NBA source: Bulls offer coaching job to Del Negro

[June 10, 2008]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Vinny Del Negro has been offered the Chicago Bulls head coaching job, according to a person within the league who is familiar with the situation.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because an announcement had not been made Monday.

An official announcement, which could come this week, would end a nearly two-month search that included courtships of Mike D'Antoni and Doug Collins.

Del Negro, the assistant general manager of the Phoenix Suns who has never been a head coach, would take over a team that went from 49 wins to 49 losses this past season and missed the playoffs after making the second round in 2007.

The Bulls have the first pick in the draft later this month.

A sluggish start cost coach Scott Skiles his job in December, and interim coach Jim Boylan was fired April 17. Former Minnesota coach Dwane Casey and Sacramento assistant Chuck Person also recently interviewed.

Messages left for Del Negro and Bulls GM John Paxson were not immediately returned.

Del Negro, who played collegiately at N.C. State, was drafted in 1988 by Sacramento and also played for San Antonio, Milwaukee, Golden State and Phoenix, averaging 9.9 points in 771 NBA games. He also played in Italy.

The Bulls were poised to make an offer to D'Antoni in early May only to see him jump from the Phoenix Suns to the New York Knicks before hearing chairman Jerry Reinsdorf's presentation.

Collins, who coached a young Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in the late 1980s before the championship run, also entered the picture, embracing the idea of a second opportunity in Chicago after the Bulls won the draft lottery and a shot at Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley.

The sides publicly acknowledged interest and said there would be more talks once Collins' broadcast duties with TNT were finished. That happened when the Los Angeles Lakers beat San Antonio, but a potential deal unraveled.

Collins told Reinsdorf to look elsewhere June 6.

"I called Jerry this afternoon and said, 'Let's move forward and make sure we stay the friends that we have been for 25 years,'" Collins said at the time. "It had to be a home run, and both of us had a little angst over it. So we both agreed it wasn't the best to keep going this way."

The Bulls, too, need a change of direction after unraveling just as the season tipped off.

A first-round sweep of Miami -- Chicago's first series victory since the championship era -- and a six-game loss to Detroit in the second round last year gave the Bulls high hopes that quickly crashed. The Kobe Bryant trade rumors and failed contract negotiations with Luol Deng and Ben Gordon -- who turned down five-year extensions worth more than $50 million -- left Chicago in a funk it could not shake.

The unselfishness and hard-nosed defense that defined recent teams was missing. Players bickered with each other and lashed out at coaches as the losses mounted, and some skipped practices and shootarounds.

Joakim Noah, last year's first-round pick, lashed out at assistant Ron Adams in January and was initially suspended one game before teammates voted to make it two. Noah also clashed with Ben Wallace, who was traded to Cleveland.

And just last month Noah was arrested in Gainesville, Fla., for having an open container of alcohol and also was charged with marijuana possession.

Tyrus Thomas skipped practice, Chris Duhon missed a shootaround the day after he attended a Duke-North Carolina game, and Andres Nocioni had words with Boylan during a game. Duhon is an unrestricted free agent who probably won't be back, and Paxson figures to make some moves whether the No. 1 pick is involved or not.

"Hardly a year goes by when you don't do something. But first we have to decide what we want to do with the pick," Reinsdorf said last week. "And then we listen to offers for it, and then we'll think about what else we're going to do."

[Associated Press; By RICK GANO]

AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman contributed to this report.

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