Nobody in Chicago, a town some like to call America’s greatest sports town, wants to believe that futility suffocates its chances of celebrating a championship. In fact for many years now, the Chicago Cubs’ undying curse has tarnished and stained the finest sporting market.
In other parts of the town, the White Sox are belittled and laughable because of Ozzie Guillen, a lunatic whose customary postgame rants, and on-the-field tantrums formulated controversies in the Southside of Chicago as general manager Ken Williams defends the mindless moron.
And now, here are bigger problems a passionate sports town faces, conflict involving coach Vinny Del Negro and his confounded boss, executive vice president John Paxson, an imbecile blamed and criticized for all failures that has poisoned an entire franchise. Ever since the Jordan regime abandoned the settings of being described as NBA’s most dominant franchise, a dynasty submerged and the organization never fully rebuilt as powerful contenders. It’s really embarrassing when a franchise has trouble reconstructing as a favorable team.
For some time now, it’s understandable that the Bulls drama and turmoil won’t purge instantly, unless owner Jerry Reinsdorf decides to fire Paxson, whose personnel decisions and myriad of blunders placed heavy burdens and extended tension.
Considering that the Bulls struggled advancing to the playoffs with fiascos prolonging dismay and deficiencies, Paxson’s seven years running a business elicited major problems, and his job status brought forth questions. All of which evaluating the facet of the issue, tells us Paxson is a cancerous general manger, and responsible of the difficulty lingering in a franchise that at one point was accustomed to amassing excellence.
According to Yahoo Sports, Paxson was enraged with Del Negro over a playing-time dispute for Joakim Noah, but apparently the animosity surrounding two resentful men are beyond a minor coaching error. It’s a dire feud between a boss and co-worker that seems irreparable at this point. If Paxson has bullied and flared up a face-to-face altercation that has flustered Del Negro and developed needless interruptions entering the playoffs, then he deserves to get canned by Reinsdorf. The last two seasons have been painful, publicizing nothing but hell as two co-workers employed within the same organization exchanged words and provoked heated discussions that escalated to apparent scuffles.
At least this explains that they aren’t the best of friends. There’s no doubt, Paxson and Del Negro are enemies, burned out of working together as a productive unit, and apathetic of resolving an ugly and amateurish disaster. With this lingering disturbance, no one in the Bulls’ front office has control of the driver’s seat. But not when the general manger and coach is amid infighting tumultuous, which has turned into a sporting soap opera.
Of course, it’s worst than the Cubs’ World Series drought. And this time, Steve Bartman hasn’t contributed to the staggering hysteria that has pillaged the Bulls’ buzzing storyline involving the superb shooting touch of Derrick Rose or the emotional play of Noah. Lately, a frivolous predicament is severe, forcing the franchise to hire lawyers and investigate the Yahoo report.
In seven years, Paxson hasn’t been distinguished as a spotless executive and exploded several times. His short temper has flared up during postgame news conferences, confronting media personnel and snapping at other executives. For all we know, he might be the agitator, instigating and impelling the second-year coach to retaliate. The Yahoo report said Paxson called out Del Negro, but an unspecified source who spoke to a reporter at ESPN Chicago.com, acknowledged that Del Negro charged Paxson.
“That’s inaccurate. That’s 100 percent false,” Del Negro said Wednesday night. “This thing is funny just because you have guys who care, guys who are competitive and it’s unfortunate (the incident) had to come out.”
It’s hard not to believe Del Negro. He has tremendous credibility, but has been characterized as a villainous employee within a franchise that hasn’t done much during his regime. Just a year ago, Chicagoans were impressed with his unproven and inexperience ability when he damn near led the Bulls past the first-round in a near upset against Boston in Game Seven of a thrilling series. Sadly, he’ll be fired once the Bulls are eliminated in the first-round against Cleveland for someone else’s failure’s and miscues of operating a dynamic franchise.
In the wake of Rose’s career-high 39 points in a pivotal win against Charlotte, the Bulls endure guilt more than anything.
“The Chicago Bulls are focusing all of our energies into the remainder of this season and, as such, were disappointed at the recent stories that may have distracted from that,” a statement read Wednesday.
For those who cannot remember, Paxson never desired hiring inexperience Del Negro, and decided to bring him aboard, even though he never approved of his hiring. One reason he serves as a head coach of the Bulls, Paxson desperately needed to find someone to instruct an inferior team, which a suitable and experience advisor was an essential resource of improving an attenuate franchise.
Reinsdorf rebuffed interest on the expensive price tag of Mike D’Antoni, a big-name candidate Paxson targeted greatly and knew he would have blended in nice with his up-tempo offense and contribute with the speed of Rose, an explosive point guard in the league.
If Reinsdorf wasn’t too damn stubborn and cheap, he’d have paid D’Antoni within the price range that he requested. Once again, he’ll be searching for a new coach, instead of canning Paxson, an embattled general manger whose countless mistakes and outbursts will dismantle an entire business as long as he’s in charge of all personnel decisions.
If Reinsdorf was wise, he’d sell the franchise in sake of the championship-starved fans. If he had pride, he’d fire Paxson. Go ahead, fire Del Negro, but there’ll always be problems occurring with Paxson having the final word.
