Kirk Hinrich, national TV stud

As avid readers of this blog know, I like to give Kirk Hinrich a lot of grief. I mean, he does deserve some of it considering Hinrich's wretched shooting percentages, but I'll even admit I go overboard sometimes considering he does still do some things well and isn't completely useless. I just can't help myself, especially when I get it pounded in my head that Kirk does no wrong and transcends statistics and is the grittiest player to ever grit.

But I'm not here to talk about Kirk Hinrich, 36 percent shooter. I'm here to talk about Kirk Hinrich, national TV stud.

When looking at Hinrich's 15-point on 7-of-11 shooting line against the Warriors the other night, it kind of dawned on me that Kirk had performed quite well on the major networks this season. I decided to look into it more, and sure enough, he had! With the next game against the Lakers on ABC, I pretty much expected another big effort. What did we get? 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting and more stat-stuffing goodness. Interestingly, Kirk's two best games last year also came against the Warriors and Lakers, but that's neither here nor there.

The Hawks game wasn't on national TV, so I spent the entire game hoping Hinrich would throw up a ton of bricks because it would be hilarious. For the most part, Hinrich obliged. He started 2-of-10 overall and 1-of-6 from three before making his last two shots to finish 4-of-12 overall and 2-of-7 from three. Still bad, although he was a game-high +21 because of course he was.

Anyway, I'm sure y'all want to know just how well Kirk is playing on national TV this season. Just a note, these are only the games on ESPN/TNT/ABC. I know NBA TV should technically count, but it's still kind of a specialty channel to me so I'm not going to. Hinrich has also been kind of bad in NBA TV games, so it kind of ruins what I'm going for here. And screw WGN America.

10/29 vs. Heat - 6 points, 2-of-6 overall and 2-of-4 from three

10/31 vs. Knicks - 9 points, 3-of-6 overall and 0-of-1 from three

11/6 vs. Pacers - 12 points, 3-of-5 overall and 2-of-2 from three

11/21 vs. Nuggets - 7 points, 3-of-5 overall and 0-of-2 from three

12/5 vs. Heat - 13 points, 4-of-7 overall and 3-of-4 from three

12/11 vs. Knicks - 11 points, 3-of-11 overall and 2-of-5 from three

12/25 vs. Nets - 6 points, 3-of-5 overall and 0-of-1 from three

1/29 vs. Spurs - 11 points, 4-of-8 overall and 1-of-1 from three

2/6 vs. Warriors - 15 points, 7-of-11 shooting and 1-of-1 from three

2/9 vs. Lakers - 17 points, 7-of-13 shooting and 3-of-7 from three

Totals - 10.7 PPG, 50.6 FG% and 50.0 3P%

JUST LOOK AT THIS!! Over 50 percent overall! 50 percent from three! The magic of national TV!

So with these numbers in mind, what are Kirk's scoring numbers when the Bulls aren't on ESPN/TNT/ABC? 7.5 points per game on 32.2 percent shooting overall and 23.4 percent from three. LOL.

What does this mean? Absolutely nothing. I just thought it was funny and wanted to share, damn it. Also, if Kirk has a great game tonight against the Nets, I can take all the credit. And if he sucks, I can take credit for jinxing him. So basically, I'm taking credit for his performance either way.