Bulls’ Gar Forman Shares Top Executive Award Because People Forget He Exists
Gar Forman, general manager of the Chicago Bulls, will share the 2010-11 NBA Executive of the Year award with Pat Riley of the Miami Heat, with each having earned 11 votes from the community of NBA decision-makers. This is a nice honor, and a deserved recognition for the improvement the franchise has made.
But 14 execs actually voted for the Bulls, and Forman totally would have won the award outright, if only all of those other execs remembered that Forman -- not former GM John Paxson -- runs the team now.
Paxson finished third in the voting with three votes; the former GM now serves as the team’s executive VP of basketball operations. It’s never been clear who really runs the show now, especially when you add active if frugal owner Jerry Reinsdorf; in fact, it’s a long-running joke on Blog a Bull, in which the Bulls’ GM is referred to as “Gar Paxdorf.” That ambiguity cost Forman the award. It would only have been worse if Riley won by one vote, withholding even a share from Forman.
The Knicks' Donnie Walsh and Nets' Billy King each shared one vote, Walsh for grabbing Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire and King for grabbing Deron Williams and Travis Outlaw. R.C. Buford of the Spurs had two votes, and the Thunder's Sam Presti grabbed one.
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