Now that I’m back from South Africa and Zimbabwe, the NFL Draft (only two weeks away) looms large.
Here are my predictions for the biggest day of the NFL offseason:

The doldrums have passed and hopefully the frigid weather will follow. In a myriad NBA cities (not named Chicago), bold moves at the trade deadline have fans thinking championship thoughts. NFL free agency kicked off with a bang and MLB spring training is underway. Not to mention March Madness right around the corner. I can already feel my boredom melting.

Bye Bye Big Ben The Bulls trade Ben Wallace, Joe Smith and a second round draft pick to the Cavaliers in an 11 player deal that brings Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Shannon Brown and Cedric Simmons to Chicago. My take on it in the next "Sports Matters" post.

So in the greatest of all meaningless games, the East knocked out the West 134-128 in New Orleans, which had put on its best face for the largest sporting event it had hosted since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. 1. The news that eclipsed the game's outcome was the completion of the Jason Kidd trade to Dallas the next day for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Trenton Hassell, Keith Van Horn and two future first round draft picks in 2008 and 2010. Seems like the West is caught up in a series of major knee jerk trade reactions.

It's that time of the year. The NFL season is over, the NBA playoff drive has yet to really heat up and MLB spring training still feels like a distant snowbound fantasy. But the world keeps turning and there have been some rather significant developments.

• Lakers and Suns make big moves, Bulls tread water: Two blockbuster trades went down last week involving big men with low post credentials. Neither of them involved the 20-30 Chicago Bulls.
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The most important endorsement last week had nothing to do with Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife or Ted Kennedy. Try Joe Namath. The legendary Jets quarterback predicted that Eli Manning and the New York Giants would upset the (previously) undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. He's now 2 for 2 on Super Bowl upset guarantees. I guess that means I'm only one behind him.

Tides of darkness are growing. The hype has built to a fevered pitch. Smoke clouds the sky above a stadium in the Arizona desert where thousands will gather Sunday night. The entire season has been a mere prelude, a series of steps in an inexorable march toward the final culmination that is Super Bowl XLII.

In this inaugural edition of the Windy City Roundup, I'll be fracturing the usual spotlight to accommodate a number of different Chicago-area sports stories that I feel are worthy of comment as well as listing a few select national plot lines.

• Bumbling Bulls: Just because they've lost Luol Deng, Ben Gordon and Joe Smith to various injuries does not give the Bulls license to lose 83-67 to the worst team in the NBA.
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The Bulls' playoff position exposes Eastern Conference inferiority

The Bulls have missed the presence of Luol Deng, who enjoyed a breakout season last year.