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Chicago’s Jimmy Butler and Malcolm Thomas were among 13 players selected to receive 2012 NBA Summer League All-Star status. Voting was done by NBA TV and various NBA scouts as the games came to an end this past weekend in Las Vegas.

For Butler, it may have been an early indication that he’s ready to take on a bigger role …

He wishes he were more like Amar’e Stoudemire, and he’s told he could be another Taj Gibson. But Bulls summer leaguer Malcolm Thomas is just trying to be a defensive role player who finds a spot on the end of the Bulls bench this season.

And he probably has the best chance among the Bulls NBA Summer League players, who …

In the end for the Bulls Thursday and for the 2011-12 season, it was a game they weren’t supposed to win that they left shocked they lost.

Sort of the way this whole season went.

The Bulls had lost Derrick Rose, were still without Joakim Noah, had Taj Gibson playing through a sprained ankle, saw Luol Deng leave early in …

It seems fashionable lately to not care much about the Bulls. Yes, they are trailing the Philadelphia 76ers just 3-2 in the opening playoff series with Game 6 in Philadelphia Thursday (6:00 p.m. CT | CSN & NBA TV | ESPN 1000 AM).

But the notion is without Derrick Rose, gone for the playoffs with a torn ACL and Joakim …

So after all that–losing Derrick Rose to that catastrophic knee injury in Game 1, losing Joakim Noah to that horrendous sprained ankle in Game 3, and then with Taj Gibson limping to the locker room Tuesday in Game 5 with his own sprained ankle, after the team filing a missing persons report on Richard Hamilton, after it appeared the Bulls …

And then there was one.

Perhaps just one game left in this most remarkable and unusual — if not ultimately fulfilling — Bulls season ever. The Bulls after Sunday’s 89-82 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers trail 3-1 in the opening round playoff series. Game 5 is 8:30 p.m. CT Tuesday in Chicago.

Cue the NBA music, perhaps a dirge for …

How could this happen?

How after a second straight Bulls best record in the NBA could first Derrick Rose go out in the first game of the playoffs, and Joakim Noah, certainly for the rest of this series with the Philadelphia 76ers, in the third game?

So the Bulls, the No. 1 seeded team going into the playoffs, suddenly are …

The Bulls’ championship hopes for this season likely ended last Sunday when Derrick Rose suffered that torn anterior cruciate ligament late in the Bulls Game 1 playoff victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.

But there seemed hope against the 76ers and possibly in the conference semifinals. Though that seems all but gone now with Joakim Noah sustaining a severe ankle sprain …

Joakim Noah probably has been the Bulls’ best player in this opening round playoff series with the Philadelphia 76ers, certainly with Derrick Rose out injured.

And, yes, there’s much talk heading into Game 3 in Philadelphia Friday night that Carlos Boozer, Richard Hamilton, Luol Deng and Kyle Korver have to be better with the series tied 1-1. But, really, the …

Now that 109-92 Philadelphia 76ers win Tuesday over the Bulls to even the first round playoff series at 1-1 is a game in which the Bulls could certainly have used Derrick Rose.

Yes, I know, we’ll be thinking that often for a long time to come, and it’s also time to get past that. Reporters in the wake of the …