No break for, fast break in Chicago
Thanks to some premature and overblown coverage, the Chicago Bulls are facing some heat for not landing former Phoenix Suns Head Coach Mike D’Antoni.
A couple days ago, I pointed out how ESPN’s speculation essentially created the news — and blew the idea out of proportion — that D’Antoni would likely leave his post to take over the same role with the Chicago Bulls.
The most obvious reason the D’Antoni-to-the-Bulls coverage was overblown? He ended up signing with the New York Knicks.
Like I mentioned in that post, I will always trust Chicago Tribune Bulls’ beat reporter K.C. Johnson more than the likes of ESPN basketball reporter Marc Stein. Johnson, who got stuck having to follow Stein’s D’Antoni/Bulls sensationalism, seemed to take subtle shots at Stein throughout his D’Antoni/Bulls coverage. In a May 2 article, he even called “Any story intimating D’Antoni would land the Bulls’ job for sure if he leaves the Suns is premature at best and false at worst.”
Well, in any case, all the coverage was for naught, and there will be no fast break fun in Chicago. I was rooting for it, and thought guys like Tyrus Thomas, Joakim Noah, and Ben Gordon would’ve excelled in D’Antoni’s system. As part of Stein’s articles, he made sure to point out Gordon and Luol Deng were both reportedly “salivating” at the idea of playing in an uptempo system.
Gordon and Deng are both currently restricted free agents. It will be interesting to see how D’Antoni spurning the Bulls’ after the Stein’s meddlesome news-framed gossip will affect the efforts to re-sign either or both.
Although K.C. Johnson had been reporting Bulls’ management wouldn’t be rushed into making a decision about whether to hire D’Antoni, ESPN had been reporting the organization had planned to offer up a deal this weekend. Chicago Sun-Times perpetually angry little man columnist Jay Mariotti — always looking for someone to blame about something — blames Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf for letting D’Antoni slip away by being too cheap to jump in and offer a quick big deal.
In any case, Bulls’ GM John Paxson is pissed D’Antoni didn’t wait for an offer from the Bulls, which was supposedly to come by sometime today, Sunday, May 11.
Stein, more politely than Mariotti, blames Reinsdorf and points out that the Bulls didn’t have to wait so long to make an offer. Also, he says Paxson shouldn’t get the kind of blame he probably will:
Since Skiles’ departure on Christmas Eve, Paxson has been wearing the bull’s-eye.
More and more you hear loud dissatisfaction with Paxson’s ongoing inability to trade for a big name — or at least a dependable low-post scorer. Likewise, the two huge personnel choices he made recently (Ben Wallace over Tyson Chandler and Tyrus Thomas over LaMarcus Aldridge) appear to have backfired.
So imagine what kind of heat Paxson will be subjected to now that the Bulls couldn’t close the deal with a coach whom we’ve known for more than a week was burning to get to the Windy City.
In this case, though, I suspect Paxson will get more blame for Chicago missing out on D’Antoni than he probably deserves. Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf is clearly the chief culprit here.
How kind to say for someone who is clearly the chief culprit behind digging Paxson this most recent hole.
It may indeed be Reinsdorf’s fault D’Antoni jumped at the Knicks’ offer, but if Paxson isn’t given a break as as result, I don’t blame it on cumulative second-guessing of his moves. I blame it on Marc Stein and ESPN’s misguided efforts to be out front with a story by promoting speculation as news.
Tags: Chicago Bulls, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, ESPN, John Paxson, Marc Stein, Mike D'Antoni, NBA
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