Karnisovas must just be the first part of the process, ushering in a sweeping restructuring that involves hiring many more of the league's best and brightest minds to inform the Bulls' decision-making on every level of every arm of the business of developing a championship team. Bulls president Michael Reinsdorf's default setting as this unfolds has to be to always go bigger and do more -- and spend more -- to make the most out of what 's now a defining time for him as the owner in active operational control.
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Something finally broke through to him that it was well past time to move Paxson aside and emulate the practices of more successful franchises: a combination of increasingly empty seats, declining television viewership, players grumbling publicly and fans getting more and more brazen with their expressions of dissatisfaction through all available channels. While Paxson and general manager Gar Forman became the targets of large-scale ire, it was the sad bumbling of coach Jim Boylen that ultimately catalyzed this reaction, the accelerant poured onto the dumpster fire.
And now Reinsdorf and Karnisovas should be raiding other teams for their up-and-comers, handing out as many promotions and raises and vice president titles as needed to lure these valuable assets. In discussing his philosophy of how to run a team, Karnisovas has said he wants constant creativity and innovation, with as many smart people as possible each empowered as a unique voice in dynamic conversations. He worked with Daryl Morey, Gersson Rosas and Sam Hinkie in his formative years in Houston, immersing in an intellectual approach that dovetailed with his own personal experience as a decorated professional player. He knows it's critical to be among others with a shared vision and level of energy that can be applied to scouting, coaching, player development and the next frontiers of injury prevention and mitigation.
It's reason for genuine excitement among a downtrodden Bulls fan base that had surrendered emotionally to learned helplessness over all this time -- and even now is unequipped for optimism.
The feeling is warranted, though, if this reinvigoration of the Bulls is as big and broad as can be. It's a chance to redefine their culture both internally and outwardly, putting literal new faces on their still valuable worldwide brand and positioning themselves anew not only to fans and consumers but also to players, agents and marketers who make the critical decisions in free agency that cement legacies.
Just as every player on the current roster will now be unburdened by previous standards and personal biases, so too can an organization that had grown inward on itself and lost its way.
Now is the time for no small thoughts and instead acting very much unlike what the Bulls had become, by embracing the discomfort of the unfamiliar -- new names, new ideas and a newly imagined future.
As the world around us is largely shut down, for the first time in a long time the Bulls can be boldly on the move.