Chicago Bulls are a mess, yet Jerry Reinsdorf uses misguided loyalty

The Chicago Bulls continue to slide into mediocrity, yet Jerry Reinsdorf’s misguided sense of loyalty keeps the wrong people in charge of running things.

The Chicago Bulls‘ slide this season continues. After their loss to the Golden State Warriors, their record stands at 26-27. Last year, they finished 42-40, yet they missed out on the playoffs for the first time since the 2007 season.

This season, they are still in the playoff hunt, but only because they are in a weak Eastern Conference. At the rate they’re going, they may not reach the .500 level.

The Bulls’ decline has continued after the 2010 season, when they won 62 games. Yes, they’ve had some good, tough seasons, but they weren’t real championship contenders. They made people happy, playing hard and overachieving, but real basketball people knew they weren’t title contenders.

Through those years, things steadily deteriorated. The relationship between the head coach, Tom Thibodeau, and the front office got so bad that there was hardly any communication between the parties.

The parties in the front office are none other than Vice-president John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman. These guys are running the team as if it’s their own country. They feel they can treat coaches and players any way they wish.

More from Da Windy City

Paxson famously got into it with another former coach, VInny Del Negro. They almost came to blows because Paxson was upset with the minutes Del Negro played an injured Joakim Noah. Forman tried to get under Thibodeau’s skin by firing assistant coach and Thibodeau friend Ron Adams. Forman would say only that it was in the Bulls’ best interest, but would not say how.

Now we have the circus this season. During the offseason GarPax said that they wanted to make the Bulls younger and more athletic. They went ahead and signed Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo. Some of the older players blasted the younger players. Some players blasted the coach. Players feared spies followed them, reporting to the front office.

Bulls players are frustrated, and Bulls fans are frustrated.

While all this is happening, owner Jerry Reinsdorf does nothing. Wait, he did do something. K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reported that the jobs of Paxson and Forman are secure.

"Despite some outside perception to the contrary, the jobs of executive vice president John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman are safe, sources familiar with ownership’s thinking told the Tribune. In fact, ownership’s trust in Paxson and Forman remains so intact that they would be retained even if the Bulls miss the postseason for a second straight season, one source said.It’s well-documented that Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and son Michael, who runs the business side as president and chief operating officer, are loyal and long have favored front-office continuity. But there’s also inherent trust in the roster-building process that Paxson, Forman and their staff have in place."

So even if they miss out on the playoffs, GarPax returns?

This is not the first time Reinsdorf rewarded loyalty. He kept former general manager Jerry Krause even while he was feuding with one of the greatest players of all time, Michael Jordan, and one of the greatest coaches of all time, Phil Jackson.

In that battle, Reinsdorf stayed with Krause, even though he practically ran those two out of town. Bulls fans always wonder how many titles their team missed out on because the team broke up prematurely.

Next: Seven-round Bears mock draft

Now with this current mess, Reinsdorf again sides with those loyal to him. The first time he did that, the Bulls suffered through one of the worst periods in franchise history. Do we really need to go through something like that again?

Home/Chicago Bulls