Never Mind

Less than twenty-four hours after their upset of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Bulls took to the floor of the United Center and promptly laid an egg against the Celtics.  Pardon any mixing of metaphors and clichés here, but consider that it was the worst-ever beat-down in franchise history, a 133-77 shellacking before a booing home-crowd.

And now there are whispers over whether or not coach Jim Boylen has lost the respect of players six days into his tenure.  Why?  Because after the starters let Boston jump ahead 13-0, Boylen raided his bench to bring in a new five, who allowed another four points before finding the basket.  Advantage, Boston.

Apparently, there’s an unwritten rule in basketball that say every coach gets one free mass substitution.  After that, it gets dicey, and Boylen pushed the envelope—again, apologies for the cliché—by yanking his starters for the rest of the game with just under three minutes left in the third quarter.  That may or may not have shown up Zach LaVine and company.

For my money, guys don’t act like professionals, they don’t deserve to get treated that way.  I have reservations about LaVine in particular; offense he understands, defense not so much.  But more than any one player, I think the organization has grown stale to the point of rot.  Along with the story, the Tribune printed a list of the nine worst losses in Bulls’ history.  Eight of them have happened during Jerry Reinsdorf’s “stewardship,” and all of them after he dismantled his championship core of Michael Jordan and coach Phil Jackson.

Jackson lost out in a power struggle with general manager Jerry Krause, who once declared that, “Players and coaches alone don’t win championships, organizations win championships.”  It’s something Krause never achieved after Jordan moved on and something Reinsdorf  doesn’t look capable of ever doing again.

The Trib may want to keep that list around.  I have a feeling it won’t be too long before we get another update.