Which is to say the fourth estate is being kept in the dark and fed nothing but shit. Of the Bulls unwillingness to discuss the upcoming NBA Draft, the Sun-Times’ Lacy J. Banks writes, “the new self-imposed gag rule smacks of censorship.”
For the first time in the 43 years I’ve covered the team for Ebony magazine and the Sun-Times, the Bulls are refusing to tell the media about which players they’re bringing in for summer tryouts, refusing to make them available for interviews and refusing to grant interviews themselves.
A Bulls spokesman explained: ‘‘Well, we have a new coaching staff now. They want to do things differently. And this is one of the areas they’re making changes.’’
Perhaps, because they are once more selling out every game and have a long waiting list for season tickets the way they did in the dynasty days of Michael Jordan, they don’t need any offseason coverage, except for their own online offerings at bulls.com, written by my colleague Sam Smith.
Maybe Tom Thibodeau doesn’t want to be questioned about costly decisions he might have made, including one not to use his most experienced players more down the stretch during that series, which the Bulls lost in five games.
Maybe he and Gar Forman are hiding some super prospect they’re bringing in so that other teams won’t catch on.
Whatever, this is a radical revision from the team’s tradition and from NBA commissioner David Stern’s policy of giving the media every reasonable support to cover teams whenever and wherever possible.