WASHINGTON — The meeting next week is still everything.
Billy Donovan made that clear Tuesday in his first meeting with the media since vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley — the men responsible for him being the Bulls’ coach — were fired 24 hours earlier.
It became obvious that the sit-down with the Reinsdorfs no longer would be about them trying to sell Donovan on why he should stay as much as them making sure there would be no reason to leave.
That’s how Donovan sounded, like a coach anticipating the future in an organization that will start focusing on doing whatever it takes to win. An organization in which he’ll have a louder voice.
“We’d be crazy not to want Billy’s input in player acquisition from players around the league,” Bulls CEO Michael Reinsdorf said. “He’s an NBA coach, he coaches against these guys. Some of these guys he’s already coached. Billy will be involved and will be encouraged. I’ll probably push Billy to be more involved.”
A responsibility Donovan was appreciative of and didn’t take lightly. The fact that he was even talking about his future with the Bulls said a lot.
“I’m very appreciative that Michael would give me the opportunity and say, ‘Hey, what do you think? Tell me what we need to
do,’ ” Donovan said. “And I can give him some thoughts and ideas, and, OK, how do we take these thoughts and ideas and how do we move forward?
“I’ve always believed this: The room is smarter than any individual, and there are a lot of smart people in that room. If we can put our heads together and figure out how do we get to that? I don’t have all the answers to those things.
“I just know the last four years, we have not won at a high level. I want to win at a high level. I want to be a part of that. The organization deserves that, everyone in the organization wants that, and then everybody has got to put their heads together and figure out, ‘How do we go about doing that?’ ”
Donovan’s words had some layers, especially considering the Sun-Times reported last season that Karnisovas ran the franchise more like a dictatorship than a “room” of collective ideas.
Yes-men kept a paycheck, while those with different opinions were soon unemployed.
So how would it work to keep a coach and give him more input but still use an outside firm to find the right people to lead the front office? Reinsdorf made that simple, if Donovan stays.
“If we’re interviewing someone and they’re not sold on Billy, and they’re not sold on a Hall of Fame coach, they’re not sold on a person who has won championships in college, who has gone deep in the playoffs with Oklahoma City, who I believe with the Chicago Bulls, given the team he was given, I think every year he achieved really good results,” Reinsdorf said.
“Not the results we wanted, but it’s not because of Billy. So if someone is not interested in Billy and Billy wants to be our coach, then they’re probably not the right candidate for us.”
While Reinsdorf downplayed the idea of Donovan remaining the coach and carrying the title of VP of basketball operations, he’s willing to listen to all options in the meeting.
“I don’t think Billy cares about titles,” Reinsdorf said. “Billy cares about being a head coach, cares about the players, the -organization — that’s the most important thing. I hate getting so bogged down in titles. What’s more important is what are your responsibilities, what input do you have?”
If Donovan is in fact staying, he’s about to have a lot more.
The Bulls’ overlying philosophy has been not to tank. Team president Michael Reinsdorf reiterated that but admitted they need to be better in understanding league trends and being in front of them rather than chasing them.
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Holy sports meltdown, Chicago.
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The Sun-Times reported over the weekend that Karnisovas and Eversley were on the hot seat, and on Monday afternoon, both were fired with years left on their contracts.
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