All Entries Tagged With: "Jerry Reinsdorf"
Thome wants to come back
”I’ll be honest, I would still love to come back,” Thome said
Popularity: 5% [?]
Reinsdorf: Gordon didn’t fit
Brian Hanley has some good quotes from “The Chariman” regarding Ben Gordon, how many stars the Bulls may have, and why the passed on Pau Gasol.
Question: What do you think of Ben Gordon’s signing as a free agent with the Detroit Pistons?
Answer: Actually, we made a decision a year ago not to commit long term to Ben. We tried, and he turned it down. Then, near the end, [now GM] Gar Forman and John [Paxson] decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to make a long-term decision. We wanted to see what other options might develop. So we withdrew the offer [six years, $54 million] we had on the table. Ben ultimately said he would take it, but it was too late.
Now, fast forward to the end of the year, we have [John] Salmons and we have a hell of a three-guard rotation with [Kirk] Hinrich and Derrick [Rose]. Ben wasn’t going to get a whole lot of playing time. [It] was going to be diminished. So Ben really no longer fit. Ben’s a terrific player. But Ben needs minutes. He would not have been happy with the minutes he was going to get.
Q: There’s a perception the Bulls move slowly when it comes to big-name trades. The perception is you missed on Pau Gasol, on Kevin Garnett. What’s your response?
A: I don’t think we move too slowly. Gasol, we didn’t move slowly, we said, ‘No.’ We were prepared to give [Memphis] players. What they wanted to do was to basically dump stuff on us and we’d be immobilized; we wouldn’t have been able to improve our team. Gasol made sense for the Lakers because he is their third-best player, probably. He would have been, at that time, our best player. It would have been a wrong role for him. John and Gar decided they didn’t want Gasol under those circumstances, where he would have been the last piece and we would have been immobilized because of the [salary] cap.
Q: Does it take three All-Stars to contend for a championship? MJ was the last Bulls All-Star in 1998.
A: We have Derrick [Rose]. He clearly shows the potential to be an All-Star. A healthy Luol is going to become an All-Star. Boston showed three stars helps you a great deal. The Bulls championships, we really had two stars. Maybe we had three stars in Michael Jordan himself. But it’s still a team game. If you have the right role players and play the game properly, you can win. But with three All-Stars, it makes it a lot easier.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Inrem: Hendry needs help
Mike Inrem thinks Jim Hendry needs to be saved from himself. If the new owner indeed hires a baseball man as President of the club, for starters, will they keep Hendry?
Inrem questions whether a baseball savvy president would allow a move such as Alfonso Soriano’s eight year deal, or the no-trade clauses that were handed out to just about everyone (including Jeff Samardzijia before he even pitched a major league game).
What a mythical new owner should do is name a team president to oversee all departments, including and especially baseball operations.
Former president John McDonough, a marketing guy, wasn’t the answer. Current club chairman Crane Kenney, whatever it is that he does, isn’t the answer. The new owner, whomever he’ll be, won’t know baseball’s landscape well enough to be the answer.
The Cubs need a baseball man as club president, somebody who knows the true value of a player that general manager Jim Hendry pursues in the prevailing market.
The club president should have a grasp of where the economy is going and whether there’s an option out there that dollar for dollar makes more sense.
Does it absolutely take a no-trade clause to close the deal with a certain player? Is there as much competition for him as his agent insists? Could he be had a month from now for less money and fewer years? Should the contract be backloaded, frontloaded or not loaded at all? Will enough money be left to make a deal at the trade deadline?
Listen, I believe in Hendry but every general manager could use help. Especially one with the daunting task of winning the Cubs’ first championship in more than a century.
Hendry’s strength is talent evaluation. It isn’t money management, though he likely would disagree.
Anyway, club chairman/managing partner Jerry Reinsdorf serves as financial conscience for the White Sox.
Do you think Reinsdorf would have permitted Kenny Williams to sign free-agent Alfonso Soriano to an eight-year contract?
No, probably not. Reinsdorf would have tried to concoct a contract that gave the Sox an out after a couple years … or told Williams to tell Soriano thanks but no thanks.
Who could fill the role of Cubs president? I don’t know but somebody has to qualify.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Gordon: Bulls never made offer
Despite Gar Forman claiming Ben Gordon was the Bulls off-season priority, Ben Gordon says the Bulls never made an offer. Gordon joined the “Waddle and Silvy Show” earlier today and said the only team he had an offer from was Detroit. Gordon has repeatedly stressed how much Joe Dumars and the Pistons organization was committed and solely focused on winning, a possible shot at the Bulls heir-achy.
“I mean, they didn’t pursue me at all,” Gordon said. “They didn’t even make an offer, so it was pretty much a one-man race.”
Gordon was reminded that the Bulls said re-signing him was a priority.
“It is what it is,” he said. “Like I just told you, there was no offer made. So you guys can put it together. I’m happy about my new situation now. I’m looking forward to it.”
When he was introduced as the team’s GM on May 21, Forman spoke about Gordon.
“We like Ben,” Forman said at the time. “He’s our kind of guy. He’s got great makeup and character, a great work ethic. Our goal is to re-sign Ben Gordon. In the conversations we’ve had, I think Ben wants to stay here in Chicago.”
Gordon said he felt love from Bulls fans, but he wasn’t sure how he was viewed by the organization.
“The fans that follow the game, I always felt I got a lot of love and respect,” he said. “When I was walking down the street, people always showed me love. I really enjoyed that. If you were messing up, they told you. And if you were doing a good job, they told you. Coming from New York, I could really appreciate that.
“As far as the organization giving me my respect, I really don’t know what they thought of me. When you go through the negotiations I’ve gone through, the writing is kind of on the wall.”
Gordon reportedly rejected $50 million offers from the Bulls the last two summers. Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said Gordon’s agent Raymond Brothers wanted to accept the five-year, $50 million offer last summer after initially rejecting it, but the Bulls decided it was too late and took the offer off the table.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Reinsdorf: Bulls pulled back offer from Gordon
Jerry Reinsdorf discussed Ben Gordon with Chuck Swirsky today on ESPN am1000. Reinsdorf said it was the Bulls who finally pulled their multi-year offer to Gordon back after waiting for an answer, and decided to do the one year deal.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Reindsdorf: Time to move on from Peavy
Jerry Reinsdorf visited with Chuck Swirsky today on ESPN am1000. Among the topics discussed of course, Jake Peavy. Reinsdorf said he really thought it was a long-shot and a 50/50 proposition at best, to get the former CY Young winner to waive his no-trade to join an AL club.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Inrem: Is Tallon safe?
Mike Inrem wonders why Dale Tallon isn’t getting credit for the Blackhawks success, and if Rocky Wirtz was posturing for contract reasons, or laying the foundation for a move at GM today.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Reinsdorf in on Coyotes?
Jerry Reinsdorf may be interested in purchasing or investing in the Coyotes.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Paxson will step aside?
Marc Stein says John Paxson will step aside as GM and let Gar Forman take over the day to day duties. Paxson’s title and duties aren’t clear yet, but he will not leave the organization. The rumor of Paxson being bumped to team President is supported by one of Stein’s team source’s comments:
Popularity: 1% [?]
Will Boston’s Ainge affect Paxson future?
Daily Herald’s Mike Inram asks if Boston Celtic’s GM Danny Ainge’s recent health scare would have any impact on Bulls GM John Paxson? Rumors surfaced that Paxson would soon step down as Bulls GM. However, Paxson claims he will be with the organization next year, yes but as GM? I was told by someone in the organization that Paxson could be moved to team President if he wanted to relinquish his GM duties.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Reinsdorf: Sox not rebuilding or cutting payroll
Jerry Reinsdorf tells Mark Gonzales the White Sox have tried to avoid rebuilding and are just tinkering to avoid getting old. Reinsdorf comments on the relationship between Kenny Williams and Ozzie Gullien, his popularity, and says the economy will not affect player payroll.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Collins really wanted Bulls job
Doug Collins says he threw his “hat in the ring” for the Bulls coaching job. Collins and John Paxson quickly agreed and then came Jerry Reinsdorf. Paxson was upset by the media leaking the Collins hire, due to the fact it was not a done deal until Reinsdorf signed off on it, the same scenario that applied to the failed Mike D’Antoni situation.
A couple of months before heading to Beijing, Collins thought he would have a chance to get a sense of closure for his coaching career by returning to the Bulls roughly 20 years after being fired.
”I was very, very close,” Collins said of taking the Bulls’ job. ”I’m at the point of my life where any decision I make is a collective process. It starts with my wife, Kathy, and then Chris and [daughter] Kelly and their families and the impact whatever I do will have on my family and the time I can spend with them.
”They all wanted me to go to Chicago. They thought it was a great situation.”
After Mike D’Antoni decided to go to the New York Knicks, Collins called Bulls general manager John Paxson and threw his hat in the ring. Paxson quickly signed off on the move, and the only thing left was for Collins and Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf — who grew close through the years — to work out a contract.
”I thought I could make a difference there,” Collins said. ”I was very close to doing it. Then I think as Jerry and I let a few days go by, he said something to me. He said: ‘Doug, I love you like a son, and I could never fire you again.’
”When he said that to me, I said: ‘Jerry, we can’t do this. If this is not a home run and we don’t both feel in the bottom of our hearts that this is a knockout home run, then we can’t do it.”’
So the Bulls turned to rookie coach Vinny Del Negro.
Popularity: 1% [?]