Reinsdorf Plays the Blame Game

By: David Lister

The chairman has spoken. In an interview Monday night with the Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson, Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf didn’t mince words in expressing his disapproval of Mike D’Antoni becoming the new head coach of the New York Knicks.

“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.”

In case you missed it (and Bulls fans can be excused for giving up on the NBA season sometime in January), as recently as Friday it appeared the Bulls were the most likely destination for the now ex-Suns head coach.

So what happened? How did the Bulls go from being the front runners in hiring a coach who has won 232 games in four seasons to losing out to a Knicks team that spent this past season not as a legitimate NBA team, but as a league-wide joke?

Perhaps the real question is why is anyone in Chicago surprised by this?

By now everyone should know the Kobe Bryant-to-Chicago rumors were just that, rumors. There was never anything there. But clearly the Kevin Garnett and Pau Gasol rumors had some substance, each player did get traded after all. And if the Bulls weren’t talking to Minnesota and Memphis about those players, they should have been.

But back to this situation. Why didn’t it get done? Reinsdorf said it had nothing to do with money:

“The second subject, I said if we need to get something done this weekend we shouldn’t even bother talking because it will take longer than that,” Reinsdorf said. “He said nothing had to be done over the weekend.

“I also said if this proceeds to where we want to make an offer, we don’t deal with coach’s agents. He said that’s not a problem and that money wasn’t the most important thing anyway. He said he wanted a job where he was going to be happiest. He said he didn’t want to coach the Knicks.”

And that, in a nutshell, is why this deal didn’t get done. It was widely reported the Knicks were going to make an offer to D’Antoni, yet Reinsdorf still didn’t feel the Bulls could come up with an offer over this past weekend.

In attempting to avoid a PR nightmare - fans questioning if the Bulls will ever be able to make a big move - Reinsdorf confirmed all Bulls fans worst fears.

The Bulls lost out to the Knicks because New York quickly made a decision. The coach who has won 232 games over four years isn’t coaching in Chicago because the Bulls needed more time to make him an offer while the Knicks - the league-wide joke - had no trouble coming up with a contract D’Antoni couldn’t refuse.

And though Reinsdorf won’t admit it, and D’Antoni will never say it, it was about money. D’Antoni came from a Phoenix franchise that gave away draft picks (that turned out to be Luol Deng and Rajon Rondo), let star players leave (Joe Johnson) and sold off valuable role players (Kurt Thomas) all because Robert Sarver didn’t want to pay the luxury tax.

So when D’Antoni is told by the Bulls it will take a while to make an offer he should be skeptical. This is the same Bulls team that this season owned the league’s ninth lowest payroll in a major market. In 2006-07 they boasted the league’s fifth lowest payroll.

You can blame D’Antoni for taking a Knicks job that is almost certainly an uphill battle. But you can’t blame him for not taking the Bulls job.

As for Reinsdorf’s allegations, maybe D’Antoni did mislead the Bulls. Maybe he even flat-out lied to them. But that’s not the point.

The perception of the Bulls remains that they are a second-class organization who continue to rely on the Ben Wallace’s and Jim Boylan’s of the world while others compete for the Kevin Garnett’s, Pau Gasol’s and Mike D’Antoni’s.

That may be fair, it may not. But make no mistake that is the perception. And instead of playing the woe-is-me card and blaming D’Antoni, maybe the chairman should do something to convince Bulls fans that perception is false. Of course, that’s not happening:

“I can’t worry about perception,” Reinsdorf said. “I have to worry about making the right decision. This is a very critical hire. If you make a mistake, you set yourself back. Tim Floyd didn’t work out, Bill Cartwright. Scott Skiles, we thought we had a good one, but he’s gone with two years left on his deal. We’ve been set back.”

At least I can agree with one thing Reinsdorf said. The Bulls have been set back.

Tags: Chicago Bulls, Jerry Reinsdorf, Mike D'Antoni, New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns