Tonight, Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2016. Reinsdorf oversaw a dynasty for the Bulls in the 1990s and is trying to get his team back to that championship peak. In the offseason, the Bulls traded away franchise icon Derrick Rose, let fan-favorite center Joakim Noah walk in free agency and signed free agents Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo. In an interview with K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, Reinsdorf shares his thoughts on the team’s 2015-16 season and the season ahead:
Reinsdorf can downplay his Hall of Fame honor all he wants. But his competitiveness couldn’t hide.
“It bothered me a lot,” Reinsdorf said of last season. “Normally, two games above .500 gets you into the playoffs. But we lost a lot of games to some bad teams. That’s what was frustrating.”
And that’s one reason why Reinsdorf, who turned 80 in February, is so excited for Wade’s arrival and this season.
“I thought sure he’d go back to Miami,” Reinsdorf said of Wade. “But it’s great. It’s a tremendous addition, not only as a player but to our culture. Right off the bat, he wanted to know what he could do in the community. He has his own plans. So does Rajon. These guys are going to be a real plus.
“Despite the fact some (media) seem to think we got older, we have a pretty young team. So the older players are going to be great mentors for our seven guys with three years or less of service.
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Reinsdorf said he’s confident Wade, Rondo and Jimmy Butler will find chemistry on and off the court.
“Those three guys are all high character guys and they all want it to work out,” he said. “They’ll get along with (coach Fred Hoiberg) and each other. Each guy knows what the other two guys are like. And they want to be there.”
Reinsdorf’s imminent induction stems from the dynasty-era Bulls that won six titles in the ’90s and comes on the heels of another memorable era in franchise history ending. The Bulls traded Derrick Rose to the Knicks in June and then lost Joakim Noah in free agency, two franchise stalwarts.
“It’s disappointing because I had high hopes for the last group. I thought they could contend for titles, maybe win one or more but certainly contend,” Reinsdorf said. “All those injuries to Derrick, it just didn’t work out. But it’s not easy to win championships. Doug Collins always used to say, ‘It’s not solitaire. People are trying to beat you.’”
Reinsdorf, who enjoyed a close relationship with Noah, said the Bulls will miss his on-court leadership and community service but expressed happiness he got paid the $72 million Knicks President Phil Jackson gave him. He admitted the Bulls didn’t know if Rose’s trade would be “the first step of a rebuild” or whether executives John Paxson and Gar Forman would engineer other moves to remain competitive.
“What we felt was it was time,” Reinsdorf said of Rose’s trade. “We felt Joakim wasn’t going to be a frontline guy anymore. I was pretty confident that Pau (Gasol) was going to leave. So it was important for us to get the center in (Robin) Lopez. It was time for Derrick to go on and play someplace else and try to establish himself. Gar and Pax were high on the Grant kid (Jerian). We thought that was the necessary first step no matter how we were going to go.”
