, because she was always thinking, ‘We'll be back in Chicago (soon).'”

ŸLuol Deng, Omer Asik and Noah played in the European championships, which took place in Lithuania in September. With extra time on his hands, Deng made another trip to Africa, stopping in Kenya and his native Sudan.

ŸTaj Gibson split his time between hanging out in Brooklyn with his family and playing pickup games at USC with several Indiana Pacers. All the while, he hung onto a gift from coach Tom Thibodeau.

“When we were leaving for the summer, before the lockout began, he gave us each of us a long talk and gave each of us things he wanted us to work on,” Gibson said. “I tried to meet most of the things he wanted me to work on.”

ŸAs the lockout dragged on, Ronnie Brewer appreciated the opportunity to personally distribute Thanksgiving baskets to families in his hometown of Fayetteville, Ark.

“One of my best friends got married and I was able to be one of the groomsmen,” Brewer said. “We had the wedding rehearsal on a Friday and that Saturday morning was when they announced they were going to end the lockout. They had the wedding that Saturday night, so we were kind of celebrating two things. It was a great time.”

Now it's time for fans to celebrate and players to get back to work. They'll punch the clock Sunday at the Staples Center against the Lakers.