--Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf rarely speaks to the media, but he gave a couple of interviews after missing out on former Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni, who chose New York over Chicago.
"We felt the Knicks were out of the picture," Reinsdorf said. "He said he wasn't afraid of Ben Gordon (playing out his contract). He really likes (Joakim) Noah. He likes (Kirk) Hinrich and said he'd tell him he's playing 35 minutes and not coming out if he makes mistakes. He did feel you can defend and play up-tempo. He liked (Drew) Gooden. He said he'd be his low-post guy and could be a star. As I was leaving, I said the only thing that could go wrong is if we didn't play defense. Maybe I scared him." Mike D'Antoni insisted the reason he decided to accept the Knicks' job without even listening to an offer from the Bulls was because money wasn't the deciding factor. D'Antoni reportedly received a four-year deal worth $24 million from New York, which will make him the NBA's third highest-paid coach.
"I knew Chicago would be up there somewhere," he said. "It doesn't matter. There's no difference between $6 million or $4 million or $5 million. It's all too much."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Unfortunately, we were never given an opportunity to make an offer of any kind, which is the most disappointing thing in all of this right now. I thought it would have been fair to listen to what we had to say, but at the end of the day we simply weren't given the opportunity to do so." -- General manager John Paxson, complaining that Mike D'Antoni took the Knicks' coaching job without even listening to an offer from the Bulls.
