The first week of the Jim Boylen era has been a full-on clown show for the Chicago Bulls (though the same can be said for the entire John Paxson and Gar Forman era in the front office).
On Saturday night, the Chicago Bulls suffered their worst loss in franchise history when the Boston Celtics beat them by 56 points, *in Chicago*. Boylen had multiple five-man substitutions in the game, and pulled the starters with over 20 minutes left, saying that the next day’s practice would be more beneficial for them.
This is after playing on back-to-back nights. This is after three two-and-a-half-hour practices earlier in the week, that featured players running suicides and doing military-style pushups in the middle of an NBA season. And on Sunday, the Bulls’ players were already getting so sick of Boylen’s coaching ways that they held a meeting and contacted the National Basketball Players Association.
Yahoo Sources with @ChrisBHaynes: Bulls players went to NBPA about Jim Boylen's practice tactics and plans to practice the day following back to back games https://t.co/mhyhX2sJ4R pic.twitter.com/5KbKVuIZR8
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) December 10, 2018
My goodness. https://t.co/hM3nPtwGpG pic.twitter.com/EwvZ6x1peU
— Jason Patt (@Bulls_Jay) December 10, 2018
Fast-forward to Monday night, and the Bulls were one again blown out, by the score of 108-89 at home against the Sacramento Kings.
After the game, the Kings were even mocking the Bulls and Boylen. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, one Kings player said postgame, “Uh-oh, another 2 1/2-hour practice for them tomorrow.”
Kings players walking back to the locker room have obviously been reading Chicago papers – "Uh-oh, another 2 1/2-hour practice for them tomorrow" one of them yelled.
— Joe Cowley (@JCowleyHoops) December 11, 2018
So, this is a mess, and there’s no reason to expect things to change for the better as long as Boylen is Chicago’s head coach (and likely as long as Paxson and Forman are leading the front office).
