Washington Post - Tim Thomas expeced great things when he was traded to Chicago, but he was quickly shown that he wasn't what the Bulls wanted.

"I thought I was going to become the player I always wanted to become in Chicago.

"I had one conversation with Skiles that lasted less than five minutes. I asked him, 'Do you think I'm dogging it in practice?' And he said no. But from then on, nothing. . . .

"Nobody told me what they expected of me. I understand that, as a free agent making $14 million, I was going to come off the books at the end of the season. I understood that. . . . But man, I started hearing I was a bad influence on the young kids and that I didn't practice. Ask the players in Chicago. I went through the same practices they did . . . well, for three games. You get a rep from nothing. A bad year becomes, 'He doesn't work hard.' Chicago tried to put that label on me."

Ok...so we plug that into the official "Tim Thomas Translator"...and it turns out, he's actually saying:

"I've actually shown up for a few games for Phoenix this postseason, some NBA GM is going to be dumb enough this summer to give me like $20 or $30 million more to sit on my ass most of the next few years, and my agent tells me that if I don't say something about the Bulls to try to save my reputation it could cost me a few million dollars."

Haha, sooo true.

It will be interesting to know if this is actually true. Players say a lot of things, but you never know, maybe Skiles just didn't like the guy or he had heard bad things about the guy and let it effect him.

Considering his past history, I'm going to side with Skiles unless proven otherwise. I'm thinking the ass whooping Skiles and the Bulls gave him may be the kick in the rear that gets him going the rest of his career (he can be a very very good 6th man).

Welcome to the world of AJ Pierzynski Mr. Thomas. I still think it was a mistake to just let the dude walk for nothing...and pay him on top of it. I know the big "get" was the picks for Curry...but Thomas is a decent player. Who knows....everybody'd movin on...