I'm off to the United Center tonight for my first taste of this season's Chicago Bulls, who frankly in their 12 games so far have been shite, winning just two games and sat firmly at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Unlike the NFL where a bad start will almost certainly deny you a play-off spot, in the NBA teams play 82 regular season games, so there is plenty of time left for the Bulls to pick up the pace although from what I've heard and from the bits I've seen on the box, they have been bad. Yesterday the illustrious Ben Wallace said "if we can't get better, I'm going to lose my daggone mind." Tonight the Bulls are at home to Atlanta Hawks (5-7).

Chicago Bears are having a season to forget, that was until Sunday when in an exciting finale they came from behind to beat the Denver Broncos 34-31 in overtime. It was just the second win at home for last season's Superbowl runners-up and although it keeps the Bears in with an outside chance of the post-season - their season record is now 5-6 - they really cannot afford to lose another game, especially since arch rivals Green Bay are 10-1, with 38-year old quarterback Brett Favre having a dream record-breaking season. I'll whisper this quietly because I would be lynched by Bears fans, but I actually would like to see Green Bay go all the way.

I will deny I said that obviously. And finally while I'm doing a bit of a round-up, ice hockey's Chicago Blackhawks are doing pretty well. They get little media coverage in this city and most people treat them with indifference but I noticed their home crowds have been pretty decent (17-18,000) and with 16 play-off places up for grabs (there are only 30 teams) one of the founding members of the NHL might make the play-off's for the first time in 6 seasons.