Bulls GM On Firing Vinny Del Negro: ‘Change Needed’ To Take Bulls To Next Level

The Chicago Bulls officially announced the firing of head coach Vinny Del Negro in a series of press conferences Tuesday morning. General manager Gar Forman told reporters that he made the decision to relieve Del Negro of his duties because the Bulls needed a new coach to improve.

“Last night I informed Vinny that we would relieve him of his duties. In order to take this team to another level, a change was necessary.”

Forman added that the decision did not have anything to do with the March 30 altercation between Del Negro and Executive Vice President John Paxson. For his part, Paxson spoke and took full blame for the incident.

‘I did not handle it the right way,” Paxson said. “It was not a proud moment.”

Meanwhile, Forman also said the Bulls had not really thought about finding a replacement for Del Negro and would only begin doing so in the next couple days, which is curious because Del Negro was basically fired six months ago. Typical Bulls, it seems.

Speaking of typical Bulls, it was odd that Paxson spoke after Forman, because it adds confusion about who is really in charge of personnel decisions. SB Nation’s Bulls blog Blog a Bull noticed this too:

Then Paxson took the stage, and he clearly has more of a presence than Gar. Started out with a tone of genuine embarrassment when discussing the confrontation with Vinny. But he then kept talking, emphasizing how the confrontation shouldn’t effect overall perception of him, a weird aside on his ‘scrappy’ upbringing, mentioning (a slip-up?) that he’ll be talking to FAs, and culminating in a defiant statement about him ‘not going anywhere’.

It sounded more and more like he was truly the man in charge, not ‘a consultant’. Such a delineation isn’t as much for pacifying curious fans (though that’d be nice) as it is about the perception around the league. Do those types (the kind that has influence over FAs and coaching candidates) feel based on this press conference that Gar has any more power? The first half of the conference made it seem that way, but it seems like Pax’s pride got the best of him again as he re-cemented himself as the top executive.