One of Jim Boylen’s first tasks as head coach was to finalize his staff. While the majority of the coaching staff has stayed in place, the following changes were made:
The Bulls announce Randy Brown will no longer be on the assistant coaching staff. Nate Loenser and Dean Cooper will join the coaching staff.
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) December 4, 2018
The Bulls also promoted Karen Stack-Umlauf to a higher position on the staff, which is a very cool story in its own right. But the move that made the most waves yesterday was Randy Brown’s resignation.
Bulls assistant Randy Brown resigns after being asked to take a lesser role with the team.
"He’s going to move on and we’re going to move on. We’ve got games to play and we’ve got players to develop. We’ve got a franchise to uphold."https://t.co/jbymPXTh00 via @KCJHoop pic.twitter.com/GCN6BwYem4
— Chicago Sports (@ChicagoSports) December 4, 2018
Followup on Randy Brown resignation, which Jim Boylen expressed disappointment in last night: While Brown’s in-game duties would’ve been lessened, his out-of-game responsibilities would’ve increased.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) December 5, 2018
Randy Brown joined the organization the same summer that Gar Forman was promoted to general manager, 2009. Brown eventually worked his way up to assistant general manager, a role he held for two seasons before being re-assigned to Fred Hoiberg’s coaching staff.
During Brown’s tenure, there have been multiple instances of him being accused by players and coaches of “spying” for Forman. Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times shed light on this with a story two seasons ago.
Butler, as well as several other Bulls players, have also had issues with the “spying” that goes on in the locker room, with Butler warning new players that if they didn’t want Forman to hear criticism, don’t talk in front of certain assistant coaches like Randy Brown.
The belief is that the Bulls love to gather as much ammunition as they can on players, so they can win the press conference when the break-up comes, whether it’s a trade or free agency.
“They did it with Lu [Luol Deng], they did it with Jo [Noah] and Derrick [Rose],” a source said. “That’s how they operate.”
After Cowley’s story was released, former Bull Rip Hamilton verified the legitimacy of the report. Hamilton had this to say about a 2012 film session when Brown was still working in the front office.
“One of the coaches, assistant coaches, spits out, ‘Randy [Brown] has nothing to do with this team, he doesn’t need to be around the players.’ Looked at every man that was in that film session and pretty much told them, ‘Hey, don’t listen to him. When he comes and talks to you, don’t listen to him.’ And for me, as a veteran guy just coming from Detroit, I was like, ‘What is going on around here?’ Because every conversation I had with Randy was always good, was always love. So it’s kind of like a situation where, like, man, I don’t know what’s going on between management and the coaches. And now, as you see, it’s coming out again.”
If Brown’s primary function was in fact to serve as nothing more than a henchman to Forman, and there’s legitimate evidence that suggests that’s the case, then what does that say about Forman’s role moving forward?
Paxson was asked clear as day about Forman’s job security at his Monday press conference, to which he responded: “Gar is absolutely safe”.
It’s probably ill-advised to let the mind wander and envision better days, Forman-less days for the Bulls, but a man can dream.
