By all accounts, Bulls reserve forward Brian Scalabrine is a good guy. Coach Tom Thibodeau consistently lauds his red-headed victory cigar for his effort, teammates are quick to credit him for being like another assistant coach, and Scal is known to give, um, memorable quotes to local reporters. But no one loves Scalabrine as much as Bulls fans (well, maybe Celtics fans...) who have adopted the gravity-bound forward as the team's unofficial mascot. Scalabrine earns overly enthusiastic cheers when the Bulls are headed for a blowout victory, which is usually proceeded by the United Center crowd chanting his name. It may all be harmless fun but it's also, I don't know, a little embarrassing, for reasons that should be obvious enough without spelling out.
On Monday against the New Jersey Nets, Scalabrine actually earned his cheers. The Bulls were short-handed in the front court, playing without Luol Deng and Taj Gibson. That meant Scal actually got some real NBA minutes, and the reserve forward made the most of them. This layup was good enough to place at No. 10 in SportsCenter's top plays of the night:
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