Dear Santa, please fire this man on Xmas.
When Vinny del Negro wakes up on Christmas Eve, I hope he finds a pink slip under his tree. While this might seem harsh to you who don’t know, the Bulls have actually done just that to two previous coaches (Scott Skiles and Tim Floyd). Yes, he brought us to the playoffs last year, but he has clearly worn out his welcome with his own players. We are off to a terrible start this year, which culminated in giving up a 35 point lead to Sacramento on Monday and losing the game. That is a historic collapse. Literally. That has not happened in the NBA since the 70s.
I was at the Bulls/Knicks game last night, and I have to say: it’s his fault. His decisions are the opposite of logic. He started Brad Miller, who has been in a horrible shooting slump, over Taj Gibson, who’s played well in Tyrus Thomas’ absence. He then watched as his team settled for missed jump shot after missed jump shot. By halftime we were down by 22. To the Knicks. Then in the second half, Derrick Rose took over. He drove to the rim and layed it up over and under multiple defenders, scoring 3 baskets in our final 4 possessions of the 3rd quarter. What is Vinny’s decision to do with his star’s hot hand? He sits him down until 6:30 left in the 4th quarter. That’s right. Rose was taking over the game, and he took him out for half of the 4th quarter. When Rose got back in, he again took over the game and pulled the Bulls within one point before the game got away from them.
Is Vinny trying to lose? What reason can he possibly have to take Rose out when he’s making every basket? And if he needed a breather before the final push, wouldn’t 2 minutes have sufficed? But to sit him for half of the last quarter… It’s like he’s daring the Bulls to fire him. Is that what you would do if you knew you were trying to save your job? Sit your best player just as he’s giving you a chance to win? By the time he put him back in it was too late to catch up.
For making unbelievably dumb coaching decisions all season long, getting fired for Xmas is the only present Vinny deserves.
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