Pistons, Bulls On The Clock...And Still On....And Still On

So when's Media Day? Where are all the out of town TV shows? Which jerseys are they going to wear? Where are all the good parties? Who's performing at halftime? When does the pregame show start?

I always thought the Super Bowl was played in the first week of February. But the NBA, in its infinite wisdom, is making the Bulls and Pistons wait until Saturday -- a full week off for Detroit, six days off for Chicago -- to get it on in the second round of the NBA Playoffs, otherwise known as War and Peace -- The Movie.

It didn't use to be this way. If two teams wrapped up their series early and were scheduled to play each other in the next round, the league would let them get to it, overlapping the previous round teams that were still duking it out.

Cue John Belushi: But, NOOOOOOOOOOO!!

The league, no doubt steered by money, deems it that the Bulls and Pistons have a Super Bowl-type week's worth of hype, possibly causing Game 1 to be sloppy and ugly, as two teams try to shake off the rust.

Call me crazy, but I think the time off is best kept for later in the postseason, when it's more needed. If a team keeps sweeping thru the playoffs, or wins in five games, then they'll get their time off. But after Round One? Let 'em play on Wednesday! Sheesh!

The worst thing is, the hype was already going to be coming in heavier doses in this series because of the Ben Wallace Factor. In Round One we had the Grant Hill Factor, but that was child's play, a mere warmup for what's to come. For the record, the Pistons swear the Wallace Factor is not a factor at all, and that we should all just leave it alone because it's all about Wallace as just another player to be dissected, nothing more.

And the media folks will take that advice about as seriously as a dental patient does when the doctor says, "You should floss more."

But the Pistons are right. And better the media thinks Wallace's new team taking on his old one is a big deal than the Pistons themselves. They have more important things to worry about. All we do is watch; they gotta play.

So Round Two is still more than 72 hours away. And this after almost 96 hours of waiting already.

Can someone at least have a wordrobe malfunction or something while we're waiting?