Chicago Bulls: Owner Jerry Reinsdorf getting heat from fans, should he sell?

Have Chicago Bulls fans gotten frustrated to the point of practicing what they preach? Until last season the team led the league in attendance every year since 2010.

On a current twitter poll, fans were asked whether they want the Reinsdorfs to sell the Chicago Bulls.

As of this writing, close to 90 percent of fans have answered “yes” to new ownership. Of course, many tweets are also coming in to get rid of Gar Forman and John Paxson, a daily mantra from fans calling into the two Chicago sports talk radio stations.

Are these just emotional reactions to the team not making the playoffs for two straight seasons? Is it simply anger that we have not been able to attract top 10 free agents?

As a fanatical Bulls fan, this writer certainly has had his own emotion-based tweets to fire Gar/Pax. After what most fans admit was a solid offseason of moves and that the rebuilding process may occur faster than expected, in my opinion, this is Gar/Pax’s last hoorah to fix the ship that has been sinking since Derrick Rose’s injury-filled seasons.

Jerry Reinsdorf though, as hard a negotiator as he is known to be, still may deserve a little more appreciation and love from fans. Yes, I am playing the devil’s advocate. For now, though he may soon need to put an end to Gar/Pax, I do not think Jerry Reinsdorf needs to sell the team.

Fellow owners and former players have recognized that the Reinsdorf’s are loyal to employees and are committed to bringing fans a winning product. Reinsdorf’s list of accomplishments include:

• As the owner of the Chicago White Sox, Reinsdorf is the third owner to win a championship in two major American sports.
• As the owner of the Chicago White Sox, Reinsdorf signed Albert Belle in 1996 to a 55 million dollar contract. In that year, Reinsdorf, who fans like to call “cheap”, employed the two highest-paid athletes in baseball and basketball (Michael Jordan at close to $30 million).

On a side note: People wonder how he did not sign Michael to a long-term contract but forget that Jordan also wanted that deal to be for only one year. He was fully aware that the team may take a different approach after the season. His loyalty was to Phil Jackson and not Jerry Krause.

Apparently, Jordan wanted more say in how the team was constructed and felt Krause was taking too much of the credit. Jordan also ran into conflicts with Wizards management when he wanted more control. As an owner, Michael Jordan’s Hornet’s teams have stunk! MJ has never been an expert at judging talent or understanding what it takes to be an owner of a successful franchise. Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause are not to be judged by how Jordan feels about them, despite Michael being the G.O.A.T.

• He is a member of the NBA Hall of Fame, recognized as a major contributor to the success of the game and league. During his Hall of Fame speech in 2016, Reinsdorf proudly pointed out that 10 former players, including John Paxson and Scottie Pippen still are associated with the team. Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson were in attendance for his induction. Pippen, Toni Kukoc and Horace Grant still are employed as Special Advisors to the President & COO, while Grant, Kendall Gill, Will Purdue and the great Stacey King are active members of the Comcast Sports team reporting on the Bulls. Even Doug Collins, the Coach who was fired and not given the chance to take that next step to a championship with Michael, has come up back as a Senior Advisor of Basketball Operations. Randy Brown and B. J. Armstrong were also employed in the post-Jordan era.
• Of course, when only five players can be on the court at once, having a star is the difference between the haves and the have-nots, and lady luck plays a big role too. The Bulls have been on both sides of the coin. While the Bulls were lucky to get Jordan at No. 3 in the 1984 draft and repeat twice as three-time champions, they had different luck with Derrick Rose the 2008 No. 1 pick and former college player of the year, Jay Williams, the No. 2 pick in 2002. Still it was Reinsdorf who gave Rose unequivocal support throughout his injuries and who paid Jay Williams his $3 million salary to help with his recovery, even though from a legal perspective Williams violated his NBA contract by riding a motorcycle. Even Jordan, when he no longer wanted to play after his fathers untimely tragic death, was given the opportunity by Reinsdorf to play for the White Sox and live out his childhood fantasy to be a baseball player.

As Bulls fans, we are angry. The Fred Hoiberg era was a joke. Since his departure, Jim Boylen has focused on returning a ‘spirit and soul” to the team. I know it is difficult. Let’s not allow our heated emotions to make us short-sighted. Things have not been bullish these last couple years but after a productive offseason, let’s see if a couple of All-Star caliber players develop from this core.

If I was a betting man, I would even bet the Bulls once again lead the league in attendance this upcoming season. When they do, whose fault will that be?