Billy Donovan goes, but abysmal run of Bull-y ball remains. Why would anyone bet on a change for the better?
The Bulls have no front office, having belatedly kicked executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley to the curb. They have no real roster, having thrown together a who’s-who of “who?” to go through the motions of another regular-season fade-out. And now, with Billy Donovan having rescued himself from the abyss by resigning after six mostly lost seasons, they have no coach.
But other than that?
Hey, they’re all set.
Sorry for the sarcasm, but it’s either that or the snooze button when it comes to considering the state of an organization that has been so baffling, blundering and bizarre and, worse still, so numbingly far from anything resembling relevance.
The NBA playoffs march on. So, in their own, backward manner, do the once-proud Bulls.
Three straight seasons with fewer than 40 wins. Five out of six with a losing record. One playoff win — a game, not a series — across the Donovan years. How much of that is on him, all, some or none, can be debated into eternity, as if it even matters. It feels like it doesn’t, because the Bulls have ceased to matter.
The Bulls haven’t won a playoff series since 2015, haven’t been to the Eastern Conference finals since 2011 and haven’t played for a championship since 1998. A devastating injury to Derrick Rose in 2012 accounts for some of it, maybe even a lot of it. But the mark of the Bull seems to be the overriding factor — ownership that isn’t committed enough to winning or principled enough about the right things, front offices with absurdly long leashes, de facto “stars” who aren’t nearly as good as the players around the league capable of hanging banners.
The mark of the Bull is strong. In the end, Donovan was powerless against it.
When he was introduced as coach in 2020, Donovan said of Karnisovas, “The thing that stood out to me was he wants a partner, he wants somebody to walk hand in hand with to help build things.”
Alas, the Karnisovas regime turned out to be all thumbs.
Plan? What plan?
The Bulls certainly didn’t win enough. With their inimitable aimlessness, they also didn’t lose enough. Instead, they lived in the meaningless middle. What a waste of time.
Under Donovan, the Bulls won almost 47% of the time. Much better than they fared under Tim Floyd (.205), Bill Cartwright (.336) and Jim Boylen (.317). Roughly similar to Scott Skiles’ (.490), Vinny Del Negro’s (.500), and Fred Hoiberg’s (.426) runs. Nowhere near Tom Thibodeau (.647), of course. A baseball lineup with those batting averages could do memorable damage.
Speaking of baseball, we’ve gone too long here without mentioning the “R”-word. If Jerry Reinsdorf’s Bulls and White Sox swapped existences, would anyone be able to tell the difference? The mark of the Sox — who still haven’t won a playoff series since 2005 — is no joke, either.
Show of hands: Who’s betting on Team Reinsdorf to get this next Bulls chapter right?
Anyone?
Chirp, chirp, said the crickets.
We know it’s in the realm of possibility for any major pro team to find its way out of the wilderness. The Bears have done it even with a first-time general manager, a first-time head coach, a wet-behind-his-ears quarterback and the same, age-old ownership family. If the Bears could do it, the Bulls can do it.
You know, maybe.
Cue the crickets.
Donovan said in his farewell statement that his gratitude toward the Bulls is “permanent.”
For his sake, one hopes the mark they've left on him is not.
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