RealGM

Out of all the mediums out there, it seems like RealGM has the highest level of discussion and intelligent debate / analysis.


- If I were an actual GM, I would become a poster and throw out feelers here and see how the crowd responded. Do you think the GMs lurk around here for advice or just to see where the winds are blowing? I will say, I feel like we could telegraph GarPax's movements a bit, but have not a clue to AK's moves (draft, trades, etc)


- I do think this forum played a huge part in changing the regime of the Bulls w the #fireGraPax movement. That feels like tangible change.

As a forum, I think we have near zero influence.

The fanbase as a whole, I think has near zero influence on the GM/EVP/roster decisions.

The fanbase has some influence on ownership. If fan activity slows and profits fall (lower ratings, lower merch sales, lower attendance, etc..) then ownership will consider moves.

I don't think ownership cared about whether fans liked GarPax though nor will they care if they like AKME. They care they spend money on the team, put eyeballs on the TV, etc.. People ultimately don't go to games because they like the GM, they go because they like the team. If the GM can't put together a group that people want to see, then they will be gone. I say that because we shouldn't limit this to just winning or winning titles. There are times where fans may get sick of a 55 win team that can never get over the hump and times where fans will be excited about a 40 win team.

I think we influence certain lazy members of the media for story angles. Maybe we helped to fuel the "Fire GARPAX" campaign.

I don't think the FO are influenced, as Lauri is still here and Felicio hasn't been bought out.

Influence? None.

But do professional sports organizations monitor the major message boards? I cannot imagine any situation in which they would not. It’s free crowdsourcing of ideas and observations. Sure a lot of them suck, are delusional or impossible, but there are plenty of good ideas mixed in from people with legitimate basketball knowledge.

I’m not suggesting AK sits down to read realgm every morning with his coffee. But having a lackey spend 15 minutes every once in awhile and have him report back if he sees something interesting? Why would anyone not do that?

DuckIII wrote:Influence? None.

But do professional sports organizations monitor the major message boards? I cannot imagine any situation in which they would not. It’s free crowdsourcing of ideas and observations. Sure a lot of them suck, are delusional or impossible, but there are plenty of good ideas mixed in from people with legitimate basketball knowledge.

I’m not suggesting AK sits down to read realgm every morning with his coffee. But having a lackey spend 15 minutes every once in awhile and have him report back if he sees something interesting? Why would anyone not do that?

AK sits down at his breakfast nook, opens up the laptop and logs into RealGM.

***Takes a large sip of coffee***

AK chuckles to himself. He knows after the bad game by Lauri, the Finnish fans will be in excuses mode.

What excuses will they have this time, he thinks to himself...Only one way to find out.

Logging into the Bulls page, he notices the Lauri thread has grown 2 pages. A slight stir rumbles his chest. This is why I took the job, he thinks to himself. Here...we...go.

...But wait. He sees the "Race for the East" thread has a few additional replies. Finally, some respect. Better to start there. The Finnish fans can wait, he thought. They've been waiting 4 years, what's a few more minutes. AK, amused by his own joke, looks over to his cat to try and get a nod of approval, any attention or acknowledgement of his humor. There is none.

DuckIII wrote:Influence? None.

But do professional sports organizations monitor the major message boards? I cannot imagine any situation in which they would not. It’s free crowdsourcing of ideas and observations. Sure a lot of them suck, are delusional or impossible, but there are plenty of good ideas mixed in from people with legitimate basketball knowledge.

I’m not suggesting AK sits down to read realgm every morning with his coffee. But having a lackey spend 15 minutes every once in awhile and have him report back if he sees something interesting? Why would anyone not do that?

We had official Bulls media create an account here, so we can confirm with 100% accuracy that they at least monitor fan opinion / engagement on major places.

dougthonus wrote:

DuckIII wrote:Influence? None.

But do professional sports organizations monitor the major message boards? I cannot imagine any situation in which they would not. It’s free crowdsourcing of ideas and observations. Sure a lot of them suck, are delusional or impossible, but there are plenty of good ideas mixed in from people with legitimate basketball knowledge.

I’m not suggesting AK sits down to read realgm every morning with his coffee. But having a lackey spend 15 minutes every once in awhile and have him report back if he sees something interesting? Why would anyone not do that?

We had official Bulls media create an account here, so we can confirm with 100% accuracy that they at least monitor fan opinion / engagement on major places.

Or, they at least don't want fake Bulls media accounts.

We'll get lumped into other social media, and probably weighted less than higher traffic social like reddit.

If you want to make a difference, be a 10 year season ticket buyer and your correspondence has a chance of being noted. Basically vote with your dollars. I think the Fire GarPax billboard did have some impact because that actually required some money from the fanbase. And I believe the GoFundMe or whatever they used generated a ton more than what they needed.

But just angry posts on the internet are worth the money it costs for us to make these posts.

There's also been research shown that highly negative social media has no correlation with churned customers, actually the opposite. Someone who's constantly posting angry internet comments has a higher chance of being a die hard customer with high retention. Basically this person will be following the Bulls regardless.

I can tell you for sure that, at least for the White Sox, Brooks Boyer (White Sox marketing head) used to monitor White Sox Interactive (Sox message board which used to be very heavily trafficked, though has died down in recent years in favor of Sox Talk).

I would be surprised if at least Bulls marketing isn't monitoring here to gauge fan opinion. Basketball Ops? I highly doubt it. But Marketing may communicate with Basketball Ops if it makes sense.

Bulls content/digital team here! Can't speak for basketball ops/ownership but we definitely lurk on here, and this is one of our favorite boards to get lost in as you get real basketball discussion. Obviously, we like seeing what you guys are saying about the content we put together be it our Run With Us video series or other social content we're publishing, but really we're mostly here because we're fans too. We definitely enjoy the community here, although we don't really participate in the debates (although our Slack channel is pretty much endless debates and arguments that look a lot like a RealGm thread!).

In fact, not sure if you guys are aware, but we actually value this community so much that we link to this forum from the homepage on Bulls.com. A little Easter egg for one of our favorite corners of Bulls fandom.

People on this forum caled Derrick "The Unicorn" for like 5 years and it never took off. Porzingis showed up, I think KD called him a unicorn and it became his nickname as well as a term for 7ft 3pt shooters who can block shots.

So... None. We have no influence.

Influence? Probably little to none. That said, I'm sure some members of the FO read this board and could be inspired by good ideas/takes.

How can anyone think the answer is anything other than absolutely none?

Zero influence. Paxson would still be in charge if he had wanted it.

No influence. Like Bill Parcells used to say: If you make moves based on what the fans want, you'll soon be sitting in the stands with them.

DuckIII wrote:Influence? None.

But do professional sports organizations monitor the major message boards? I cannot imagine any situation in which they would not. It’s free crowdsourcing of ideas and observations. Sure a lot of them suck, are delusional or impossible, but there are plenty of good ideas mixed in from people with legitimate basketball knowledge.

I’m not suggesting AK sits down to read realgm every morning with his coffee. But having a lackey spend 15 minutes every once in awhile and have him report back if he sees something interesting? Why would anyone not do that?

Billion dollar franchises are without a doubt spending money on market research. There is no doubt every organization in pro sports checks forums to get intel. Now I don’t think GM’s read this by any means but I am sure marketing does and if there is enough of a common thread between say here, Twitter, Reddit etc... they would consider bringing it up in a meeting if it is something that adds value to the franchise. I do think the current Bulls facelift was influenced by a lot of the internet scuttlebutt in relationship to declining sales.

I will say this too... they are not coming here for trade ideas or free agent signings. They have extra layers of information on all of that (other GM’s and agents) that we as the plebs don’t have access too. It is no different than any other company though, they make a product based on market research. We are free market research.

Bulls_Digital wrote:Bulls content/digital team here! Can't speak for basketball ops/ownership but we definitely lurk on here, and this is one of our favorite boards to get lost in as you get real basketball discussion. Obviously, we like seeing what you guys are saying about the content we put together be it our Run With Us video series or other social content we're publishing, but really we're mostly here because we're fans too. We definitely enjoy the community here, although we don't really participate in the debates (although our Slack channel is pretty much endless debates and arguments that look a lot like a RealGm thread!).

In fact, not sure if you guys are aware, but we actually value this community so much that we link to this forum from the homepage on Bulls.com. A little Easter egg for one of our favorite corners of Bulls fandom.

I never realized there was a link from the Bulls main page. That’s pretty cool!

Bulls_Digital wrote:Bulls content/digital team here! Can't speak for basketball ops/ownership but we definitely lurk on here, and this is one of our favorite boards to get lost in as you get real basketball discussion. Obviously, we like seeing what you guys are saying about the content we put together be it our Run With Us video series or other social content we're publishing, but really we're mostly here because we're fans too. We definitely enjoy the community here, although we don't really participate in the debates (although our Slack channel is pretty much endless debates and arguments that look a lot like a RealGm thread!).

In fact, not sure if you guys are aware, but we actually value this community so much that we link to this forum from the homepage on Bulls.com. A little Easter egg for one of our favorite corners of Bulls fandom.

Some freebies would be nice...... just saying

I remember years ago on RealGm there was thread with an NBA player can’t remember who.

I somehow always pictured Gar reading our fourms and defending himself. He seemed that self involved. Don't think Pax/AKME do. Probably have some lower level people reading it and using some of the ideas.