From people I talked to today, it looks like Hoop World was just being fantastical with their little bit about Gordon breaking out condiments in the locker room to make his sandwiches. They confirmed that he does eat sandwiches, but that they've never seen him breaking stuff out to make them inside the locker room. Although you never know, it could have just been a one time incident that the Hoops World people (who are in the locker room fwiw) observed. I don't see what Hoops World's incentive would be in making stuff up, because the Bulls could kick them out of the locker room if they were just making up a bunch of crap. Secondly, food is allowed in the locker room. The Bulls provide food to their players. It was just the kind of food that was the problem with Vinny. I would imagine that the three in the original article picked up some fast food on the way to the stadium, and Vinny lost his cool because he saw his players eating White Castle or Taco Bell, whatever those guys like to eat. But as I noted on my blog, Kobe Bryant used to eat Big Macs before games, so it's not unheard of. Thirdly, it seems like the Bulls have decided to get rid of Vinny at the end of the season. The pondering firing him line was from the Hoops World article, where they talked about how the Bulls would not fire him during the season to save embarassment, but not to be surprised if he was the first to go. It seems like those around the Bulls organization expect Vinny out at the end of the season, as I noted in my game recap of tonights game. They just don't see any difference between the results they will get from Vinny or an interim (substitute teacher syndrome), so they'd rather just save the money. If this is all accurate, and they don't want to fire him now to avoid the interim problem, I would imagine that Thibodeau would be their target. If they wanted an established guy who could come in and avoid the substitute teacher syndrome, they could just go out and get Avery now, maybe JVG, or Doug Collins even. It is good news that the Bulls seem intent on getting rid of Vinny at the end of the season, but I wonder what it would take to get him canned in season. Losing the next 4 games on this homestand might just do the trick.
Did you actually talk to people in the organization, or people around the organization? Is this second or thirdhand information?
I talked to a few others who report from within the Bulls locker room to see if what Hoopsworld is saying is jiving with whats going on. Hoopsworld has some interesting stuff, such as Vinny's new grading scheme. This type of stuff seems to weird to be made up. I doubt Hoopsworld is making up a lot of this stuff, because otherwise the Bulls could just kick them out of the locker room.
