A can-do owner would make magic happen. Reinsdorf is a can’t-do owner who spends too much time with his beloved White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field—where his maniacal manager is a national laughingstock—and not nearly enough with the Bulls. If basketball is such an afterthought for him, why doesn’t he sell the team to someone who would care more? Say, a group headed by Jordan? - Jay Mariotti

For a few dollars more, Mike D’Antoni sold his soul to the devil in order to coach the Knicks, the worst running act in New York and unrivaled putrid laughingstock (it sure as hell ain’t Ozzie or the White Sox) of all North American professional sports.  D’Antoni is an immediate and infinite improvement over Isiah Thomas who now is paid to sit at home and do absolutely nothing. Just one problem however. Those millions thrown at D’Antoni by the perpetually confused James Dolan cannot lace on shoes and hit the basketball court.

Good luck Mike. Hope the little extra cash was worth it.

Quite predictably, Jay is beside himself over D’Antoni accepting the Knicks $24 million offer. And without any fact checking, interviewing, text messaging or even picking up the phone, the hateful dwarf scorches Reinsdorf as being frugal and Paxson indecisive.

And that would be fine, I suppose had a few facts been first verified. After all, Jay’s shtick does mandate opining over local sporting matters. However, one would think that some form of collaborative evidence, oh say asking the Bulls what their final offer was to D’Antoni, would strengthen the argument’s claim that Reinsdorf is “cheap” other than mentioning other supposed deals that fell through.  And keep in mind, these imaginary deals for Gasol and Bryant were equally void of verification on Jay’s part as well.

In typical Jay fashion, the bigger story is negated in order to dumb down the column with opportunistic hateful rantings against the local sports team. It would have been far more interesting to learn why D’Antoni preferred to sign with the Knicks over the Bulls other than money. When one is already a multi-millionaire, is it really that super important or worth it to land the absolute best deal when confronting such lunacy as displayed in New York rather than hammering out an agreement with the Bulls?

The Knicks are required to overspend to land a respectable coach willing to maneuver about in Isiah Thomas’ vacated manure pile. And keep in mind that this was the very same cesspool that chewed up and spit out career mercenary Larry Brown. The Bulls already have a young talented team that should compete for the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference if Paxson plugs a few holes by ridding the Bulls of certain quitting malcontents. D’Antoni better have negotiated free psychotherapy into his new deal otherwise those extra dollars are worthless should he inevitably end up in straight jacket.

Finally, it is worth noting Jay’s continual campaigning for His Airness to acquire the Bulls:

If basketball is such an afterthought for him, why doesn’t he sell the team to someone who would care more? Say, a group headed by Jordan? And don’t tell me he feels burned because he actually coughed up a market-value contract in 2005 for Scott Skiles, who did solid work before crashing last season. What, Reinsdorf is going to stop trying and spending now?

This is ludicrously presumptive and the stuff of fanciful self-indulgent shoddy journalism at its worst. First of all, Michael Jordan is already an owner with the Charlotte Bobcats. There have been more cougar sightings in Evanston than catching Jordan at Bobcats games so at best, it is rather questionable that Mike even desires to be an everyday hands on NBA owner, let alone being in charge of the Chicago Bulls. And again, this would be far more interesting and dare say credible, if Jordan actually expressed any public interest towards acquiring the Bulls.

If Jay actually had this scoop, it would be Lisagor contending stuff indeed. 

But then again, that would require a little elbow work, honest effort and not being “small-minded”. Virtues apparently that have no place on the back page of the Chicago Sun-Times.