Last Thursday in New York, Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg threw what may have been his biggest curveball in a season full of them. With Jimmy Butler and Nikola Mirotic sick, Hoiberg went to German rookie Paul Zipser, thrusting him into the starting lineup at Madison Square Garden after he’d played a total of 53 minutes to that point in the season, all in garbage time.
As Hoiberg told it, Zipser responded to the news of his first career start by simply saying, “Coach, I’ll be ready.”
Zipser was just as thrown off by Hoiberg’s decision as anyone else.