Paul Sullivan: Regime change in the Chicago sports world is a rarity
CHICAGO — Regime change doesn’t happen often on the Chicago sports scene, where who you know is often more important than what you know. And the changing of the guard at the top of the Chicago Bulls food chain could be another chapter in a long line of teams “moving on” with familiar faces still in place. Bulls President and CEO Michael Reinsdorf acknowledged after firing executive vice-president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas that coach Billy Donovan could be more involved in decision-making if he stays on as coach under a new front-office regime, though he suggested Donovan wasn’t interested in “titles.
” But whatever happens with the Bulls, it’s obvious that former Alderman Paddy Bauler’s famous line, “Chicago ain’t ready for reform yet,” also applies to our five legacy sports franchises. Change has been a relative term under current Chairmen Jerry Reinsdorf, Tom Ricketts and Danny Wirtz, while the Bears’ George McCaskey has been the one outlier of our select ownership group. Here’s a brief history of the Chicago Way.
In the Reinsdorfian worldview, staying inside the organization is the preferred process of succession. White Sox and Bulls regimes from the 1990s have bled into the 2020s, with underlings simply moving up the ladder after their predecessors have been axed, promoted or reassigned as “consultants. ” In 2023, White Sox assistant general manager Chris Getz succeeded his boss, Rick Hahn, who had succeeded his boss, Ken Williams, after Williams was kicked upstairs to executive vice president in 2012.
In 2000, Williams had replaced his boss, Ron Schueler, who was hired as GM in 1990 and “resigned” after a playoff season to move into a consultant role under Reinsdorf. Williams was responsible for the only Sox championship since 1917, but giving up day-to-day GM duties was sometimes difficult. In an interview in 2015 in Detroit, Williams asked me who I thought Reinsdorf called whenever he was ticked off.
“Hahn? ” I replied. “No, he hasn’t graduated to that point yet, and I’ve told him that,” Williams replied.
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