http://www.blogabull.com/story/2008/1/14/215745/249
UPDATE: Paxson was interviewed by Mike North (for some reason North gets these assignments) and it's up at WSCR's website.
Not the greatest listen, but some information did come out: Regarding the Noah suspension, Pax made it seem like the 1st suspension was for the altercation with Adams, and the additional game from the players was for an accumulation of other things during the year. He was pretty vague on the details of the 'unanimous' vote, but North did get Pax to explicitly say that the rookies did not vote. Pax also said 'the veterans' made the decision. To me that leaves into question whether guys like Thomas or Sefolosha had a say either.
Regarding trade talks, Pax spent a lot of time whining about bad reporting, but did say that the McGrady reports were completely untrue.
******
Everything's A-Ok:
Bulls general manager John Paxson said today he had no problem with Bulls players voting to make Joakim Noah sit out an extra game as punishment for his run-in with assistant coach Ron Adams.
"Jim and I spoke [Friday] and the one game suspension was warranted," Paxson said. "The fact the players felt they needed to address it is, in my mind, a good thing. As Jim said, it's them taking ownership. I have no problem with that."
I think I would have a problem with this, if I knew what it meant. Wouldn't 'taking ownership' mean more than singling out a rookie who's already been punished? Perhaps not laying a big turd in the game that followed?
Or maybe Pax is hoping the players 'take ownership' so that he doesn't have to.
Paxson cited the fact that his team remains in the playoff race in the Eastern Conference as the reason that Boylan is sticking with a veteran rotation.
"We haven't lived up to any of the expectations we put on ourselves and that is extremely discouraging," Paxson said. "But today is not the day to determine that we just scrap it and do something totally different. Like I said before, there could come a point if things don't turn around and we don't believe we're contending for the playoffs, the experience for our younger players is going to be addressed. But we're not there yet."
Oh, what a pile of garbage.
Only the most dimwitted of fans care about making the playoffs just to make them. Even if the Bulls avoid a no-chance matchup against the Pistons or Celtics in the first round, the fact that this mad dash to the top-8 will be on the old backs of Wallace and Smith is hardly progress.
When Paxson fired Skiles, his subsequent media tour gave the impression that playing the youngsters was a goal. Now Pax is buying into this fallacy that playoffs and playing time for lottery picks is mutually exclusive.
So the only way we see a real change is if this sad bunch bottoms out of the playoff race? Way to make the fans root for losses.
And the final insult: "Paxson stuck to his policy of not answering any questions concerning trades."
Can't even feed the rumor mill because you're afraid it'll hurt your sensitive young team. What's supposed to keep this franchise interesting, watching the awful basketball?
