If You Don't Hate JR, You Should

Disclaimer: For those of you that like to just guess what the post is about and then comment (i.e. eveyone), I don't care about the Kobe or KG trades. What I care about is that we refused to get a high profile coach for financial reasons and that we are on the verge of letting BG walk and not pushing for Amare because of his contract. Read on for why this infuriates me!

JR and Pax have done a lot of frustrating things to us Bulls fan. There was KG, there was Kobe, and now there's potentially Amare all let slip by. While it's very frustrating that the core we kept over those players has regresed significantly, I can't be too angry at Pax. They were all young and they were playing well. It seems he felt it was in the best interest of the fans to stick with what we have. 

Fast forward to today, and we're 7 games under 500 without a playoff spot and with no one near KG or Kobe in skill level. Frustrating yes, but hindsight is always 20/20, so no use crying over spilt milk. Now, there is something far worse than this that absolutely infuriates me and I'm surprised people don't complain about it daily. 

JR IS CHEAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/32/nba08_NBA-Team-Valuations_Income.html

We are generally at the top of operating income by a large amount, this year beating out the next best Lakers by 7.5 million, or about 16%.  Yet we are only 11 on team salaries. We're going to most likely let Ben walk because apparently JR refuses to go into luxury tax at absolutely all costs. And it seems we may not be making a strong enough push for Amare because again, we are too worried about the costs. Again, for reference, the average income per team is 10.7 million. So JR is making 518% of the average income and still absolutely refuses to go into the tax. We are not some small market team that needs to save its pennies so we don't get relocated. We're the Chicago Bulls, a gigantic market, and yet our owner refuses to go into luxury.

It's not just a issue of cheapness, it's a matter of respect. Most organizations need to win so that they can continue to make money. We are loyal enough fans that we will go to the games no matter what, and how does JR reward us? He continuously builds a team of young, upside players, or in other words....cheap contract players.

The final insult, the really dispicable act... letting D'Antoni go to the Knicks. Now I'm aware we didn't know we'd have Rose at the time, however, our team just suffered a massive regression after being a 49 win team, and instead of bringing in a trusted coach that players respect like D'Antoni or Van Gundy, he brought in VDN and signed him to the cheapest coaching contract. Once again, the team and the fans are compromised for the sake of being the most profitable team at all costs. 

So while I'm not gonna through a parade for Pax, I think fans should at the very least be pointing fingers at JR before Pax.