Eddie Robinson

It's time.

The no-headband rule was instituted by John Paxson circa 2004, after Bulls bench player Eddie Robinson was repeatedly seen in practice wearing his headband around his neck. To Paxson, this presented an unnecessary choke hazard, and when Robinson petulantly refused to do anything about it, Paxson felt he had to ban headbands altogether, for that was the only way to get Robinson to stop.

The rule wasn't a big deal until Ben Wallace, upping the petulance stakes a little, made it so. Wallace snuck a headband onto the court for the start of an otherwise forgettable regular season game, and when Scott Skiles noticed this, he had little choice but to bench him. Wallace was put back into the starting lineup for the second half of the same game, yet again he had smuggled out a headband, and took the court wearing it. Once again, he was benched, and the scandal of Headbandgate ensued.²⁹ It was a completely unnecessary blight upon the franchise brought about by players being children, and the hierarchy - whose hands were tied - were made to look ridiculous purely for enforcing rules they didn't want to have even created. It was a bad time.

[To be fair, Eddie Robinson was also responsible for the best headband-related moment in Bulls history. Jamal Crawford missed the first three quarters of the 2001-02 season with an ACL tear, and in the first game after his return, Robinson floated the idea that the entire team wear a headband, like Crawford did, as a show of solidarity of unity and respect for their returning comrade. Fred Hoiberg looked completely ridiculous and took his off at half time.]

Eddie Robinson - Robinson actually made a basketball comeback this season, appearing in at least two games for ABA team the Oklahoma Stallions, his first action for three and a half years. It did not last long, however.

- Eddie Robinson

Robinson last played in the NBA in 2003-04, at which point the Bulls bought him out. The only time he has played since then was in 2006-07, when he spent most of the year with the Idaho Stampede of the D-League, averaging 15.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. E-Rob was also drafted in the 2008 draft by the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, but never played for the team, and hasn't suited up in three years. He's only played 27 games in 6 years.

Eddie Robinson was reviled in the eyes of Bulls fans and management alike, because he constantly complained of pain in his toe. He refused to drive the lane because of it, missed many many games (playing only 144 games in three years with the team, a good return on their $31 million investment in him), and seemed to find any excuse possible to sit on the sidelines wearing one of his many fantastic paisley sweaters. However, once Robinson acrimoniously departed the Bulls, he tried to sign with the New York Knicks.......where he promptly failed the physical because of the condition of his toe. A toe on which he then had season ending surgery. Whoops.

It would be nice if this was an isolated incident. But in recent times, the Bulls medical staff has claimed that Eddy Curry has a heart condition that, supposedly (allegedly), was actually just the resulting symptoms of the weight loss pills he was taking. And last year, the Bulls medical staff claimed Luol Deng was exaggerating an injury and cleared him to play (while throwing him under the bus in the process), just for it later to emerge that Deng actually had a broken leg that they'd just sent him out to play on.

I'm just saying.