David Haugh

Aristotle would have loved the White Sox under Ozzie Guillen.

That came to mind as Sox general manager Ken Williams carefully described how Guillen's greatest weakness can mirror his greatest strength, the way it is in Greek tragedies. How the filter-less flair that can make Guillen go too far, as he did mocking some White Sox fans during one of his most recent rants, also helps him connect with players. Hubris is the word I offered, not Williams.

"When you're talking about a position of leadership, in which you are assigning the person to lead a group of high-testosterone, high-ego driven, competitive people, it takes a certain personality to get through to them, to relieve them, in good times and in bad," Williams told me recently in the White Sox dugout. "Sometimes with that extreme personality you have to take a little bit. Sometimes the same thing that inherently drives each person to be the men they are is the same thing that can tear them down . . . that can ultimately lead to his undoing."

For eight seasons and three NBA championships, John Paxson was Michael Jordan's teammate. Paxson drafted Derrick Rose in 2008.

Nobody can compare the abilities of Jordan and Rose to carry their respective Bulls teams through tough playoff stretches more knowledgeably than Paxson. Not that the Bulls executive vice president ever would engage in such folly.

"To ever compare Derrick to the greatest player ever is unrealistic and will always be unfair in my opinion," Paxson said. "That comparison should never be made. Even though he's the MVP of the league, (Rose) is still going through certain competitive experiences for the first time as a player. This conference finals is one of them."

Of all the sound strategic decisions Tom Thibodeau has made in Chicago, one of the best came before he had coached a game.

It was in a meeting in July when Thibodeau basically diagrammed a new career path for Luol Deng that directly affected the course of this potentially special Bulls season.

"The conversation I had with Thibs was he said, 'I know you can shoot 3s and I want you to shoot them in my system,' and that was really it," Deng said. "He just said, 'You're going to be open to shoot 3s in different spots,' so I really focused on that."

It was 4 a.m. CST on Christmas in Baraki Barak, Afghanistan, when U.S. Army 1st Lt. Austin McNaul conducted a video chat with his little brother Bryce, a junior Northwestern outside linebacker.

CHICAGO -- Back in 1992, the last time the Blackhawks were in the Stanley Cup finals, Scotty Bowman and his son, Stan, celebrated together at the end of that series the way they hope to when this one is over.

CHICAGO -- It took Darren McClusky about 10 minutes inside the Arctic Ice Arena in Orland Park, Ill., to figure out the 280-pound teenager on skates from Minnesota was worth all the time and effort people were investing in his future.