The potential lawsuit by Vinnie caused the Chairman to see his life pass before his eyes. It was a shrewd "basketball decision" to give Pax a promotion. I don't think he's GM anymore. VP of Basketball Operations. Throwing the punch at Vinnie and trading Eddy Curry for the #2 pick in the draft that he used to select Tyrus Thomas were promotion worthy. (yeah, yeah, he did a draft day deal to get his man and Viktor for LMA)
Part of the settlement, we can presume. http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2011/3/9/2038527/john-paxson-bulls-vinny-del-negro
Hate to do this to you, but could you find me something that says that the Bulls and/or Paxson settled to avoid a lawsuit? Thanks. I'll look too, but the first thing I found was a Melissa Isaacson article citing a source who said DelNegro was the aggressor. Link It seems that Paxson never admitted any specific act, but did admit that he was "not at all proud of how I handled the situation." Still looking. OK, I give up...nothing on a settlement. As for the altercation, all I have about a punch is the article you gave us by Tom Ziller at SBNation which said that Paxson "reportedly choked and punched V.D.N.," unfortunately, I can't find the report on a punch to which Mr. Ziller referred. Could have something to do with Ziller's article being written about a year after the altercation.
Did you read your own link? It answers both your points. Multiple Sources, or Pax's word. I'll take Multiple Sources over the guy with the vested interest. And this describes a settlement situation: Rather lawyerly.
And this: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...orkplace-violence-john-paxson-and-coach-bulls First thing I found.
Unfortunately, it's theoretical. I'm not asking whether the altercation could have become a legal matter. Damn near anything could become a legal matter. You stated that something was "part of the settlement." From what I recall, and you've shown me nothing to adjust my recollection, there was no legal action taken or threatened and no "settlement."
Have you ever been a party to a settlement? The paying party, Bulls in this case, gets to dictate terms like "don't speak about the settlement." This would apply to Vinnie, not the Bulls. The Bulls would want to cover it up and save face. Vinnie clearly got to keep his job. He was able then to land the Clippers job. This isn't some frivolity. It is workplace violence and Assault & Battery.
Adding fuel to there's smoke, there's fire is this own site, where I quoted a Trib article at the time. http://sportstwo.com/threads/156693...ed-Del-Negro?p=2306119&viewfull=1#post2306119 Bulls hired lawyers right away. No way they don't settle to get Vinnie to sign some sort of release. There was a criminal statute of limitations involved. And Vinnie got a free year of salary out of it. If Vinnie started it, they could have terminated his contract and saved $millions. The Chairman hires people to count those sort of pennies.
To this point I was mostly asking questions, but that was somewhat disingenuous. My recollection of the altercation is that it was initially reported as a "fight." Some reported that blows might have been struck, but these reports were later corrected. There was no agreement as to what happened, but it seemed clear that Paxson put his hands on Del Negro in anger, something like grabbing VDN's tie and poking VDN's chest. My professional background is in HR, so yeah, that's out of line on Paxson's part and it was incumbent on the organization to discipline him. Since no physical damage was done, and assuming that Paxson had not behaved similarly in the past, Paxson should have been required to apologize to DelNegro and the organization and warned that any future behavior of that sort could result in his termination. Paxson was in the wrong, but this does not mean it's OK to make stuff up about what happened in order to try put Paxson and the organization unfairly in an even more negative light. If you say Paxson punched DelNegro, the evidence isn't there to support you. If you say that the media's retraction of the story that a punch had been thrown was "part of the settlement, we can presume," besides being snarky, there's not only no evidence that this was the case, but there's no evidence that there was a formal settlement of the altercation. No doubt, there was a formal settlement of VDN's contract when he was fired. Sorry I let myself get drawn into this. It's f'ing ancient history and I should know better, but I hate cheap shot bullshit. I'm out.
Anyways, back to the original article... 1). As the commissioner of the league I think it's safe to say that Adam Silverman uses different criteria to evaluate teams than us fans. So him gushing over the Bulls doesn't quite mean what some of want it to. 2). With all that said......the Bulls are a good basketball organization, regardless of their financial philosophy. And yes, Jerry Reinsdorf has a lot to do with that. I'm 29 years old. I've been in the workforce for 4 of the last 6 years, and in that time I've come to appreciate how much of good management consists of knowing how not to mess stuff up. The vast majority of managers I've had to deal with inadvertently create their own problems by needlessly interfering with the decisions of people who know more about stuff than they do. Jerry seems like one of those rare guys who has a keen sense of when to step in and when to let people just do their thing. We've made the playoffs nine out of the last ten years without a generational superstar for 8 of them. Do you think the Bulls would have had that kind of success with Dan Gilbert running the show? The team clearly operates under financial constraints, but the only teams that don't do that are the Knicks, Lakers, TrailBlazers, and (maybe) the Mavericks. Over the last decade I'd say we've got two of those teams clearly beat. And if you do have financial constraints, I think its much better to have a hands off owner than a hands-on. As fans I think we get easily tricked into confusing an owners activism with an owners effectiveness.
There is no media retraction of the story. There's ONE media article presenting management's side that also says multiple sources support NOT management's story. Vinnie had a really big hammer over the head of the organization for years after the incident. But nah, the Bulls aren't so conservative that they'd want to get Vinnie to sign a release so that hammer wouldn't be there anymore. /sarcasm Think, man.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...l-negro-john-paxson-and-coach-bulls-spokesman The Bulls have hired independent lawyers to investigate a physical altercation between executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson and coach Vinny Del Negro, sources confirmed. The incident took place after the March 30 home loss to the Suns and centered on Del Negro exceeding, for the second time, a medically imposed minutes limit on Joakim Noah, who has battled plantar fasciitis. Yahoo! Sports first reported the story. A Bulls spokesman said it's an organizational issue that will be handled internally. "Whatever happens is between the organization and myself," Del Negro said. "I focus on what I can control. I can control the preparation of the game and the staff and the players. I go about my job every day no matter what happens. I'm a competitor." According to sources, Paxson came to the doorway of Del Negro's office after Del Negro played Noah 27 minutes, 5 seconds — 2:05 more than allowed. Del Negro also exceeded Noah's minutes limit during a Feb. 26 home overtime victory over the Trail Blazers, and Noah missed the next 10 games. According to sources, an angry Paxson began to confront Del Negro vocally, which prompted Del Negro to rise from his chair and walk toward Paxson. At this point, sources said, Paxson grabbed Del Negro by his tie and shoved him. Several players said they heard the vocal altercation and later learned details of the physical aspect. "Things happen in an organization," Joakim Noah said. "We deserve not to have these problems talked about right now. We're fighting as players and that's all that matters." Sources said Paxson called Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf in the direct aftermath of the incident to tell his boss what occurred. Sources also said Del Negro spent the next few days after the incident trying to gather written statements from organizational members.
