#garpax

How The Young Bulls Can Start Winning

The Young Bulls Continue To Rumble The Young Bulls are suffering through a 41 loss season at this point. The Bulls’ record is 20-41, after falling to the Charlotte Hornets. Here are some highlights from that game last night, courtesy of the Ximo Pierto YouTube Channel Coach Hoiberg explains the team’s poor play since the All-Star…

Nikola Mirotic Wants Out Of Chicago According to reports, Nikola Mirotic has asked the Chicago Bulls for a trade. Here is a quote from the MSN article. Click here to read the whole article. The 26-year-old forward still wants to leave the organization and has informed the management through his representatives of teams that he’d like to play for, a source told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley.…

Life of a Disgruntled Bulls Fan

I headed into draft night with some hope and optimism that my team, the Chicago Bulls, would make the right trade and get this franchise going in the right direction.  I should have known better.

Bulls fans were generally split on the idea of trading Jimmy Butler.  On one hand, why would you trade one of the best two-way players and top 15 player in the NBA for a…

Growing up in Chicago in the 90s everyone I knew was a Chicago Bulls fan.  They won six championships in an eight year period, and had the biggest superstar on the planet in Michael Jordan.  Whether you were wearing your first three-peat shirt or second three-peat shirt, it was all Bulls all the time.  On the flip side, not many people I knew were fans of the Chicago Blackhawks.  That may seem surprising giving their current popularity, but it’s the truth.  Blackhawks home games weren’t televised for over 30 years because owner Bill “Dollar Bill” Wirtz believed it was unfair to season ticket owners (Dollar Bill also raised the average ticket to $50, the highest in the NHL at the time).  This policy, among others, alienated fans and led ESPN to name the Blackhawks the worst franchise in sports in 2004.  Bill Wirtz passed away in 2007 and his son Rocky took over.  Implementing a “spend money to make money” strategy, Rocky changed the dynamic of the franchise dramatically.  He put home games back on television, re-established relationships with Blackhawk greats Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, and hired John McDonough as President.  Known as more of a marketing guru, McDonough promoted Stan Bowman to General Manager and brought in his father Scotty as a Senior Advisor.  Rocky invested heavily in the front office, coaching, scouting and analytics, which led to three Stanley Cup titles in six years.  In just over ten years the Blackhawks went from being the worst franchise in sports to arguably the best.

I find it ironic how the roles have completely changed for the teams that share the same stadium on Madison.  In sports, there’s nothing worse than a billionaire owner that cares more about maximizing profits than putting together a championship-caliber organization.  The Blackhawks had one in Dollar Bill, and the Bulls have one in Jerry Reinsdorf.  While the Bulls aren’t the worst franchise in all of sports, I’d argue they’re currently the worst franchise in Chicago.  This may come as a surprise to some, but what have the Bulls accomplished in the post-Jordan era?  After the 1998 season, Reinsdorf sided with General Manager Jerry Krause, allowing him to blow up the Bulls dynasty.  The following decade of basketball was pretty special.  First, we had three consecutive seasons of less than 20 wins.  Next, we entered the “Twin Tower” era that led to three consecutive seasons of 30 or less wins.  Progress!  This run of dominance caused the resignation of Jerry Krause in 2003, making John Paxson the new General Manager.  Paxson brought in coach Scott Skiles who ushered in the “Try Hard Bulls” era.  Skiles teams made the playoffs in his first three seasons (all early round exits), before he lost control of the team and wore out his welcome.  So in the decade following Michael Jordan, the Bulls only made the playoffs three times when more than half the league makes the playoffs.  Also, the Bulls had the first pick, second pick (twice), third pick, fourth pick (twice), seventh pick (twice), and ninth pick. Coupled with playing in the third biggest television market, the Bulls won one playoff series during this time.

Entering the 2008 NBA draft, the Bulls had a 1.7% chance at landing the number one pick in the lottery.  Against all odds, they won the lottery and fell ass backwards into Derrick Rose.  After winning the lottery, the Bulls decided to invest in their future by hiring first time coach Vinny Del Negro.  Del Negro was given a two year deal and was the lowest paid coach in the league, but this had nothing to do with why he was hired.  The Bulls went .500 in Del Negro’s first season and lost in the first round of the playoffs.  A few weeks after the season it was announced that Gar Forman was being promoted to General Manager and Paxson to Executive Vice President.  In the five years prior to the promotions, the Bulls won one playoff series. This begs the question; why was either guy being promoted?  It’s because the Bulls had made the playoffs four of those five years, which means playoff revenue for Jerry Reinsdorf.  It is estimated that the 2012-2013 Miami Heat made an average of $1.44 million per home game in ticket sales alone.  While that number is inflated due to how far they went in the playoffs, it’s safe to assume that the Bulls were bringing in close to $1 million per home game with tickets, concessions, merchandise, etc...  This is what Jerry Reinsdorf cares about, not success on the basketball court.

Following another .500 year and first round playoff exit, the Bulls fired Vinny Del Negro and brought in Tom Thibodeau.  In Thibs first season, the Bulls had the best record in the NBA and Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP ever.  That regular season success didn’t translate to the playoffs, however, as the Bulls struggled with lesser opponents early, and eventually lost to the more talented Miami Heat in five games (won game one, then lost four straight).  After the Heat series, it became obvious that while the Bulls were a good team they still lacked a reliable second scoring option behind Derrick Rose.  2012 was the lockout year, and while Rose struggled with injuries all year, the Bulls still finished tied with the Spurs for the best record in basketball.  Prior to the season, the Bulls were sold to fans as a title contender and they were.  The problem is, that was the only year the Bulls were actually a title contender, yet that false narrative has continued to be sold.  Late in the first game of the playoffs, Derrick Rose had an awkward landing and tore his ACL.  Noah got injured a couple games later, and the Bulls ended up losing to the eighth seeded Philadelphia 76ers in six games.  

2013 was the year of “is Derrick Rose going to return?”  It was very clear that Rose had no intention of returning that season, but Gar Forman and John Paxson did an awful job handling the situation.  They gave a timeline that Rose never agreed with and leaked that he was “medically cleared” to play, which prompted Reggie Rose (Derrick’s brother and manager) to publicly call out the Bulls for “not putting anything around him” after a quiet trade deadline.  Adidas didn’t help manage expectations as they ran a campaign called “The Return” which kept hope alive for many Bulls fans.  Despite this, the Bulls made the playoffs as the fifth seed and beat the Brooklyn Nets in a seven game series before getting waxed by the Miami Heat, again.  The narrative we were sold this year was if Derrick Rose would have come back we could have won the East.

After sitting out the 2013 season to recover from the torn ACL, Rose returned to the basketball court for the 2014 season.  Not even a month into the year Rose tore his meniscus, decided to get it repaired, and was ruled out for the remainder of the season.  A little over a month later the Bulls traded Luol Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Andrew Bynum’s non-guaranteed contract and draft picks.  The trade was a salary dump that allowed the Bulls to get under the tax line, essentially giving up on the season.  Contrary to most fans, I liked this trade and agreed with the strategy.  Without Rose the Bulls simply weren’t title contenders. In addition, Deng was entering a contract year and wasn’t expected to be re-signed.  As mentioned before, the move enabled the franchise to get under the luxury tax, as well as receive a protected first round pick. This seemed like ample compensation for a roster that looked destined for the lottery.  Joakim Noah, however, didn’t agree with this strategy, as he put the team on his back and willed them to the playoffs.  The Bulls finished the regular season as the fourth seed, but got destroyed in five games by the Washington Wizards in the first round of the playoffs.  This is when it became obvious that the Bulls regular season success was inflated by the fact that most teams don’t try hard, while the Bulls go all out during the regular season.  This was fun and allowed us to rack up a lot of wins, but we also entered the playoffs beat down. When opposing teams put it in another gear, the Bulls didn’t have another one to get to.

Going into the draft the Bulls had the 16th and 19th overall picks in what was considered a strong draft.  Knowing they would have money in free agency (they planned to amnesty Carlos Boozer), the Bulls made an awful trade and swapped both picks for the 11th pick in the draft.  Next, they went all-in on Carmelo Anthony and failed to sign him.  This was the third offseason GarPax had gone after a marquee free agent(s) and failed.  As a consolation prize, they signed Pau Gasol and brought over Nikola Mirotic from Europe.  With Rose returning, we were once again sold that this team was a title contender, but that wasn’t the case.  Gasol and Noah didn’t fit together in the front court, Rose tore his meniscus again, and the starters were run down in the regular season.  Ultimately, we lost to the Cavaliers in the second round of the playoffs.

After the loss, GarPax pushed in all their chips.  They fired coach Tom Thibodeau and brought in Gar’s pal Fred Hoiberg.  Hoiberg had a lot of success at Iowa State and was known as an up-and-coming offensive mind.  So far, “Hoiball” has been a complete disaster.  First, Niko replaced Noah in the starting lineup and looked completely lost.  Next, the star players went to Hoiberg and complained about not getting their touches so he had to install old sets.  Finally, Noah had season ending shoulder surgery and Butler and Niko are both going to miss a significant amount of time.  Currently, the Bulls are the eighth seed in the East and trail the Cavs by 11 games.

So I’ll ask the question again:  What have the Bulls accomplished in the 16 years since Michael Jordan last wore a Bulls jersey?  A six year playoff drought, followed by a bunch of first round playoff exits, lucking into Derrick Rose, and making one conference finals appearance (five years ago).  For those of you that say things would have been different if Rose never tore his ACL, I’d say you might be right.  I’d also say that the Bulls were beyond lucky to get Rose. While pondering hypotheticals, ponder this one: had the Bulls not won the lottery, where would they be?  At the end of the day we don’t live in a world of “ifs”.  The Bulls did get Derrick Rose, he did get hurt, and after winning six titles in eight years the Bulls have followed that up with one conference finals appearance in the last 16 years.  John Paxson has been running the Bulls since 2003.  In the twelve years that he’s been in charge he’s hired four coaches, punched one, and only made one conference finals appearance.  How many NBA executives remain in power for over a decade without winning a title, let alone being absolutely mediocre?  The reason is the Bulls have great attendance numbers, rarely go into the luxury tax, and are consistently one of the most profitable teams in the NBA.  The bottom line is profits are the only thing owner Jerry Reinsdorf cares about, and Paxson has done a great job lining his pocketbook.

So the Bulls fired Ron Adams Thibs' top assistant which begs the question what the fuck is going on in the front office.  This dismissal makes no sense really the only thing that seems plausible is that this is a power move by GarPax.  First they're beating the shit out of Vinny, and now they're firing top assistants/close friends. 

I guess this is what set the 90's Bulls apart, you cross Pax he's firing your best friend, you spit on Scottie's daughter and drop a N-bomb ya gettin knocked out.  Going for the jugular is just their instinct, they can't help it, if anyone's to blame here it's MJ. 

This may be a good omen though seeing as MJ fucking hated Crumbs when he was putting together 6 championship teams.  D Rose is incapable of hating anyone so the next logical person has to be Thibs to hate GarPax.  I mean if we want to win some championships someone has to hate them and if it has to be Thibs so be it.  Let the Adrian Griffin era begin.