Gar Foreman makes the plans and produces plans and possible options, Paxson continues to be the face of the organization and talks to the media and accepts and vetoes whatever Foreman does, Reinsdorf seeing Paxson like a son, leaves all final decisions to paxson, paxson now being more seperated from the decisions has a much better insight so reinsdorf will trus paxsons moves…..

Thats how i translate this, and if thats the case im on board, i think paxson was taking everything to personally and the only one who could help in the decision process was reinsdorf, and i think that caused a few bad deals to go down, like the d’antoni one. Plus paxson falls in love with the players he drafts, being away from that kind of decision means that foreman will come up with what the personell moves should be, and paxson will just have the final say if it should go down or not.

I’ve taken it down, and instead, am adding my “in memoriam” here:

Well, it’s been rumored for months. And despite Paxson’s denial, here it is: Forman becomes GM, Pax gets kicked upstairs. This had all of the suspense of the Star Wars prequels that end in what everyone already knows—

namely, the heir to the dark throne taking his place with the manipulating emperor (I would have said all the suspense of Valkyrie, but I haven’t seen it yet). Funny how even the ESPN article cites Pax being booed at Red’s ceremony.

In the end, I find myself going back to what Matt said way back when. Something along the lines of, if Pax doesn’t want to be here, then maybe we shouldn’t want him here, either.

At the time, I thought this was unfair to Pax, as he was doing the emperor’s chairman’s bidding, and no one could have seen the Ben Wallace train wreck coming. Until that Wallace signing and the subsequent shenanegans, Pax was a pretty good GM.

He had followed the Dumars school of getting solid guys with good experience, in hopes of attaining a championship without a true superstar the way Dumars did. It worked for Dumars, but little did we know at the time that the one championship would be a flash in the pan, and that every other team in our era would have at least one true superstar. So much for that model.

Kevin Pritchart has referenced the Paxson model in his rebuilding of the Blazers, namely, getting a bunch of gym rats with good attitudes and Final Four / Olympic championship experience. They haven’t gotten out of the first round of the playoffs either.

Pax’s early tenure was tested by the Eddy Curry heart situation, and the eventual jettisoning of every remnant of the Krause era. This included, somewhat controversially, the shipping of Tyson Chandler to New Orleans for sweet nothings. Pax became something of a recluse, although he did surface to say a few words about his son joining the armed forces; and we as Bulls fans wished him and his family the best.

Toward the end there, as with so many GM’s, Pax’s mistakes resulted in a poor record, which allowed the Bulls to sneak into the lottery and begin a turnaround. Ironically this allowed the Bulls to actually land that elusive superstar. And finally, there was the trade of Pax favorite Nocioni and some bearded gimpy guy to Sacramento to get John Salmons and Brad Miller, and breathe some life into not only the playoff run, but also to allow Rose the best chance to win Rookie of the Year. Not a bad result overall.

Pax, I was sorry to see that the stress seemed to be getting to you, or that you came to the conclusion that you were somehow not as enthused about your job. Thanks for keeping the seat warm, and here’s to your happiness in your new role!