Chicago Bulls Deny Feud Between Coach and GM

According to John Paxson, VP of basketball operations for the Chicago Bulls, reports of a “toxic” relationship between head coach Tom Thibodeau and GM Gar Forman are pure fiction at this point. Per the Chicago Sun-Times: “Forman and Thibodeau haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on personnel moves, which has been well documented, but Paxson takes exception to the idea that it’s a feud heading toward a boiling point. ‘‘We’re so far past that,’ he said. ‘To continue to try and keep it going, I don’t know what the agenda is. That’s one thing that we all talked about, really from the beginning of this year: No one has any agenda here. ‘If you’re really going to say something like that, then go on the record, be a man, put your name out there. Don’t hide behind that stuff. But from our perspective, from our seat, we’re doing great. The relationship is healthy. We all want the same thing, and that’s to be as good as we possibly can out there on the floor.’ Chicago saw what a truly unhealthy relationship between a GM and coach/manager looks like when the White Sox’ Ken Williams and Ozzie Guillen captured headlines a few years ago. Paxson snickered at the idea of the Bulls being anywhere near that. ‘I don’t think there’s any doubt that it’s been blown way out of proportion,’ he said. ‘I think someone other than anyone in our organization has an agenda that really doesn’t suit what we’re all about. No matter what you do in this business, when you’re making decisions, whether it’s based on personnel or anything like that, you’re going to have ideas, different opinions, and that’s what we do. We sit in a room and talk these things through. The thing is, right now we’re all on the same page, and there are no hidden agendas from Gar, myself and Tom.'”