Kirk Hinrich is a grown man. He can handle booing, but should he have to when he had 24 points, 3 rebounds and 8 assists? When his team beat the Pistons at home? What kind of an offense would warrant booing so loud that Steve Kashul had a hard time interviewing Hinrich after the game?
Oh, right. He failed to hit a shot that would have pushed the Bulls' point total to 100, thus winning the crowd a free Big Mac.
Forgetting that Hinrich saved the crowd from the 540 calories and 29 grams of fat that would have come with that free Big Mac, he also played a fantastic game. He filled in for the injured Derrick Rose, and played well. How does that deserve anything but applause?
Yahoo! Sports' Kelly Dwyer lights up the Bulls VP of Business Operations, Steve Schanwald, as the culprit for this stupidity.
He's right that the Bulls, and all teams, need to value what is on the court enough not to exploit it for a silly sponsorship. Keeping fans entertained with a doughnut race, the Luvabulls or a t-shirt cannon during timeouts is one thing; using the game, which is, ostensibly, what fans are there to see, as a way to get people excited over a free burger that is cheap anyway is giving up on any excitement the team themselves may bring to the United Center.
Shouldn't fans see through this? Fans, who have already paid $50 for tickets, $8 for a beer, and $7.50 for a hot dog should hold Hinrich and the rest of the Bulls accountable for one thing, and that is winning. If they are that hot to boo something, boo Del Negro's performance as a coach, boo the refs, boo when a Matador is out of step with the dance.
But if you're so in need of a free Big Mac that you feel the need to boo a guy who just played his heart out, you probably shouldn't be at a Bulls game in the first place.
Maggie Hendricks is a lifelong Chicagoan who now has a taste for Big Mac. She also writes for Cage Writer, Yahoo! Sports' MMA blog, and worked on Fourth-Place Medal, Yahoo! Sports' Olympic blog.
