D'Antoni baloney? Reinsdorf better be ready to pay big money
Excitement he'd bring to Bulls worth big bucks from Reinsdorf
Would Mike D'Antoni be fun? Shoot, he'd be wilder than Robert Downey Jr. hurling flames from an Iron Man suit. Shoot, he'd be crazier than a motorbike-riding, cop-punching, Springer-studio-brawling, Garnett-air-gun-pelting Benny the Bull. Shoot, he'd bring the rawest entertainment in 10 years to the United Center, where a statue outside is much more exciting than the ballers inside.
That's because, shoot, D'Antoni wants his players to shoot. And shoot. And shoot until their arms are sore, the scoreboard short-circuits and the fans need swivels for their necks. It probably wouldn't amount to a championship -- if he couldn't reach the NBA Finals with Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire, he's sure not getting near it with Kirk Hinrich and Ty Thomas -- but it definitely would be a hoot to watch in a city that is tuning out pro hoops like the Channel 2 news.
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Firing broadcasters Tom Dore and Wayne Larrivee -- warning: homers never prosper -- doesn't solve the bigger problem. That is, the Bulls need a coach who will reignite the fan base, answer the popularity wave of the Blackhawks, make something of John Paxson's crazyquilt slop of underachievement and, above all, hatch hope that the Jordan dynasty won't be the last occurrence of springtime drama around here. The fact Paxson is even considering D'Antoni suggests the old-school general manager is flexible about budging from his defense-and-discipline foundation, which, considering recent results, is a good idea that ultimately might save Mad Pax's job.
Yet to land him, the Bulls might have to give D'Antoni a D'Astronomical sum of money, particularly if an ESPN.com report is true that the New York Knicks have showered him with a humongous offer of more than $6 million annually. At the very least, they'll have to produce well over the $4.25-million a-year average left on his contract with the Phoenix Suns, who are allowing their coach to interview with other teams in the NBA equivalent of letting your soon-to-be-ex-spouse see other people. This shouldn't be a problem for the Bulls, a franchise that charges the league's fourth-highest per-average ticket price and, somehow, continues to pack the building despite winning only one postseason series since the dynasty was prematurely junked. But when the owner is named Jerry Reinsdorf, it's funny how money always is more than an afterthought.
Seems Reinsdorf, who lives for the art of the deal, was outslicked by Scott Skiles. In what won't go down as his wisest financial arrangement, the owner agreed to guarantee Skiles all but $4 million of the $5 million still owed him upon being fired on Christmas Eve. When Skiles moved quickly and signed a fully guaranteed, $18 million deal last month to coach the Milwaukee Bucks, he burned Reinsdorf in two ways: (1) by pocketing a chunk of money that many franchises, in similar situations when a dismissed coach has hired on elsewhere, would have recouped in an "offset" clause; and (2) by joining a division rival 90 miles to the north.
You know and I know that Chairman Jerry would rather snort Wrigley Field ivy than commit himself to $10 million in paychecks this year for coaches. This is the man who made Phil Jackson sweat for a deserving contract summer after summer, title banners be damned. This is the man who went ballistic on me in 2005 after reluctantly granting Skiles a $16 million extension, demanding air time on his Comcast SportsNet operation after I wrote that Skiles -- are you sitting down? -- won their negotiating staredown. Reinsdorf likes winning the coaching/managerial salary game, and this time, he lost twice. It's revealing enough that his baseball and basketball teams have been slip-sliding. How interesting to see him also misplace his business touch.
The concern now is that D'Antoni is out of the Bulls' price range because of the Skiles payout. That would be disgraceful. To cite money as a reason to reject a coach who might electrify the city, while settling for a cheaper coach such as Boston assistant Tom Thibodeau, is to ignore the ridiculously high profits the Bulls have made through the years. Reinsdorf has no choice to bite the bullet this time. If it means the difference between making a great hire or a boring hire who keeps the Bulls in a slumber, it's his obligation to "the greatest fans in the world" -- as his organization often claims -- to pay D'Antoni.
I realize Reinsdorf, at 72, still views the Bulls as a trivial pursuit compared to his beloved White Sox. But after telling us in the '90s that he looked forward to building his own dynasty without Michael Jordan, only to whiff pathetically, he should consider how D'Antoni could revive the team. His high-energy, run-and-launch style would dazzle fans tired of a grinding system. And the players? Think of how Ben Gordon, disillusioned and looking for an escape hatch out of town, might thrive under D'Antoni. Think of how agile big men such as Joakim Noah, Drew Gooden and even Thomas might be maximized. True, unless Paxson rigs the lottery and drafts Derrick Rose, there is no point guard on the premises who remotely can approach Nash's brilliant efficiency. And a low-post scorer such as Stoudemire is only a pipedream.
But D'Antoni is said to crave the job anyway. Why would he want to work in New York, where problematic talent doesn't fit his system and he'll deal with losing for two years until the Knicks chase LeBron James? Chances are, he and his agent are using the Knicks to gain salary leverage against the Bulls. It's a practice Reinsdorf usually appreciates like bird droppings at breakfast. The best thing for the Bulls is if the Suns fired D'Antoni and handed over the $8.5 million they owe him, which might make a smaller salary in Chicago easier to swallow. But Suns owner Robert Sarver and GM Steve Kerr, the one-time Bulls hero, would rather wait out their unhappy coach than fork over the money. This prompted criticism for D'Antoni from the Round Mound of Sound himself.
"Mike D'Antoni wants to leave, and he don't have the (guts) to resign," TNT analyst Charles Barkley said on Dan Patrick's national radio show. "He wants them to fire him. He wants to get paid and get another job. He wants to get his cake and eat it, too. He's trying to hold them hostage. He knows he's going to get another job. He wants the Suns to fire him so he can get that $9 million they owe him. If he had any (guts) whatsoever, he'd say, 'You know what? I don't want to be here.'"
The Bulls can circumvent it all by paying Mike D'Antoni and calling the news conference. Need I remind you why the Bulls were reluctant to trade for Pau Gasol, who only has turned the Lakers into a championship favorite? Of course, our man Reinsdorf didn't want to exceed the league's luxury tax. That will be remembered as a colossal franchise blunder.
He'd better not compound it with another.
