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Midweek musings: President Barack Obama has selected his Final Four for the NCAA basketball tournament: Kentucky, Ohio State, Missouri and North Carolina. Wondering whether Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney will go for the schools in states with the most electoral votes.
A photo of bikini competitor/personal trainer Ayda Sirin or of Brandon Marshall or maybe one of Jay Cutler or Jerry Reinsdorf? Such difficult decisions.
* Funnyman Vince LiFonti, who happens to be one of the Chicago Bulls’ Matadors, happened to see my tweet regarding Obama and Romney and responded: [“Rick] Santorum won’t pick an NCAA Final Four because he believes people that go to college are snobs.”
* Speaking of Twitter, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler tweeted: Told you we could get that #15 [receiver Brandon Marshall] out of storage. Getting the band back together! Good to have #15 back.
* Speaking of the Bears obtaining Marshall in a trade with the Miami Dolphins, pal Jeff Nuich tweeted: “There’s a new film opening up in South Beach this week: ‘Forgetting Brandon Marshall.'”
* With former Denver Broncos teammate Marshall, Cutler will have another favorite target to go with former Vanderbilt teammate Earl Bennett. Too many favorite targets? Gee, that’s a perpetual problem for the Bears, isn’t it?
* New Bears general manager Phil Emery also signed Jason Campbell as a backup quarterback. Gee, a QB with starting experience. What a concept. Emery just might be having a better offseason than his predecessor Jerry Angelo did a tenure with the Bears.
* The NBA fines Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose $25,000 for criticizing offials (you can click here to hear and read about his remarks). At that rate, he will feel the pinch in his pocket … uh, never. If his words bring more calls his way, it will be a worthwhile investment for him.
We interrupt these words of wisdom to bring you some video of Ayda Sirin. She was among the bikini competitors at the recent Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio. She also had a photo shoot with Don Bersano whose work has appeared on this site from time to time. Ayda is a Vancouver-based personal trainer and more. To find out about her, you can go to her web site at energizingbody.com.
With an 8:30 p.m. start Wednesday for the Bulls-Miami Heat game, one way to pass the time could be watching the latest edition of its “Inside Look” interview series at 7 o’clock. This one features Bulls and White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.
The 30-minute show, which will be available at CSNChicago.com after its airing, will be replayed Wednesday at 11:30 p.m., April 6 at 4:30 p.m., April 11 at 2:30 p.m., April 13 at 4:30 p.m., April 15 at 8 p.m., April 18 at 11 p.m., April 19 at 4:30 p.m., April 22 at 2 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and April 25 at 9 p.m.
Among quotes of note from Reinsdorf in the interview with Chuck Garfien:
* On the White Sox winning the 2005 World Series: “In the spring of 2005, I said this is going to be my 25th year, maybe we’re never going to win a World Series. I don’t know if it will ever happen. And then it happened. I am still appreciating the moment. The moment wasn’t when we won … I mean that was exciting, you know, my God, we won the World Series … although it wasn’t a shock because we were up three games to nothing. What really happened to make it sink in was the parade. There were two million people, there wasn’t one arrest, there wasn’t one incident. You could see the love coming to the players from those people. Then there were people coming up to me telling me they had gone to the cemetery and decorated their parents or grandparents graves. You could go to any cemetery in Chicago and the graves were decorated with White Sox paraphernalia. And then the next spring a gentleman came up to me in the parking lot and said, ‘My father died 15 minutes after the last out; he knew and he died happy.’ Those things will never, ever leave me.”
* On his luck in buying the Bulls: “There’s been luck at everything I’ve ever done. [Sox executive vice president] Howard Pizer and I have a little joke between us when we have a problem and can’t figure out the solution to the problem. I’ll say to Howard, ‘What are we going to do?’ And Howard’s answer will be, ‘Well, we’ll get lucky.’ Because everything I’ve ever done, I’ve had a tremendous amount of good luck. A little bad luck along the way, but the good luck so outweighs it. In that case, the good luck was they had drafted Michael Jordan. At the time we made the deal, no one knew what Michael Jordan was going to be, and I don’t think they would have sold the team if they had known what he was going to be. So clearly, I was lucky.”
* On winning six NBA titles with the Bulls: “I was incredibly proud to be associated with the Chicago Bulls and what they had done. The Bulls are a worldwide phenomenon … led by Michael, but it was a great team. You have to give [general manager] Jerry Krause a lot of credit because the only two players who were on the second three-peat that were on the first three-peat were Michael and Scottie [Pippen].
Staci Boyer, a woman of many talents, will be an in-studio guest Thursday on "Sports & Torts" -- although probably not in this outfit.
* On winning the 2008 NBA draft lottery — despite having a 1.7 percent chance — and being able to pick Derrick Rose, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player: “Two months before [the lottery], [general manager] John Paxson and I were talking and Paxson said, ‘WWhere are we going to get a point guard? We’ve got to get a point guard.’ I said, ‘I don’t know; we’ll win the lottery, we’ll take Derrick Rose.’ I knew he was going to be a very good player. I can’t say I expected him to be an MVP in his third year. What’s really good is that he’s grounded. He really hasn’t changed since he got here. He comes from a solid background. He was protected when he was growing up. He is a lot like Michael in that he just wants to win basketball games.”
Scheduled to appear on the March 15 (Thursday) edition of “Sports & Torts” with David Spada and Elliott Harris at noon Chicago time on talkzone.com is Staci Boyer, personal trainer, bikini diva. motivational speaker, author and more. Staci will be in the studio to chat, although it is uncertain that she will be wearing one of her competition outfits. Also scheduled for the show are former college basketball coach Lefty Driesell and former NBA player and coach Richie Guerin. For those unable to tune in, the show will be available on podcast.
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