Bulls Too Content With First Choices for Coaches
At the time of this writing, there are 231 days left until Christmas. Why bring this up in May? Because that’s the time of year when the old saying “Women shop, men buy” comes to the forefront. As the Bulls recently proved again, a similar style applies to them when it comes to searching for a coach.
Less than a week ago, the Bulls extended Jim Boylen’s contract by multiple years. This merely was a formality because shortly after the Bulls’ season ended, reports started coming in that they were ready to extend this offer. Anger and disappointment from Bulls Nation at that speculation gave way to a collective heavy sigh when it became official. How foolish we were to think that just maybe, this story was unfounded.
The biggest and most legitimate gripe is that when there’s a coaching vacancy, the Bulls have a history of picking one guy and then seemingly refusing to consider anyone else. They don’t do a very good job of hiding that practice, either. Months before they fired Tom Thibodeau, everyone knew that once the season ended, they would push him out the door and pluck Fred Hoiberg away from Iowa State. And though this came under different management but the same ownership, it was known as far as a year in advance that Jerry Krause wanted to replace Phil Jackson with Tim Floyd when the time came.
The Bulls are worth billions of dollars and arguably are one of the most famous brands in sports thanks in no small part to Michael Jordan. But that doesn’t give them to right to insult everyone’s intelligence. Whether they claim they’re going to conduct a proper coaching search when it’s clear that’s not their intention or they merely settle on the guy who immediately took over when their previous coach was fired during the season, neither practice should be undertaken by an NBA team. It reeks of pretentiousness, smugness, incompetence, complacency or some combination of all four.
This isn’t a case of you not buying the right gift for your significant other. That only affects two people. A coaching decision affects not only the direction of your entire organization, but how your millions of fans will perceive you in the near future. The Bulls better hope for a bailout in the lottery because if they don’t get to pick Zion Williamson, Ja Morant or even RJ Barrett, Boylen’s extension will be the story of the offseason. Without a potential franchise-changing rookie, Gar Forman and John Paxson can expect more criticism for how they go about their business, and for now, Boylen is the poster child for it.
NBA teams have more resources than ever to select the right personnel, so why aren’t the Bulls using them? Why do they have to restrict themselves to people already within the organization or select one person outside it instead of taking their time with these things? All it does is prove that Jerry Reinsdorf wants to win, but in his fashion, and anything that doesn’t fall in line with it will be shunned, especially at his age. Never mind that more proper, better methods that have been tried by other teams but not them aren’t even being considered.
Perhaps one day, the Bulls will realize their method of picking one guy and sticking with him is antiquated and not smart. Until then, let’s imagine Horace Grant taking over when and if Boylen doesn’t pan out. Hey, since he’s representing the Bulls at the lottery, anything’s possible. Actually, if you’re friendly with the Reinsdorfs and working for them, anything’s possible.
