Now that the Bulls have parted ways with head coach Tom Thibodeau, the organization continues to leak negative information about how Thibodeau was perceived in his final season with the franchise.
First came the press release, which essentially threw Thibodeau under the bus, and portrayed him as a controlling individual who couldn’t play well with others.
“While the head of each department of the organization must be free to make final decisions regarding his department, there must be free and open interdepartmental discussion and consideration of everyone’s ideas and opinions,” Chicago Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said. “These internal discussions must not be considered an invasion of turf, and must remain private. Teams that consistently perform at the highest levels are able to come together and be unified across the organization-staff, players, coaches, management and ownership. When everyone is on the same page, trust develops and teams can grow and succeed together. Unfortunately, there has been a departure from this culture.”
Now comes word that Thibodeau didn’t have the support of key players, as well.
From Dan Bernstein of CBSChicago.com:
This is likely more negativity coming from the front office.
Bulls management didn’t need a reason to slander Thibodeau in this way. In fact, during Thursday’s presser, John Paxson said more than once that if the Bulls were playing for a championship right now, then they wouldn’t be having this conversation.
That’s all that needed to be said -- expectations were high, and Thibodeau didn’t meet them from a pure performance standpoint. But instead, the organization feels the need to justify its decision by belittling Thibodeau on his way out the door, when he has exhibited nothing but class publicly throughout this process.
[via The Big Lead]
