The Chicago Bulls find themselves in a very peculiar situation this morning.

Bulls GM John Paxson is faced with this question do you essentially trade away all your young talent from a team that went to the playoffs last year for the best player in the world?

Of course there’s a little more to it than that. Any trade, one could presume, that would involve Kobe Bryant going to Chicago would have to include Luol Deng. As the Lakers aren’t likely to see the value in acquiring Tyrus Thomas, Joakim Noah and Ben Gordon, giving they are sending the best player on the planet to the Windy City in exchange. It gets even more complicated when you consider that Bryant is the only player in the league with a no-trade clause in his contract and he has made it known that he wants to play with Luol Deng and likely wouldn’t accept a trade to Chicago if Deng is involved going the other way.

I’m not going to say this deal is dead in the water because the Lakers front office has been known to do some colossally stupid things (trading Shaq comes to mind) but they are faced with the reality that Kobe can, and most likely will, opt out of this contract in a year, leaving the Lakers with nothing.

But that can’t enter into the decision-making for Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak. He has to try to win now and trading the best player in the league for the 2005 College All-American team is an awful, terrible idea, regardless of what happens in a year.

Am I convinced this trade won’t happen? No. Do I think that Kupchak is desperate enough to pull the trigger and forgo a season of Kobe and Phil sniping at each other in the papers? Yes.

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No, seriously…

Mayor Bloomberg identifies the real threat to the safety of New Yorkers this holiday weekend — unguarded beaches and pools.

Apparently, some people in Japan are still really sensitive about the whole atomic bomb thing.

I’m officially declaring this Arizona woman to be the nicest person on the planet.

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SHOCKING NEWS! Joakim Noah isn’t enough of a front court presence for the Bulls and the team is looking elsewhere for additional help.

It could be a sad end of the road for former Jazz and Lakers guard Derek Fisher.

Sabres fans aren’t the only ones hit hard by the departures of Daniel Briere and Chris Drury. This story reveals one very interesting twist to this story. According to the paper, the Sabres and Drury had agreed on a 4-year deal in the fall but a contract was never presented to Drury to sign. Nice.

A discussion on a Pittsburgh sports talk show about the planned walkout by Pirates fans at Saturday’s game turned heated. I watched the video on the TV station’s website and the altercation in question is about 20 minutes into a show where the central topics of discussion are Zach Duke, Freddy Sanchez and Jim Tracy. Trust me, it’s not worth it. But here’s the link anyway.

If this isn’t a sign that the world, as we know it, is coming to an end, I don’t know what is: Cavs forward and walking muscle spasm Anderson Varejao could make more than $6 million next year.

The Magic corralled free agent forward Rashard Lewis. Watch out for the Magic next year. They’re some good guard play away from being a very competitive team.

T.O. is suing a New York nightclub for using his likeness and name without his permission.

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Well-rounded news…

Drowned in Sound is not at all excited about the prospect of a Verve reunion.

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Inside Baseball

Media Shift’s Mark Glaser says the future of journalism is bright. While I think that most of this piece is maybe overly optimistic. There is one part that I find a little ridiculous, “Bloggers and Internet readers, though they may have personal agendas, provide a free supply of fact-checkers.” That’s a nice way of identifying the role of bloggers in mainstream media.

No, seriously…

Inmates communicate to each other through the toilet.

Domestic cats once roamed wild in North Africa.

Someone updated the wikipedia of wrestler Eric Benoit about the death of his wife — 13 hours before police arrived.

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The Worldwide Leader Andy Katz on players that were rewarded in last night’s draft for staying in school.

Are Knicks fans really betting on the low-post combination of Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph?

Shelly Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette telling the world that Amanda Beard posed in Playboy for the money… talk about burying the lead.

The Buffalo News is reporting that Daniel Briere has rejected the offer made by the Sabres earlier in the week.

Congratulations, Bulls! You now have the worst offensive frontcourt in the NBA. I’m going to make a wager that the combined PPG for Noah and Ben Wallace is under 20.

No more Berlin Fire/Hamburg Sea Devils instant classics… (cue emoticon: sad face)

Interesting headline on this story about the Mavs taking Nevada’s Nick Fazekas.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a great piece on Atlanta native Pacman Jones and “where things went wrong.” Despite the claims of some of the dopes in this piece, it seems Jones had a history of being a malcontent.

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Well-rounded news…

Myspace is for dorks.