Forman has been with the Bulls organization since '98 and has held the GM position since '09NBAE/getty images
Bulls Exec VP/Basketball Operations John Paxson said GM Gar Forman’s job was "absolutely safe" after coach Fred Hoiberg was fired yesterday amid the team's 5-19 start, according to K.C. Johnson of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Paxson also "forcefully shot down the belief that Forman single-handedly hired Hoiberg" in '15. Paxson said, "I was 100 percent on board with hiring Fred." He added Bulls Chair Jerry Reinsdorf and President & COO Michael Reinsdorf also were "100 percent on board with hiring Fred." Paxson: "I work with Gar every day. I understand his internal value to this organization. ... I’m the spokesman as the executive vice president of the Bulls. Gar has a role. We work in tandem together. We make decisions together." Michael Reinsdorf in October said, "I have a lot of confidence in John and Gar. I think they’ve done a great job" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 12/4). THE ATHLETIC's Jon Greenberg wrote Paxson "isn’t going anywhere," Forman is "safe" and the Reinsdorfs "aren’t selling the team." Nothing will change in that structure "unless Paxson voluntarily retires." Greenberg: "I don’t begrudge Bulls fans for being sick of this team and the song-and-dance they get from us." While the Bulls are "far from the worst-run organization in the NBA ... they definitely aren’t the best" (THEATHLETIC.com, 12/3).
SAME OLD BULLS: In Chicago, Barry Rozner writes Hoiberg was just "another notch on the 16-year belt" of Paxson. Bulls management has had an "inability to get along with its coaches at nearly every turn, eternally unsatisfied with direction, minutes, scheme, process or progress." The temptation is to wonder how Paxson and Forman "remain in their jobs, but it's a waste of ink on a day when a decent and classy individual has lost his job and another has been charged with fixing a young group that has some potential" (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 12/4). Also in Chicago, Rick Morrissey writes, "Paxson is taking Hoiberg to task for a lack of effort and passion by some of the players on his team, but who signed those players?" Morrissey: "Gar-Pax is the answer." Both of them get the Reinsdorf "benefit of the doubt on the rebuild, but Hoiberg doesn't" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 12/4).
