Mike D'Antoni Played With Jerry Reinsdorf's Heart

Just about everyone I know who cares about the Bulls or the NBA was shocked when they heard Mike D'Antoni had chosen the Knicks over the Bulls. All anybody had heard the previous week was that D'Antoni was going to be taking over on the bench here in Chicago.

It's just an important reminder not to believe anything you hear when it comes down to negotiations in sports. You never know when something you hear is the truth, or just an agent stirring the pot for his client. Now it looks a lot like Mike D'Antoni and his agent were just doing everything in their power to make sure Mike got as much money as possible.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.

Still, that doesn't mean Jerry Reinsdorf appreciated it much.

"I'm disappointed in him," Reinsdorf said. "I don't know what else we could've done. He chose to go to New York knowing there was a good chance we would make him an offer. If he had really wanted to be in Chicago, he would've waited. Instead, he misled us. It's not the end of the world, but it is somewhat rude."

The "misled" accusation stems from their 2-hour-15-minute meeting Friday at D'Antoni's Phoenix-area home that is mere yards from Reinsdorf's, a meeting Reinsdorf said he left at 4:45 p.m. local time.

"The second subject, I said if we need to get something done this weekend we shouldn't even bother talking because it will take longer than that," Reinsdorf said. "He said nothing had to be done over the weekend.

"I also said if this proceeds to where we want to make an offer, we don't deal with coach's agents. He said that's not a problem and that money wasn't the most important thing anyway. He said he wanted a job where he was going to be happiest. He said he didn't want to coach the Knicks."

Now another thing you should know is that when a team is supposedly going to get a player or a coach, and then they don't get that player or coach, they then go into a spin mode to try and deflect all the blame away from them. That's what Reinsdorf was just doing there.

The Bulls can say all they want about the situation. They can say that D'Antoni misled them, or that he just wanted more money, or they can say that D'Antoni is an anti-semite and just doesn't want to work for Reinsdorf. No matter what they say, whether there's an ounce of truth to it or not, is just an excuse. And a bad one at that.

The reason D'Antoni is the new head coach of the Knicks is because the Bulls sat around twiddling their thumbs instead of making him an offer. If they liked him so much, and wanted him to be the team's next coach, they would have done so.

Instead, it's rather obvious now that they just didn't want to invest that much money in a new coach when they still have to pay Scott Skiles.