KDdidit wrote:
Rondo was right
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/ro ... olumn.htmlHow can the Bulls not fire John Paxson and Gar Forman after all this?
For a minute there, I was concerned that the Bulls hadn’t become the national embarrassment to which they’ve plummeted locally.
I mean, there was LeBron James going public with wanting a playmaker and there was Phil Jackson’s massive faceplant in Manhattan, so, who would notice the broken and pantsed Bulls?
Charles Barkley, that’s who.
“Only God can help that team,’’ Barkley said on TNT as the panel discussed coach Fred Footwipe and the last 24 hours of off-court stupidity, and like that, the Bulls’ coast-to-coast humiliation was complete.
Or ongoing. A once-proud championship franchise is playing pull-my-finger.
Bulls management wonks, hel-LO. It’s time for you to go. Bad basketball, bad coaching decisions, bad draft picks, bad free-agent signings, and then a bad look off the court. Yeah, it’s time for GarPax to GarPackUp. Maybe Gar Forman and John Paxson in fact were packing up Thursday because they certainly weren’t out front acting like grown-ups taking charge of this mess.
ADVERTISING
Bulls' Dwyane Wade: "I want everyone to succeed in this locker room." (K.C. Johnson/Chicago Tribune)
The act that clinched the Bulls stature as a national joke was Rajon Rondo ripping Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler a day their scripted torching of teammates.
These are the so-called “Three Alphas,’’ remember. They’re also three guys who never should’ve started the season here, but for pathetic orders from ownership or clueless decisions by management wonks, and because ownership can’t be fired, the management wonks who put together this nasty combination of bad hoops and worse humiliation must.
To recap, after the Bulls gagged a 10-point lead against the Hawks in the last three minutes Wednesday, Wade and Butler talked about teammates not caring.
Interesting so-called leadership from Wade: He hustled to call out teammates harder than he hustled back on defense at a critical moment of the Bulls’ choke job.
Then came Rondo with his incendiary Instagram post Thursday that slapped Wade and Butler for blasting teammates in the media and then saying Wade and Butler slapped the wrong people.
And of course when Rondo’s sent out his blast, he used a public method to rip Wade and Butler for using a public method to rip teammates. Hypocrisy and stupidity remain two of the Bulls’ four major food groups.
When Forman did show up Friday to address the mess, he said it was “unacceptable’’ and said the team dealt with the players. Then the players said they wouldn’t walk back their comments. Good talk.
On Friday night, with Wade and Butler on the bench to start as some sort of phony-baloney punishment, the Bulls lost to the injured and ill-equipped Heat. Butler missed 12 of his 13 shots team leader that he is. Maybe next time he can shoot the ball better than he shoots off his mouth.
After the loss, Butler could be seen chuckling through answers to the point that someone might wonder if he cared enough. Sounds like a question for Rondo.
The Bulls are cannibalizing themselves. They are hemorrhaging credibility. They’ve become a national embarrassment and a local “Kick Me’’ sign. They deserve it after management wonks and ownership showed zero vision.
Thing is, until one of the “Three Alphas’’ rips Forman for his silly coaching search and hire and rips Paxson for using Forman as a human shield during this franchise death spiral, then the “Alphas’’ are wasting their criticism.
Sure, Rondo and coach Fred Footwipe have to go. But that’s not enough. Forman, the GM as unfit for the job as the man he hired as coach, has to go, too. Ditto, Paxson. I like Paxson a lot, but sorry, I don’t see how anyone can defend keeping either management wonk in the wake of a team that has no chance to win a title and apparently no ability to act professionally off the court.
Wade and Butler have to go, too. Turn this death spiral and national humiliation into a plan, a vision, young talent and draft picks, something, anything that doesn’t require red noses.
It doesn’t matter who would be left to pull off all that right now because nobody appears to be doing anything at this point anyway.
Knock, knock, anyone home at Fort Reinsdorf? Can someone give the Chairman and his son one of those Hawk Harrelson alarm clocks?
Bulls have team meeting, try to move on from two days of bickering
Rajon Rondo rips Bulls leaders on Instagram for criticizing teammates in media
Bulls are team torn apart, no matter management's eventual spin
Copyright © 2017, Chicago Tribune
Chicago Bulls Dwyane Wade Jimmy Butler Rajon Rondo Gar Forman John Paxson Charles Barkley
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
