Three newsletters this week:
Things are going to get broken up this week. On Wednesday, we’ll cover everything Bears — the “open” QB competition, Foles’ new deal, and every new signing.
On Friday, we’ll take an in-depth look at the Bulls front office search, SGCTC plans for “The Last Dance” (MJ doc), and give an update on the sports world at large.
For now, the good news:
I’ve been trying to stay off social media during the week a bit more. I find the process of consuming horrifying coronavirus information just to do the exact same thing I’m already doing to be an extremely lose/lose proposition.
It’s really a good thing I have my mom to text me three times a day with an article that has a headline like: “Haha, you fucking idiot. You thought you couldn’t get coronavirus from your shower. THINK AGAIN! How this 25-year-old died from COVID-19 after taking a shower.”
Okay, so now that I know Chicago is due for its peak in a week I’m going to… stay inside, social distance, clean, and practice good hygiene? My hands already look like my great grandparents crusty ass irish hands after picking potatoes for three weeks straight.
Anyway, that was a long-winded way of saying when I saw this tweet texted to me I sort of gasped:
We had all heard these rumors, and knew something was going to shake up during the offseason. But this was from the preeminent NBA reporter and the details that followed were shocking, because they mentioned that the Bulls were doing some smart things:
-The Bulls aren’t waiting to make changes. The NBA season is probably going to be cancelled at this point, but waiting for that decision to be made would be dumb. What else do the Bulls need to see? Going after front office prospects right now gives them an edge. The last time the Bulls had an edge on the rest of the league were when ping pong balls gave them a chance to draft Derrick Rose #1 in a year they didn’t deserve the pick.
-They also have good candidates in mind. According to reports, the Bulls top targets are Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas, Toronto’s GM Bobby Webster, and the Heat’s assistant GM Adam Simon. All three of these teams have built contending teams with little star power, two of them operating in lesser basketball markets than Chicago. While some of the Bulls candidates have been operating underneath a decision maker who calls most of the shots (i.e. Masai Ujiri in Toronto), they’re all respected basketball minds who have been around winning cultures in today’s NBA. That’s more than basically anyone making decisions for the Bulls right now can say.
Ownership seriously has a chance to change the franchise’s fate here. They have a chance to win back all the fans they’ve lost over these years. If they hire a good candidate and give him full autonomy, I will personally be knocking on doors recruiting Chicagoans to hop back on the bandwagon.
That if is still a big IF, though. John Paxson is reportedly still likely to stick around in an advisory role. The Reinsdorfs do things like trade Derrick Rose for a bag of basketballs; refuse to negotiate a contract with Luol Deng; oust one of the greatest coaches of all time out (Phil Jackson); oust the best coach of this century out on bad terms (Tom Thibodeau); and force the greatest basketball player of all time to retire, but they somehow can’t tell John Paxson — a guy that has personally ruined all of the goodwill the franchise built up over two decades — to take a hike.
Pax, have some dignity. The entire city wants you out. The ownership clearly doesn’t think you’re up for the challenge anymore. Are you really going to stick around in a lesser role? If your boss told you that you weren’t good enough at your job and they were hiring someone else for your position, but said you could still come to the office everyday if you wanted — what would you tell them? But this is Pax, a guy who clearly has no real sense of pride or selflessness, so he probably will stick around. And he’ll probably still try to get the Bulls to listen to him behind the scenes. If that is the case, the Bulls will still fall short of being a true SGCTC certified brand. This guy will not be campaigning for fans to return to 1901 West Madison Street.
I urge everyone to take a cautiously optimistic approach to this whole situation. As Woj said on a podcast, believe it or not, potential executives actually still view Chicago as a good job, if it will actually be one with full autonomy. That’s because the ownership — for all their warts — stays out of basketball decisions for the most part. That is simply not the case in a lot of places around the league.
If the Bulls are really trying to revamp their entire culture and front office situation — turning themselves into the “new Miami Heat” as some have suggested — then this will be the best thing that happened to the organization since the Bulls won the championship in 1998. I really mean that. If they do this right, we can watch the ‘90s Bulls during the rest of this quarantine with hope, and not empty nostalgia. If they only dip their toes in the water, however, they’ll lose their chance of gaining the trust of Chicago basketball fans again — potentially forever.
If you left your Bulls fandom behind, will you return? Which candidate do you want to see making decisions for the Bulls moving forward? Leave a comment.
Much more to come this week, stay tuned, stay safe, and get a friend to subscribe so we can all enjoy the best SGCTC ever. Let’s get 20 more subscribers on board before “The Last Dance” is released in mid-April. Can we do that?
I would be down to return to Bulls Fandom. With the bears and hawks being a sad flaming pile of shit with little hope of being good in the near future, and the cubs being a disappointing ass of a team the last couple of years, a good Bulls team sounds pretty cool. Even though Arturas Karnisova has the worst name of all goddam time, I think he would be the best option. I have absolutely no idea who he is, but Zack seems to like him, so I do too. Serioulsly though, his name blows and I don't like the thought of having to say it often if he eventually does get the job. Whatever.
John Paxson is such a pride-less sack of shit. It's like having a bad nightmare and being offered a peaceful ending by the demon and choosing to try to stick it out. Get the fuck out of my face, man.
I like Arturas Karnisovas the best out of the options that we have been hearing. The Nuggets haven't had a bad draft pick in years. Their biggest flops are guys that are contributing role players, and you mix that drafting skill in with the free agent allure of Chicago? Stop. He's quietly built one of the most entertaining teams in basketball without bringing in a superstar. I think he would be great in Chicago.
Excited for Wednesday's piece about the Bears, Mitch Trubisky is still a stupid loser.