Paxson apology highlights Bulls' news conference
Most of the Bulls' news conference to announce the firing of head coach Vinny Del Negro was predictable.
This move had been widely anticipated since December, when management seemed to lose faith in Del Negro's coaching talents. There was praise for Del Negro and optimism for the summer's free-agent chase - all routine stuff.
So the most interesting part of Tuesday's festivities was the reunion of John Paxson and microphones. Since Gar Forman was promoted to general manager a year ago, Paxson, the team's vice president of basketball operations since 2003, has stayed mostly in the background.
But he took the opportunity to apologize for the well-publicized physical confrontation he had with Del Negro following a March 30 home loss to Phoenix.
"I hold myself accountable and responsible," Paxson said. "I'm not at all proud of how I handled the situation. I felt at the time I was representing and standing up for a policy we had put in place."
Paxson headed into Del Negro's office at the United Center to question the number of minutes given to Joakim Noah. The third-year center was recovering from plantar fasciitis in his left foot and on a strict limit of playing time set by the medical staff.
"There's no question I was wrong in how I handled it," Paxson continued. "During the incident, I'm not proud of the language I used or how I represented myself or the Bulls. If I had that moment back, I'd take it back. It was a heat-of-the-moment type of thing and it's something again that I'm not proud of.
"I don't believe that an incident or a couple incidents of losing my temper defines who I am. I don't. I think I've done a lot of good things. I've tried to represent the organization well. In this instance, I did not. I'm not proud of it. I wish I would have handled it better."
Paxson also addressed his future with the organization. Forman is now making most of the key decisions in the front office, while Paxson transitions to more of a consulting role.
"I'm not going anywhere, because I believe in what the organization stands for and what I stand for," Paxson said. "I plan on contributing to the Bulls' organization for a lot of years and I plan on those contributions hopefully helping us get better, especially his summer."
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<li><a href="/story/?id=378353">Del Negro thanks Reinsdorf in brief message outside Berto Center<span class="date"> [5/4/10]</span></a></li>
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