When the Bulls’ series-clinching victory started Sunday, John Paxson took his American Airlines Arena seat on the aisle, 11 rows behind the team he had assembled, the first featuring solely his acquisitions.
By the fourth quarter, the general manager as usual had retreated to the locker room. He was watching his team grow before his very eyes, albeit on TV, and pacing the seconds away.
“That seems to be a pattern with me,” Paxson said with a chuckle Monday from his Berto Center office.
The Bulls’ historic breakthrough against the Miami Heat, the first time a defending NBA champion had been swept in the first round, broke a pattern of futility for a franchise with which Paxson had held a role for six NBA titles in the 1990s. He won three rings as a player and one as an assistant coach, and he was the team’s radio analyst for the final two championships.
One day after his first series win as a GM, Paxson shifted his focus to the players he had drafted, signed or acquired in trade.
“I’m proud of the way the guys played with poise and closed it out because I know how difficult those elimination games can be,” Paxson said. “Our guys just kept hanging in there and making big plays when they had to.
“It is a little different group than in years past. We’ve seen the guys who have been here mature and become better players. What I saw for this group is the opponent isn’t necessarily what mattered. The focus of our team did. More often than not, our guys had it.”
Paxson remains as competitive as an executive as he was as a player. That’s why the brutal loss to the Nets that ended the regular season stung him deeply and why he reacted with emotion to confidants like coach Scott Skiles.
But Paxson and Skiles — Paxson’s hire — also recognized a different reaction to such a potentially debilitating loss. After an initial moping period slightly affected the next day’s practice, the Bulls returned with anger and defiance for the final practice before the series opener against the Heat.
“That game was disappointing for a lot of reasons because we lost a chance for 50 wins and the second seed,” Paxson said. “But I’ve learned a lot about our guys in the last week to 10 days. You can change your fortunes around in a hurry from bad to good if you approach things the right way. This team did that.”
The Bulls got solid contributions from several players. But Luol Deng’s emergence on a national stage drew praise from many, including Heat coach Pat Riley and former NBA coach and current TV analyst Hubie Brown.
Some criticized Paxson’s refusal to part with Deng during trade talks for the Grizzlies’ Pau Gasol as a GM unwilling to dismantle his young core. But Paxson, who also drafted Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon and Chris Duhon and signed Andres Nocioni as a free agent, wasn’t gloating.
“I’m just happy for Lou because we talked about it so many times: He put so much time into becoming a better player,” Paxson said. “I just don’t take lightly how Kirk and Ben and Lou and Noce and Du have helped change our culture around here. That’s really important to me.”
Paxson took a similar approach to criticism that he overpaid for Ben Wallace at $60 million, refusing to bask in one mere series victory. He knows as well as anyone the test the Pistons will present in the East semifinals.
Paxson just knows he’s happy Wallace is on his team and not his former one.
“The goal last summer was to try to make us a better team,” Paxson said. “When you sign free agents to big contracts, I understand the contract becomes as much an issue as the player. But Ben’s helped us in so many ways.
“I didn’t realize how smart a player he is. He rarely gets into foul trouble. You can run the offense through him. You never feel he’s going to take himself out of a game.
“But worrying about critics, that’s wasted energy. I’m just happy for our guys. I thought in the series Ben and P.J. [Brown] were really huge for us. How they handled themselves didn’t go unnoticed by me and Scott.”
And no longer can the Bulls go unnoticed around the league. They’ve arrived.
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kcjohnson@tribune.com
