The vision of John Paxson was always the same.
It was the veteran point guard hitting Michael Jordan in perfect rhythm, pass after pass, as Jordan nailed shot after shot.
It was the essence of Paxson, the one player Jordan teamed with in Chicago who could make the flawless pass, who could think the game as Jordan thought it, who could hear the same music even if he couldn’t play the tune himself.
That’s how you want to remember Paxson, the overachiever who outworked those with the same ability, who got the most out of relatively limited NBA talent.
It was tough not to adore the player.
But Paxson the general manager brings none of the same instincts, and elicits none of the same reactions.
In his 14 years at the helm of the franchise, the Chicago Bulls have made it to the Eastern Conference finals once, and have won a total of five playoff series — four of those under Tom Thibodeau.
The record is hardly something to be proud of as the Bulls try desperately to reach the playoffs during a season in which they were supposed to be rebuilding but instead got older and less athletic with the signings of Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo.
Instead of preparing for a high pick in a draft that could net them a special player, the Bulls remain in the middle of the NBA standings, the worst possible place to be.
There is no way to make sense of what the Bulls are doing because it’s entirely nonsensical — again.
Paxson is on his fifth coach and seemingly stuck with Fred Hoiberg for a few more years, bringing back painful memories of the Vinny Del Negro era.
And for all the dreadful drafts picks, signings and personnel moves, there might be nothing worse than the merry-go-round at the head-coaching position.
After firing his friend Bill Cartwright, Paxson hired a dictator in Scott Skiles, who got away with his tactics for a couple of years, until the young Bulls got wise to his 1950s-style coaching.
Paxson had a chance to get out from under Skiles in the spring of 2005, but instead the Bulls buckled to his contract demands and overpaid Skiles to hang around and make everyone miserable.
Having essentially quit on the team, Skiles was fired on Christmas Eve 2007.
It never made sense to keep Skiles, whose shelf life is always a year or two, and after sticking his neck out for Skiles on that extension in June 2005, Paxson even admitted at a news conference that he couldn’t figure out the head coach.
“I sometimes wonder why Ben (Gordon) is taken out of a game,” Paxson said at the time. “But his job is to coach, and he’s a great coach, and I’m an easy guy to work for.”
Easy to work for, except not at all, as the next two coaches found out quickly.
In 2008, Paxson wound up with Del Negro when others — including Doug Collins and Mike D’Antoni — turned him down.
Del Negro lasted two seasons, going 41-41 twice, though he was on borrowed time by the end of his first season, when he proved to be overmatched on an NBA bench.
The rookie coach suffered from poor decisions, bad rotations, an inability to develop the bench, the failure to save starters’ legs and playing injured players too many minutes.
Players laughed at his play calls, sometimes ignored them, and he had no control over the team.
Wow, does that sound familiar. But we digress.
It was Paxson who couldn’t find a coach, waffled on his decision and then employed a man with no coaching experience.
If that weren’t bad enough, he confronted Del Negro physically. Rather than shut down Joakim Noah for the year with a foot injury, Paxson had him in the lineup with instructions to limit minutes, a fool’s errand the coach predictably failed to execute.
Once again, all three rings of the circus were filled to the rafters.
Outside of getting lucky with the Derrick Rose ping-pong ball, the best thing Paxson ever did was hire Thibodeau when no one else would give a great coach a chance.
But once again, Paxson could not get along with his head coach, and while there was plenty of blame to place on both parties in this one, Paxson undermined another head coach and failed to work with and develop one of the best minds in the basketball business.
Which brings us to the current state of the Bulls and Hoiberg, who — like Del Negro — does not have a team that fits his style, nor does he have the respect of the players in a locker room completely out of control.
So now we wait to see whether the Bulls pull the trigger on a Jimmy Butler deal, willing to finally rebuild with an eye toward a title, rather than merely sell playoff tickets.
And harder to unearth are the wonderful memories of Paxson the player, memories that fade into the gray with every passing day.
brozner@dailyherald.com
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