I have no problems Jerry Reinsdorf as an owner. In my little world, owners are just businessmen. The greatest trait of most good businessmen is that they know how to bring in smart people to make them rich. While Reinsdorf may be the face of the ownership group, he has long deferred to his basketball people for better or worse. For many years and through much turmoil, he allowed Jerry Krause to run the basketball side of the organization. Since 2003, he has allowed Paxson that same level of autonomy. So it really surprises me to see that Reinsdorf would step forward and make the statements he did following Mike D’Antoni deciding to take the Knicks job. In today’s Tribune, he expressed his disappointment in D’Antoni’s handling of the situation and stating he was “misled” and even called his behavior rude.

The reason I am surprised is that there is no point in crying over spilt milk. D’Antoni is gone. The degree to which the Bulls were willing to commit to D’Antoni’s style will now never be fully known. They have to move on to Avery Johnson, Tom Thibodeau, Michael Curry, Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson or whoever else may be on their radar. If they want to run, Keith Smart is in the process of being groomed by Don Nelson in Golden State and is probably more willing to accept a defensive-minded assistant. Regardless, D’Antoni will now always linger over the next Bulls coach. He will always be viewed as the 2nd option. While college football is not the same as the NBA, I would think part of the reason Tyrone Willingham and Mike Shula were so quickly fired was that they were the 2nd choices at Notre Dame and Alabama. Every fan and media member knew that they were the backup plan. Any media member looking for an easy story that will sell papers could write an article saying that Coach X is the wrong guy for the job, Team Y deserves better and not some fall back. So-and-So is the solution. Well, the problem now is that the Bulls are without a coach, and missed out on two coaches they interviewed. Rick Carlisle was hired by Dallas, and any interest in him will be forgotten tomorrow.  The headlines of being “misled” and D’Antoni being “rude” will live on. When the Bulls face the Knicks, it will be brought up over and over again.

For that reason, I am not sure how attractive the Bulls job would be for a coach with a solid track record like Avery Johnson or Jeff Van Gundy. Will they have a fair shot? What if Mike D’Antoni is able to draft Derrick Rose or D.J. Augustin and show marked improvement with the Knicks playing a highly entertaining style of basketball? Is the comparison always going to be there in the eyes of the media? If constantly brought to their attention, how will the players - who were rumored to like the idea of playing in D’Antoni’s system- respond when they are playing a traditional half court style. I tend to think that Johnson and Van Gundy will be able to see that they are highly regarded enough that they should not have to take a job where they are viewed as a backup option. While coaches who have no head coaching experience will not have that luxury, they will still have to overcome the spectre of D’Antoni. With the Bulls coming off a season where they lost their identity and played every game at a pace dictated by the opposition, this is not going to be an easy job. I just tend to think Reinsdorf could have made it a little easier by simply allowing D’Antoni to pass in the night. It would have been good for business.

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