Earlier in the week I made a passing comment towards Boylan's odd "earn your minutes, injured'uns" bullshit regarding the impending returns of Hinrich, Gordon, and Deng. I figured it was minor because I didn't believe he really meant it, and has shown not to have the authority to do anything of the sort.
However, while the latter two are out until after the all-star break (and Gordon won't start regardless, but that's a separate and-as we know-contentious issue), we did see exhibit-A returning Tuesday night: Kirk Hinrich.
So while Hinrich in 26 minutes had 15 points (albeit not the most efficient game), and Duhon had 5 points in 31 minutes, plus the mountain of evidence heavily suggesting that Duhon sucks, interim Boy(lan) says Kirk hasn't 'earned' his spot back yet, and will come off the bench against Miami on Thursday.
If only it was a case of Hinrich first proving he's healthy. For one, Duhon isn't fully healthy either (nursing a sore knee, and kudos to him for playing at all), and Hinrich's healthy enough to play and perform in his first game back, saying as much that he's ready to go and doesn't understand the benching.
Neither do I.
Neither does KC Johnson, who remarked on the radio (I don't recommend listening to the interview, it's especially heavy on Mike North meatball-isms) this morning how bizarre it is (and this was before he knew Hinrich would be benched Thursday as well) and how it's more fitting for a college team. And considering this is a team with Ben Wallace getting the minutes he does, it's insanely hypocritical.
I have no idea what impossibly low standards Pax had in his interview with Boylan when considering him for the interim job. It was an 'anybody but Skiles' directive, sure, but it looks like to the degree where as long as Boylan didn't take a steamy dump on Pax's desk, Pax figured Boylan 'earned' his spot.