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He was disappointed by AK, but who knows how ME or BD communicated with him. Maybe it just wasn't AK's job to tell Sato and he felt to text him anyway?
We won't know, seems like hurt feelings to me.

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110% Speculation but I think this is not abnormal behavior for players that are traded. AK seems cold and stoic in general, he surely doesn't seem buddy buddy. More on that speculation Sato might have thought that since AK was touted as a Euro guy that him and AK would have been tighter and his feelings got hurt. Thing is though you weren't AK's guy, he inherited you. He also did acknowledge your service. Did Gafford or OPJ get warmer texts? Not sure but I am betting no. Albeit it isn't warm and fuzzy but it feels just like business, and business on the million and billion dollar levels that these people play in is often harsh. Personally I liked Sato but that had more to do with him looking like Karl Urban and seeing a Czech player in the NBA.

I also think Sato is just doing the press circuit thing with Ingram, you praise the new guys trying to develop chemistry. When I have started a new job I build up that new company and never trash the old one but might be somewhat dismissive or no comment. You can say you weren't happy without saying it lol.

Cleaning out the GarPax trash... This is the toxic entitled culture that GarPax has created: a place where scrubs get butt hurt after being demanded for accountability and production. Good riddance to him.

Where's Wonderboy when you need him?

Anyway, I agree that a call would've been better, but I don't really care that much. I'm sure there's a socially acceptable explanation to this.

BD and ME probably talked to him before AK text soo, I dont see such a big deal here.. AK and Sato barely meet. Sato was overpaid boring ass player, I prefered Arci and Harrison over him..

Well if it really hurt his feelings I guess he can buy himself a huge pillow and dry his tears with $10M/year. If you had such strong feelings then 1.) make actual improvements to your game 2.) make the playoffs.

Dont love Sato, dont love the way AK was so short with a guy that was professional during his time here.

Could not care any less about this. A text is perfectly acceptable. Now I will proceed to never think about this silliness again.

I'm sorry but tell me a situation that a GM that made that many moves, PERSONALLY called each player to tell them they were traded. I would say its never happened.

It just sounds unreasonable and bitter.

Its actually pretty common.

If this is true I don’t think AK handled it the right way. Sure it’s a business and AK isn’t wrong for trading him but I do think Sato deserved more than just saying that in a text. Better move would of been to talk to him or at least text him something more than that. Who knows Sato might return one day to the bulls, better for AK to keep good relationships with players.

Michael Jackson wrote:You would think that you could give a guy a call at least but whatever.

AK has established one of two things with his actions, not sure which one is true or a combination of both, he doesn’t like GarPax players and he isn’t particularly fond of Euros. Maybe it is just GarPax Euro’s. As it sits today a year and a half in this, AK has done more for Klutch guys than Euro guys, which when he was hired likely wouldn’t have not been anyone’s prediction. Now part of this incidental for sure, but what we thought we knew about AK at hiring is fleshing out to me in a different way.

I mean he was involved with Jokic and drafted Simonovic, I wouldn't say he doesn't like Euros.

I think it is just about the individuals. I kind of doubt it was personal either way, I'd be a bit surprised if he just disliked Sato and did this for that reason. Probably more that he had no real meaningful relationship and knew that Sato already knew from his agent and wasn't breaking news.

Still a bit unprofessional IMO, but nothing crazy. It's the kind of thing if people weren't man-crushing over AKME and it was three years from now, people would probably react really differently though.

LateNight wrote:

Read on Twitter

?s=21

Not sure how to feel about this. seems super awkward (unless they didn’t have a good relationship). Should be noted, Sato also sort of slammed Zach too. Something about BI being a better playmaker - can’t find the tweet though

Some small consolation , Apparently Billy Donovan was awesome after Sato left.

[PS. If any mod can think of a better title for this thread please change it. Also if this is somewhere else on the forum feel free to delete]

I mean ultimately it's not that big of a deal, but it's still pretty unprofessional and hurts the team's reputation. If NFL head coaches can make time to personally meet with all 30+ players they're forced to cut each season, I think AK can make time to personally meet with the half dozen or so players who are traded/cut/let go each season. Or at least a phone call.

Wingy wrote:Don’t get all these tough guy fan responses when a player simply shows they’re human. I’m sure you’d all say “it’s a business” or similar when/if you are parted from your company in a similar communication.

AK could’ve easily added another line or two via text. As low as low effort gets to make a player feel more appreciated going out the door. Love his work this offseason, but being incapable of writing an extra short sentence or two just comes across as lazy.

We're still in the honeymoon phase with AKME and they're coming off a major offseason roster overhaul, so it would take far, far more than a mere text message farewell to a traded player for the majority of the fan base to admit AKME is not totally 100% without fault.

LateNight wrote:

FriedRise wrote:

Read on Twitter

That’s the one! Thanks!

But did he directly say BI is a better playmaker than Zach, or did he say something innocuous like "He's a great playmaker, better than the guys I've played with so far in my career."? Either way, there's nothing wrong with saying BI is a better playmaker since it's true, however it would be pretty tacky if he actually namedropped Zach when saying BI is a better playmaker.

Did GM Lebron personally call all the scrubs that he cut or traded in the off-season?

Respect is a privilege only for stars not for overpaid bench warmers like all GarPax trash Euros.

Wingy wrote:

LateNight wrote:

FriedRise wrote:

Read on Twitter

That’s the one! Thanks!

Is this an insult? People seem to be taking this like Sato went out of his way to criticize Zach.

This tweet has no context. He could’ve been asked a direct player comparison question, hemmed and hawed, and then said they’re both good but slight nod to build up and create good will with his new teammate.

This is my 2nd post defending Sato here, and that’s mostly because folks are either hunting for drama, or getting needlessly defensive about anything Bulls like someone insulted their first born. As for Sato...he’s a meh. Like that speech the future father in law in Hangover 2 gave about Ed Helms’s character.

Edit: Ah, here -

Watch on YouTube

Yeah, Sato is a ho-hum run-of-the-mill forgettable NBA player and now that he's no longer a Bull I'll probably only ever think about him when he plays against the Bulls, but I really don't see anything wrong with what he said about Zach or AK.

CaPiTanAK wrote:Did GM Lebron personally call all the scrubs that he cut or traded in the off-season?

Respect is a privilege only for stars not for overpaid bench warmers like all GarPax trash Euros.

What a toxic perspective.

dougthonus wrote:I don't know that it makes such a big difference, but I think it's worth a phone call to the guy to tell him he has been traded even if he probably reads it first over twitter anyway. It's not the end of the world, but for all the talk about AK making this a player destination, this was kind of a poor way to treat a guy.

Basically I view this as a basic common courtesy, sure you may be communicating through the player's agent, but give the actual player a token phone call. Thanks for your time and effort, sorry, but we have opted to do this.

step wrote:

dougthonus wrote:I don't know that it makes such a big difference, but I think it's worth a phone call to the guy to tell him he has been traded even if he probably reads it first over twitter anyway. It's not the end of the world, but for all the talk about AK making this a player destination, this was kind of a poor way to treat a guy.

Basically I view this as a basic common courtesy, sure you may be communicating through the player's agent, but give the actual player a token phone call. Thanks for your time and effort, sorry, but we have opted to do this.

Or like I said...put in the embarrassingly low effort to punch out something like:

“Thanks for your time in Chicago, Tomas. I appreciate your hard work and professionalism these last couple years. Wish you the best in San Antonio.”

Takes literally seconds and is orders of magnitude more friendly, and courteous.

sco wrote:Sato should be kissing the Bulls butts on the way out. They way overpaid him. He had chance after chance to take the starting PG spot and lock it up for years to come, but he just didn't step up to earn his $.

first of all, they didn't way overpay him. they paid him to be exactly what he is: a low level starter or quality backup

secondly, he played just as expected. he was never going to be the long-term starter. coby was drafted highly to get an opportunity as a starter. and proved to be worse than sato with a lack of point guard skills and bad defense...so far, anyway