Keep this Bulls movie out of the theaters

The Bulls are officially a one-star movie now.

When a team loses a game like they lost Saturday at New York, bad reviews are inevitable.

The Knicks came in with a 2-9 record, had lost eight in a row and are considered sports' most dysfunctional franchise.

They also now have a better record than the Bulls -- 3-9 to 2-9.

So which movie does that make the Bulls? Well, the usual suspects "Gigli," "Waterworld" and "Showgirls" don't fit.

Instead we'll just have to compare the Bulls to a really good flick. You know, like "John Tucker Must Die."

Yeah, that's the one: Three high school girls sit around plotting the ultimate revenge on a guy who betrayed their affection the way the Bulls are betraying the affection of their fans.

Either John Paxson or Scott Skiles has to play the role of the rascal John Tucker. No, no, we're not talking death. Just demise.

Let's rename the movie "Some Bull Must Be Fired."

You do the casting. Who deserves to be fired more? The general manager who put together the Bulls' roster? Or the head coach who isn't getting much out of it?

In truth, neither Paxson nor Skiles is in danger of losing his job. Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf can stay the course as long as United Center seats and suites are sold.

Still, a case can be made for the GM or coach or both to go, if only for the fun of it.

The obvious candidate is Paxson.

The Bulls' general manager drafted the core of the club, an ill-conceived and ill-configured collection of role players and sixth men, each but Luol Deng too short for the position he plays.

So call him John "Tucker" Paxson if you want.

The only problem is that in sports, "deserve" rarely is executed (if you'll excuse the expression). "Convenience" is.

It's more convenient to hold Skiles accountable for everything the Bulls are doing wrong, from shooting to handling the ball to playing porous defense.

So Paxson, with considerable equity in the organization, must survive and Skiles must go.

Something has changed when the same players who swept Miami in the playoffs last season can't beat the Knicks now.

Skiles earned and received credit for beating the Heat. Now he must take the heat for everybody else beating the Bulls.

Listen, many better teams than the Bulls have stopped listening to many better coaches than Skiles. Any team Larry Brown ever coached comes to mind.

It's just the way of the NBA. If the coach is lucky, a player's attention span is the length of a 20-second timeout. If he isn't, it's the length of a three-second violation.

The Bulls sure do appear as if they've decided during the off-season to stop listening to Skiles.

This team's current performance indicates that any coach-player synergy that existed has gone the way of Kobe trade rumors, suggesting that what remains is unspoken tension that only a divorce will remedy.

It isn't going to happen anytime soon. Paxson isn't likely to concoct a major trade that would bring new players. Meanwhile, Skiles isn't likely to be fired unless 2-9 turns into something like 4-20.

But that doesn't mean we should forget that "John Tucker Must Die" and John Paxson or Scott Skiles should be dispatched to a theater nowhere near you.