Blogs.Bulls.com

The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Chicago Bulls. All opinions expressed by Sam Smith are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Chicago Bulls or its Basketball Operations staff, parent company, partners, or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Bulls and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.

The NBA announces the rest of its 2009 All-Star teams Thursday, and Bulls rookie guard Derrick Rose isn’t optimistic. “If we had a winning record or something like that,” said Rose before the Bulls played the Clippers. “No (I don’t expect to). But anything can happen.”

It’s highly unlikely, of course, with no rookie expected to be added in the coaches’ selections. But Rose Wednesday was selected to play for the rookies against the sophomores in the rookie challenge game Feb. 13 of All-Star weekend.

Rose also said he accepted an invite to participate in the skills challenge, which generally features the top guards in the league in speed and accuracy contest. “That should be fun going against Dwyane Wade and a lot of them,” said Rose of the skills challenge. “When you think about the season, you don’t really think about being All-Star. As a rookie you think about adjusting to the NBA, learning the game. But it’s an honor to be in it (the rookie challenge). I’ve watched (the game) numerous times and the guys I’ll be playing against are competitive.”

Though given the offensive nature of the game, Rose will have to work on his lob passing. “Hopefully, I’ll get my assists higher,” said Rose. “I know the rookies and we’ll try to win it. But those sophomores with (Kevin) Durant and those guys look good. It will be a fun experience. My family definitely is going to be there. My mother will be there with her friend. It will be something to remember. It’s a chance to get my feet wet so hopefully in a couple of years I’ll have a chance to play in (the All-Star) game.”

Bulls center Joakim Noah didn’t make the sophomore team that includes DePaul and the Knicks’ Wilson Chandler. Also on the team is Noah’s former Florida teammate Al Horford. Asked about not making the team, Noah said: “Of course you want to, but I don’t think I had a chance.” Asked why, Noah said, “I don’t know. I don’t know.” He did smile then.

Meanwhile, the NBA announced the most popular selling jerseys based on sales at the NBA store in New York and on NBA.com. Rose, surprisingly, ranked No. 9 overall. Rose said he was shocked. The top selling were Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Allen Iverson, Pau Gasol, Paul Pierce, Dwyane Wade, Rose, Nate Robinson, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, Ray Allen, David Lee and Carmelo Anthony. The Bulls as a team were the fifth highest seller after the Lakers, Celtics, Knicks and Cavs.

In other developments, Drew Gooden saw a specialist in Phoenix Tuesday for his groin and abdominal issues and while coach Vinny Del Negro said Gooden remains day to day, it sounded like given the sensitive nature of that kind of injury Gooden will be out at least another week and perhaps more.