Tuesday, former Chicago Bulls lead front office executive John Paxson made a rare podcast appearance on the Under The Number Podcast, hosted by Brent Peus.
The podcast episode naturally chronicled Paxson’s NBA player career and also delved into his post -NBA endeavors that have primarily occurred within the Chicago Bulls organization.
Yet, there are a few nuanced details Paxson elaborated on in his podcast conversation with Peus, which implicate cultural dynamics in the Bulls’ front office history of the last 30 years that may ultimately be the reason the franchise has historically struggled to acquire prime superstar NBA talent.
The backdrop to John Paxson’s eventual rise to running the Bulls’ front office for 17 NBA seasons was the fall of the Bulls dynasty, notably chronicled in the television documentary miniseries The Last Dance.
In his podcast conversation, Paxson simply alluded to the infamous power dynamics of the Bulls’ principal leaders of the 1990s dynasty in general manager Jerry Krause, head coach Phil Jackson, and guard Michael Jordan as “uncomfortable”.
Another nuanced detail Paxson shared in his podcast conversation is the influence of his predecessor, Bulls lead front office executive Jerry Krause's view of what defines team success. According to Paxson, Krause promoted a front office operational philosophy of “OKP”, an acronym that stands for “Our Kind of People”.
The context of this philosophy, as described by Paxson, resolves in ensuring there is effectively a singular mode of thinking and behaving that elevates “what’s best for the organization” over any personal considerations an individual within said organization may care about.
On a surface level, this philosophy has a positive altruistic intent, and at the same time, a reasonable unintended consequence that can emerge from this leadership philosophy is dysfunctional groupthink.
Krause’s influence on Paxson’s player evaluation philosophy is laid bare in his conversation with Pues, describing “winning [college] pedigrees” and “basketball character” as his key intangible attributes he used as Bulls lead front office executive to scout and acquire players onto his Bulls rosters.
These intangibles also have their positives, and in parallel, proved to be limiting points of view that overrated the value of winning NCAA men's basketball games in a league where top NBA talent increasingly arrived in the league outside of traditional NCAA basketball during Paxson's NBA executive tenure.
NBA Superstars don’t fit into organizational boxes
Top-tier All-NBA caliber players typically aren’t personality cogs that willingly accept being a component in an organizational machine. They are individuals with irrational self-confidence that fuels their elite athletic performance.
An organization that says we care about the organization more than the superstar is not an organization that is going to consistently attract NBA superstars. NBA superstars typically want clear power dynamics that include their voice in their basketball situations and not have to worry about the business side of basketball.
The Chicago Bulls, as an organization, have struggled to acquire prime superstar talent through three front office regimes helmed by Krause, Paxson, and Arturas Karnisovas because the operating culture of the franchise prefers the optics of player selflessness while operating with the intent of command and control power dynamics from Bulls ownership and front office leadership. Bulls players serve management, and rarely does the power dynamic reciprocate.
The NBA hasn’t been a command and control league since the three-point line was introduced. Superstars dating back to Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird have run the NBA and made it the multi-billion dollar industry it is over the five decades of NBA history.
As the Bulls embark on a new roster rebuild and a new front office, Bulls governor Michael Reinsdorf must hold himself accountable for the power dynamics he projects into his NBA franchise, which strangely still includes John Paxson in a Bulls advisory role.
Current Bulls lead front office executive Bryson Graham must be empowered to allow his roster to bring in NBA talent that may go against the grain of management behavior, so long as those players contribute to winning behavior.
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