[From the Diaries. Bad for Kirk, but good (or at least 'not bad') for the Bulls. I'm curious as to how much of the 'withdrawl' is seeing the writing on the wall, or if Kirk actually has more pressing matters to attend to this summer. Update: AP reports that it was 'personal reasons'. -Matt]

Chris Sheridian reports:

On Monday afternoon, Team USA announced that Shane Battier and Kirk Hinrich have withdrawn from training camp and consideration for a spot on the Tournament of Americas roster. It was also announced that Nick Collison was added to the senior national team program. Well that is good new for us Bulls fan who were worried that Hinrich would be tired if he had to play this summer.

Listening to Bill Simmons Podcast, he was speaking to Ric Bucher, and there was an interesting tidbit.  The tidbit was that the Ben Wallace signing was a Jerry Reinsdorf and Arn Tellem deal, and that Pax had nothing to do with it. He hasn't said anything about due to the fact that he wants to keep his job.

[From the Diaries. Had to get a new post up there since the game thread has kindof gone to hell. I'll probably have more this weekend, but I'll say there's good arguments to be made for both minor and major changes, and each requires a bit of faith (or lack thereof) when evaluating Hinrich/Deng/Gordon. They lost the game and the series because they weren't good enough. Whether they'll be that much better to come isn't a foregone conclusion. 'read more' for the diary -Matt]

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