March 29--The 2014 Bears set the standard for Chicago sports catastrophes in the new millennium.
Those Bears barely nudged ahead of the 2004 Cubs, an equally unlikable bunch, on the demerits of dysfunction and ineptitude. They had an ineffective coach, Marc Trestman, an interloper unable to connect with players who practically left footprints on his back from walking all over him. They had a front-office that overvalued the talent on the roster. And they had a locker room full of guys who stopped playing for each other. Sound familiar?
This Bulls team is worse.
This Bulls season -- while not as arduous as any under coach Tim Floyd, who never won more than 17 games -- risks going down as the worst of the Jerry Reinsdorf era because of how far short it fell of expectations.
At least the 2014 Bears that struggled to a 6-10 record entered the year considering a playoff berth a measure of success. These Bulls were billed as a bunch ready to overtake the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference once they rid themselves of big, bad Tom Thibodeau as coach.
Look at the Bulls now, 10 months later, with their noses pressed to the playoff glass, a stupefying team in disarray and a stubborn organization in denial. The most recent losing streak marked the sixth time this season the Bulls had lost three or more in a row. That happened six times total in five years of Thibodeau.
But at least the secretaries smile more without Terrible Tom around.
The Bulls replaced Thibodeau with Fred Hoiberg under the premise that changing coaches would change a culture they believed no longer was conducive to winning. If the atmosphere became friendlier for those who worked at the Advocate Center, the team that played at the United Center got softer. Or, to reduce the 2015-16 season to bumper-sticker form for the NBA's biggest disappointment: Nice Guys Finish 10th.
While the Warriors chase NBA history by playing like a bunch of kids having fun on the playground, the Bulls look joyless night after night. Hoiberg's vaunted offense never took hold and the Bulls' defense remained a relic of the past. Players failed to hit it off with Hoiberg, whose painful postgame press conferences now leave the audience feeling pity for an overwhelmed coach who must have fantasized about returning to Ames, Iowa, last weekend with his old Iowa State team. Good guy, bad fit.
Fault lies with everybody: executives John Paxson and Gar Forman for initiating the unnecessary change and chairman Jerry Reinsdorf for encouraging it; Hoiberg for making his share of rookie coaching mistakes, beginning day one with the clumsy benching of Joakim Noah; Jimmy Butler for calling out his coach like a prima donna in December; Derrick Rose for not providing stronger leadership; Nikola Mirotic for regressing ... the list goes on. Even the medical team merited scrutiny.
Fixing the problems now requires the same kind of ruthlessness the Bulls showed last spring, though nobody who knows Reinsdorf expects that. Nobody truly believes that Reinsdorf, whose team was valued recently at $2.3 billion by Forbes, feels compelled to do anything drastic as long as the arena and coffers stay full. And for the seventh straight season, the Bulls lead the league in attendance, the statistical category that resonates most to Reinsdorf. How sad that a man widely known as the best owner in Chicago sports history takes such a laissez faire approach to a franchise that bamboozled its fan base this year.
When Bears chairman George McCaskey fired Trestman and general manager Phil Emery after the 2014 season, he admitted being driven by the emotions of his mother, Virginia, the team matriarch.
"She's pissed off," McCaskey said famously.
Where is the outrage in the Bulls organization?
If it exists at all, the Bulls will consider every conceivable option as soon the regular-season mercifully ends in nine games. It sounds redundant to call for one of the Reinsdorfs, either Jerry or son, Michael, the Bulls president, to hold Forman and Paxson accountable for trying to fix something that wasn't broken beyond repair. The Bulls brass let personal feelings interfere with their professional obligation, which is to assemble a championship roster and coaching staff even if that means putting pettiness aside. Reinsdorf let his loyalty to Thibodeau's bosses blind him.
Maybe Reinsdorf starts with either firing or reassigning Forman. Maybe Paxson takes a sabbatical. Maybe Hoiberg fits better in the front office, not the craziest thought after he acknowledged following his 72nd game that his message "isn't getting across." Maybe the Bulls need to brainstorm until someone comes up with creative solutions to a problem bigger than anybody imagined.
No longer can the Bulls argue to keep together the core. They should begin rationalizing the value of qualifying for the NBA draft lottery. They should prepare to bid farewell to free-agents Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol, who both figure to be overpaid as the NBA salary-cap rises. They would be smart to see what the trade market will be for either Rose, a free-agent in 2017, or Butler, whose $95 million superstar salary is ahead of his game. They would be shrewd to see if the 76ers are as serious as reports in Philadelphia suggest about unloading 20-year-old center Jahlil Okafor. They should explore every conceivable option and welcome ideas from everyone.
Drastic times call for drastic measures, and a sports city that has experienced its share of disappointment hasn't seen anything quite like this.
dhaugh@tribpub.com
