You’ll Have To Ask Him
After all, communication is supposed to be Hoiberg’s strong suit. Right? Isn’t that what Forman said on Day 1? Speaking of Gar, he was asked during an interview on 670 The Score‘s Spiegel & Parkins show earlier today about that gap in communication between Fred and Bobby. Here’s what he had to say:
“You’d have to ask Bobby. From my seat, I think the communication has been consistent, and been good…A guy like Bobby, it’s tough when you’re in and out of the rotation. What we try to preach is you’ve got to continue to work and prepare. When the opportunity comes you’ve got to take advantage of it.” – Gar Forman
Gar passes the buck to his young player and reinforces his opinion that his hand-picked coach is a good communicator. Wait, just “good”? What happened to “great, great”? Is Gar backpedaling? He doesn’t really answer the question about a communication gap. Instead, he reiterates the same vague instructions that Hoiberg gave to Bobby.
What part of “you’d have to ask him” suggests great communication? I’d laugh if it weren’t so maddeningly stupid.
In recent interviews with Bulls TV’s Chuck Swirsky and 670 The Score, Gar failed to clearly communicate his “plans” for this team moving forward. His coach can’t clearly communicate his instructions or plans for the rotation to his players. But I’m sure Jerry Reinsdorf – who doesn’t communicate anything to anybody anymore – is fine with all of this despite his scorching dismissal of Thibodeau now sounding completely ridiculous.
Sifting Through The B.S.
But that’s the crux of this mess. When Jerry and his front office cronies fired Thibs two years ago, the “lack of trust and communication” narrative was their way of blaming a coach who didn’t like bending to their rules. Thibs wanted control as the head coach, and he didn’t want to include his bosses in every decision he made. He could be rough around the edges, sure. Cranky? Absolutely. But Thibodeau is a damn good basketball coach who could handle tough decisions and didn’t care if those tough decisions hurt people’s feelings.
In Fred, the Bulls hired the anti-Thibs. He’s soft and cuddly, like a puppet. And the front office guys knew they wouldn’t have any “communication” issues with this one. Translation: Fred will do what we want him to do, and he won’t rub anybody the wrong way. Who cares if he doesn’t have coaching experience at the NBA level? We can even forgive his complete ineptitude of defensive strategies and his players’ woeful offensive execution after timeouts. He’s a great communicator!
Cool, guys. Did you think you were actually tricking anyone into believing that nonsense? Countless times, Hoiberg is proving himself to be a spineless coach and a poor communicator. A man totally unprepared to take on the responsibilities that come with managing an NBA rotation or a locker room filled with egos. If you try to be that guy who doesn’t offend anybody, you offend everybody when they eventually see you for the coward that you are.
“Great, great communicator”? Give me a break. Hoiberg is a great communicator in the same way the Bulls had a great win over the Warriors on Thursday: neither sentiment is based in any kind of reality. But that shouldn’t surprise you. If there’s one thing this Bulls front office is great at, it’s concocting their own version of reality.
