Jalen Injury Scare Jalen Rose will be out 2-3 weeks with a thumb ligament sprain he suffered after a drive to the basket in practice. But theres a silver lining to see:

Management initially feared that Rose had torn ligaments when he fell and landed on his thumb, which likely would have required surgery and a two- to three-month absence. Instead, an examination Sunday morning by a hand surgeon determined that Rose had sprained a ligament. He is wearing a cast to immobilize the hand and will be re-evaluated in a week. "When you consider that surgery is an alternative, any time you can get over an injury like this with immobilization and hopefully a short period of recuperation, you feel like you won," trainer Fred Tedeschi said.

I don't need to say how much losing Rose for that much time would've hurt. And while Rose gets a lot of flack when things go bad, he's still very much needed on this team. So this means the preseason will be an opportunity to see more minutes for Gill, Hinrich, et al. I'm just happy since the Bulls have seemed to dodge a bullet here. Maybe to increase that 'average age'?? Theres a note at the bottom of the article suggesting that the Bulls try and sign Dikembe Mutumbo, who was effectively paid by the Nets not to play for them last week. I'll drop a news item on you all: Deke can't play anymore. Let him return to the sarcophagus from which he came :)