Bulls Chairman says money wasn't issue with D'Antoni

The Bulls better hope they get the first or second pick in this draft otherwise next year will be just as bad as last year, by the way how is that building your own dynasty around a team that doesnt have MJ on it going???

cooper wrote:

The Bulls better hope they get the first or second pick in this draft otherwise next year will be just as bad as last year, by the way how is that building your own dynasty around a team that doesnt have MJ on it going???

wow. i cant believe that you guys are criticizing jerry for saying he was going to rebuild a new dynasty without MJ. jordan was a one of a kind player who you can never replace. of course he said he was going to. what did you want him to say. something like oh it is a huge lost and i dont know how we are ever going to bounce back from or we might as well sell the team because we cant win without him. hes going to say something positive because he dont want everybody to jump on some other teams bandwagon like most tend to do once their team loses its players and has to begin to rebuild. jerry reinsdorf is a great owner i believe and i havent ever criticized him for the bulls not winning. because scott skiles has been the only decent coach that bulls have had since phil jackson left.

you better hope the bulls don't get first or decond picks. my guess is if these bulls had the second pick in 1984, they would've grabbed the big guy, Sam Bowie instead of you know who. fast forward to now...look at there drafting...Tyrus, Kirk, Ben, etc. Your only hope if if Jerry sells the team. The smoke, mirrors, and spin is on.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating and the Bulls' recipe tastes lousy.

If John Paxson "has done a great job" in putting the Bulls together, I shudder to think what an "average job" would be. Of course Mike Brown (the former FEMA director) was doing "a heckuva a job" in the aftermath of Katrina, so I suppose everything is relative.

Well, at least we have some confirmation that it was Dawdling Jerry who botched this slam dunk signing instead of Paxson. Here's the question that Jerry's whining and excuse making fails to answer, and is the only question that we want answered: How did the Bulls, after having a head start on negotiations, get beaten to the punch by Donnie Walsh who arrived late to the party? No matter what the Bulls cry about, Walsh still made D'Antoni an offer before the Bulls did, or claim they attempted to. How did that happen? The Bulls had a head start on negotiations. Paxson met with Mike, no offer was made. Word got out that the Knicks were interested, no offer was made. Word got out that the Knicks would make a staggering offer, no offer was made. Word got out that Phoenix and D'Antoni were going for a Friday resolution, no offer was made. New York makes their offer, no offer was made. Jerry meets with D'Antoni, no offer was made. D'Antoni then accepts the Knicks offer, and here come Jerry and the Bulls ready to finally make their offer!

Seems like a convenient story to me. "We were about to make this awesome offer, but D'Antoni didn't give us a chance!"

Normally when Jerry says you're doing a great job today, your fired tomorrow. Bye, Bye, Pax.

What a joke. Jerry only crawls out of his hole to talk to the media when he's trying to spin a mistake. Just the fact that he gave an interview to the Trib is enough to convince me that he screwed up the D'Antoni deal.

Reinsdorf is getting what he deserves. He misleads people all the time. How about the way he LIED when Skiles was FIRED?! Now he's mad because someone misled him. Get over yourself Jerry.

Remember when Mike McKaskey bungled the Dave McGinnis hire for the Bears and called daddy to bail him out? This smacks of the same thing. If you want something you go after it. You don't linger and expect NBA players and coaches to wait on you. But Reinsdorf and apparently inexperienced Paxson don't understand that. Reinsdorf wants to speak to D'Antoni 3 days after calling him on Tuesday when another team is after D'Anotoni? The Bulls were not 100% sold on D'Anotoni and needed time to erase those doubts. D'Antoni did right thing by bolting when NY showed no more doubts. Paxson now has a big draft coming up, and a coaching decision that will determine his future. He's a bright guy but it fell apart for him spectacularly this year. He needs to rebound big time.

We should get Avery he will be hard on the players to win not like boylan when we were up 20 and the opponent went on a 5 to 0 run he would call a timeout like we where going down then we would he had no confidence we would have made the playoffs if Skiles would have stayed

If John Paxson is "one of the better decisions " that Reinsdorf has made then the Bulls will stink for years to come.

Let's pause for a moment in our Bulls-bashing to notice that commenter Richard Friedman, uniquely among the millions of people who attempt to use the "pudding" expression every year, has gotten it right.

Maybe he should coach the Bulls?

Sam wrote:

Well, at least we have some confirmation that it was Dawdling Jerry who botched this slam dunk signing instead of Paxson. Here's the question that Jerry's whining and excuse making fails to answer, and is the only question that we want answered: How did the Bulls, after having a head start on negotiations, get beaten to the punch by Donnie Walsh who arrived late to the party? No matter what the Bulls cry about, Walsh still made D'Antoni an offer before the Bulls did, or claim they attempted to. How did that happen? The Bulls had a head start on negotiations. Paxson met with Mike, no offer was made. Word got out that the Knicks were interested, no offer was made. Word got out that the Knicks would make a staggering offer, no offer was made. Word got out that Phoenix and D'Antoni were going for a Friday resolution, no offer was made. New York makes their offer, no offer was made. Jerry meets with D'Antoni, no offer was made. D'Antoni then accepts the Knicks offer, and here come Jerry and the Bulls ready to finally make their offer!
Seems like a convenient story to me. "We were about to make this awesome offer, but D'Antoni didn't give us a chance!"

oh well. its D'Antoni's loss as far as im concerned. he went to a knicks team that has a bunch of good players but dont fit together as a team. new york is nothing but a mess right now and probably wont get rid of all the players they beed to. he is an idiot for not listening to the bulls offer because it is a much better team and are very young. chicago is a much better situation than new york is and D'Antoni is an idiot for going there with out listening to the bulls offer.

This is absolutely priceless, quoting reinsdork:

"I'm disappointed in him," Reinsdorf said. "I don't know what else we could've done. He chose to go to New York knowing there was a good chance we would make him an offer. If he had really wanted to be in Chicago, he would've waited. Instead, he misled us. It's not the end of the world, but it is somewhat rude."

Well Jerry the world does not revolve around you and your byzantine interview process. Reinsdork admits they did not even make an offer. What do you expect in a highly competitive environment? What were you waiting for?

On the hand D'Antoni was probably scared off by 1. the bulls roster, 2. ownership and 3. management. He probably figured 24 Million can't be that much worse than the steaming pile that is the bulls.

The only coaches who will bite on this job will be unproven assistants looking to move up to any job. Forget about A. Johnson hw is way too expensive and would not be dumb enough to fall into the bulls trap.

Sometimes a coach just wants to be told they are wanted. Donnie Walsh understood this and let D'Antoni know that they wanted him. If you really wanted to hire him it would have happened. Nobody likes a long dragged out interview process. No one believes Reinsdorf's propoganda.

Agree with most of the comments here. "Bulls" ownership and management have been complete failure. Gasol, Garnett, D'Antony... as end of the season and new will beging I sure we will see more screw up by this organization...

Reinsdorf is just a cheap you know what. That's it! Paxson is a bargain and we all know that you get what you pay for(except for the Knicks roster).

Way to go Bulls! Money talks louder than anything else in Pro Sports as we all know and I'm sure one of (if not the main) reasons that the Bulls lost out to the Knicks was because they showed him the $$$ and also I think the Knicks made him feel immediately welcome and who doesn't want to go where they're wanted? Plus, no one expects the Knicks to do really well next season, so if they go .500 D'Antoni will be hailed as a hero - where if he did that here, people would be asking for his head - It's been 10 years since a title here and I think a lot of fans are frustrated and want a return to greatness (or at least a solid showing in the 2nd round of the playoffs)- especially after the debacle that was the 07-08 season. Anyone got Granville Waiters Number? Do you think he's got a cell phone?:)

Avery Johnson is a better coach anyway.

No loss here.