Bulls Owner Reinsdorf: D'Antoni Picked Knicks Because Defense Scares Him

Perhaps emboldened by Steve Schonwald's incredible gulliness, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf on Friday renewed his character attacks on would-be Chicago coach Mike D'Antoni. (Reinsdorf, you'll remember, called D'Antoni "rude" for picking the Knicks after telling the Bulls New York did not interest him.)

Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times transcribed some comments Reinsdorf made on a local radio show. The damning quotes:

Quoting his directive to D'Antoni, Reinsdorf said he told the exiting Phoenix Suns coach, "If you come to Chicago, the only way I see this wouldn't work out would be if we didn't play defense the way you say we're going to play defense." ... "And then I think that scared him. I think that was the closer with the Knicks," he said.

Mariotti does a fine job (!) eviscerating Reinsdorf for this ridiculous (and unnecessary) line of attack, though it's a much simpler equation than the one our fearless columnist lays out. Look at the rosters. Chicago has defensive talent -- the Bulls finished with the 14th best defense statistically (despite not trying much of the campaign) and had the absolute top defense in the league in 2007 (with the only two key talent losses there being 4,000 minutes of P.J. Brown and Ben Wallace).

The Knicks? 25th in 2007, 30th in 2008. One player (Renaldo Balkman) with a decent defensive reputation. If D'Antoni were afraid of teaching defense, yet knew he'd need at least a bit of defense to win, why would he pick the team with almost no defensive talent or no record of defensive success? D'Antoni's D would have been better in Chicago regardless of his own repressed defensive skills. Reinsdorf's barking up the wrong tree here.