--Before the Bulls officially named Vinny Del Negro the 17th head coach in franchise history, there was a false alarm with former Bulls coach turned TNT broadcaster Doug Collins. Several news outlets reported that Collins was headed back to the Bulls and the deal was done.

But it quickly became obvious that the news broke too soon, because the Bulls brought three candidates to town for second interviews after Collins was thought to have the job wrapped up. Finally on June 6, Collins formally withdrew his name from consideration, but the Bulls most likely already decided to go in a different direction. Del Negro was still in town meeting with Bulls officials when Collins made his announcement.

--While welcoming Vinny Del Negro as the Bulls' new coach, general manager John Paxson gave some strong opinions about what went wrong last season. A popular choice to challenge for the Eastern Conference title, the Bulls stumbled to a 33-49 record under two different coaches, Scott Skiles and Jim Boylan.

"I think our guys last year did not play with any confidence. They were kind of beaten down," Paxson said. "I was looking for someone who had leadership ability, who could communicate and bring them to a higher level on the basketball court, because I believe we have talent.

"(Del Negro) is going to get involved with the players. He's going to invest time in them. That's what today's players want. The X's and O's, he's not done it before, but his ideas are very good. They're creative. The philosophy he has in his mind is intriguing to me."

QUOTE TO NOTE
"For whatever reason, there were a lot of things out there and there seemed to be the sense that we didn't know what we were doing. At the Berto Center, we never felt that way at any point. We were doing our job and going through the whole thing the way I thought it should be done." -- General manager John Paxson, on the Bulls' long coaching search, which finally ended on June 11 with the introduction of Vinny Del Negro.

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