Rumor Sources: Jimmy Butler plans to pursue shorter-term offer sheets

I appreciate the 6 NBA titles and White Sox World Series as well. I think it shows that having Reisdorf heading up an ownership group does not prevent a team from winning a title.

My main criticism is how he enabled bad employees to stay on staff in positions of authority for years and years simply for being loyal. If you are loyal to Uncle Jerry and you are in an office position, you pretty much have a job for life it seems, unless you completely and publicly mess up. This enables people like John Paxson and Kenny Williams (to a lesser extent) to remain in the organization in positions of authority when its pretty clear their days of adding value are behind them.

Also, I think much of the culture of everything staying in house and if you speak ill of his orgs then the leaks start coming out to the media trashing the other party partly comes from him as well.

 

I think The Chairman resented what got us those championship - at least one player and a coach that were bigger than him.

Well, mini me is a bigger man than him.



Look at all those years The Chairman got a bargain. Jordan averaged about $8M/year for his career with the Bulls. He likely made that whole $90M back for Scrooge during the first championship season or in jersey sales in a year.

 

Very generous of you. I hope that didn't hurt too much to write.

After the dynasty, the Bulls hit some very hard times for a variety of reasons. Paxson came in and righted the ship. During the Paxson era, the team has been a playoff team nearly every year. The Bulls have been unable to win a championship, but only 6 teams have.

I agree that Reinsdorf is likely a driving force behind the "Loose Lips Sink Ships" culture. I use the "Loose Lips" line because it was used by adman, Leo Burnett in a pro bono campaign for the government during WWII. He carried that over to his ad agency which I had the priviledge to work for. Keeping things in-house and dealing harshly with those who can't abide for that simple rule is damn near a universal rule of business.

I have confidence in Reinsdorf and GarPax. I haven't liked every move they've made, but have supported the vast majority.

Of course, you already knew all this. Sorry for the redundancy.

 

I'll find the Thibs as a Reinsdorf hire link later, I looked once before and couldn't find it, but I know I've seen it.

Good point.

 

Righted the ship. You're kidding, right?

Meager playoff success prior to Thibs for over a decade. Rosters simply not good enough to advance in the weak East.

They give me confidence they'll maximize profit and it'll be an accident if we win a championship. That is, the championship will be in spite of the bungling and toxicity of the front office.

 

Businesses that hire and retain employees based on loyalty versus competence tend not to thrive in the long run. Now, the Bulls do well financially, but have accomplished little in nearly 20 years since MJ. The last 5 years have pretty much been the lone bright spot, and even that was marred with tragedy.

Keeping things in-house is one thing, and yes, private companies tend to do this. Having a job for life for simply being loyal, despite performance is quite another.

Paxson has delivered little in his 13 years at the helm to Bulls fans. The only time the Bulls have been real contenders is with Thibs at the helm, and we saw how GarPax treated him. In fact, Paxson chose maneuvering to win a power struggle with the coach over maximizing chances to make the NBA Finals this season. Awful.

These guys have been living off the MJ dynasty for years. Uncle Jerry and Paxson simply figured out that .500ish and the 1st round is good enough to get the financial numbers they are looking for.

 

Management is highly competent at what The Chairman cares about. Profits.

If he ever thinks of firing Pax, he considers the risk he'll make $65M in profit (or less) instead of $66M+.

$66M+ regardless of competence on the court.

 

Right, that's all that matters really. .500ish and the 1st round gets the job done.

Paxson failed at his GM job (from a build a contender standpoint) and was kicked upstairs. If he's loyal, it doesn't really matter what happens on the court, as long as the house remains pretty full and the Bulls field a non-embarrassing product.

Its just a shame to see what was a real chance to make the NBA Finals undermined by petty power struggles, PR maneuvers and smear campaigns.

 

If you're willing to leave Paxson out of the discussion from the 2009-10 season forward, and make that the Forman era, I'm good with it.

Forman is and has been the GM since May 21, 2009. Forman's done a good job in my opinion.

 

Gar is 41-41 without Thibs.