Contest Part I

It seems as if the Chicago Bears and Chicago Bulls are having a contest to see which front office can be more indecisive, less certain of their long term vision, and look more inept than the other lately. It has now gotten to the point where it's being watched nationally.

Lets start with the Bulls. John Paxson's puppet Gar Forman took a pass when given the chance to give the dreaded vote of confidence to Vinny Del Negro. This is counterproductive in a couple of different ways. The time to fire Del Negro was a month ago. Vinny's length of tenure has been the beneficiary of a supposed "classic" playoff series between the Bulls and Celtics last postseason. Most people who are capable of remembering the circumstances surrounding that series however, will remember that Kevin Garnett was not playing in any of those games. Had Garnett been playing, the Bulls would have most likely been swept under the rug in 4 games post haste, and Vinny might not have survived for this season.

That didn't happen though. What did happen though (besides a record collapse to the Sacramento Kings this year) is that the Bulls have shown that the best basketball they are capable of playing...is when they ditch running Vinny's offense! Del Negro has done plenty of other things to show that firing him would be understood, and the Bulls could at least start going in another direction.

So since that hasn't happened either, you would at the very least expect some combination of Paxson or Forman or both essentially come forward and say, "Vinny is our guy for the rest of the year" and put an end to all speculation, not only for the players and fans sake, but for Del Negro's sake as well. Instead, the Bulls have decided to let everyone continue to urinate into the wind and continue to live in the netherworld of "Is this the day Vinny gets launched?". Oh and by the way, they are also doing this while allowing little rumors of Doug Collins and Lawrence Frank being spoken with by Bulls brass to periodically pop up...If the Bulls are going to go anywhere, they can't be caught in-between like this. They need firm leadership and direction from someone, be it Vinny, or Paxson/Forman, or another coach. Make no mistake about it, this is a "Take your time @ssh*le" moment for the Bulls Brass. Lets hope they make their mind up soon.