Draft gives new Bulls' GM Forman his opportunity

Until Gar Forman held a predraft briefing Monday at the Berto Center, I wouldn't have known him from the "just some guy" who won the U.S. Open.

Seriously, I have been around the Bulls for 35 years, he has worked for them for more than a decade, and I don't think we ever had been in the same room together.

Now Forman will be the Bulls' general manager Thursday night when they are scheduled to have the Nos. 16 and 26 picks in the NBA draft.

Forman sounds like an earnest, hardworking man. He doesn't quite look like the NBA's next genius, however, though looks can deceive when trying to identify genius.

For all I know, Forman is the creative imagineer required to return the Bulls to the league's elite.

You know, maybe he'll manipulate the system, navigate past the obvious, trade the right guys, acquire better guys, compile dazzling draft picks and overall assemble a team of players instead of a roster of individuals.

Can we be optimistic that will happen? Er, not exactly.

It seems John Paxson still is the head of the franchise's basketball operations, likely meaning he still will make the final decisions and Forman will come out to explain them.

Now, this would be OK if Paxson and Forman could boast of building the Bulls into a pro basketball juggernaut.

All those playoff series the Bulls won under them, all those NBA Finals appearances they made, all those world championship banners they added in the United Center -

Say what? The Bulls won only one playoff series since 1998? They didn't win any Eastern Conference or NBA titles since then?

Oh, then never mind.

As Forman answered questions about the Bulls' draft plans, I hoped this was the start of something new rather than the continuation of something old.

"Our process has been pretty much the same," Forman said.

So much for new. Hopefully the results will be. The Bulls haven't wowed the NBA since they won the last of their six championships 11 years ago.

Forman arrived soon afterward with Tim Floyd, nothing to brag about. In 2003, Paxson succeeded Jerry Krause to become all things to everyone on the basketball side of the Bulls' organization.

Not much has worked out for them other than becoming more and more important as Jerry Reinsdorf became more and more familiar with them. Familiarity with the club chairman does breed promotion.

The Bulls had 13 first-round picks during the past 10 drafts, including 10 in the lottery. Yet, they qualified for the postseason only four times and advanced to the second round only once.

Last season was considered progress because the Bulls made the playoffs with a .500 record before losing to the team that lost to the team that lost to the team that won the championship.

Not that there isn't hope. The Bulls have precocious point guard Derrick Rose to build around, essentially because marketing guy Steve Schanwald represented the Bulls at last year's draft lottery, got lucky and came home with the No. 1 overall pick.

Sorry, but Paxson and Forman will have to demonstrate much improvement themselves before the Bulls will.

Thursday night is the duo's first opportunity to do so.