John Paxson Quotes (39 Quotes)

Kirk is a very big piece of this team's foundation. He is a great leader for our team both on and off the floor and I am very excited to watch him develop.

Tyson is very important to our future. We think his best days are ahead of him.

At some point, I think everybody has to accept the fact we're in this business to get to the playoffs, ... It's important we put expectations on these guys because there hasn't been any real urgency to start the season the last five years.

We've done everything in our power to be protective of Eddy, show our concern and passion for him. All we want to do is get as many answers as we can get. It's coming to a point where next week, there's going to be a decision made.

Let's face it, we've had several (coaches). So keeping that continuity was huge. And I honestly believe that Scott is one of the top coaches in the league because he teaches the game on the practice floor. And he also knows how to manage a game, how to use people. He's not afraid to try things.

In my heart, I would never put anyone in jeopardy. If this were a child of mine, I would have done the same thing.

That's when teams try to make over their roster more than any other time.

Everybody tried to make this an ethical employer-employee issue, which we never thought about. We wanted to do everything we possibly could to safely put him back on the floor. We were never allowed to do that.

In this business, things don't always happen at the pace you would like, but I knew from the onset that we would make this happen,

This is his time. He's four years into the league, and now he has a chance to prove it.

This move will give Dalibor an opportunity to play, ... He has been nothing but great to work with during his three years with the Bulls and I wish him and his family the very best of luck with his playing future.

Last year, we had a lot of new, young faces. It was Scott's first training camp with them. But now they've spent a whole year with Scott. We had some success. Now we should be able to step on the practice floor this week and have the attitude we're going to pick up where we left off.

From a basketball standpoint, I understand what I'm doing. But I have an obligation to this organization and the people I work for to do the right thing. And I did the right thing. That's all I've got to say.

It is going to have to get done by Wednesday or not at all. I'm still trying and hope to have it done.

I do like our young talent here, but it needs to get better. And we need some better veterans if we can go out and get them. We all get discouraged by losing. I sit there every game and see the little things that happen and you feel like they cost you games. But the reality is that we are still some time away from being what I hope we can be. And that's going to take some good decision-making on our part.

Tyson's play last season was an important factor to our success and we hope to take the next step forward with Tyson being a major contributor to our team.

We're not under any obligation to anything we don't want to. I respect the fact that he wants to play. We're also playing his contract, and we have the right to make sure it's the best thing for us.

It's always unfortunate. I have as high a regard for Antonio as I do for anyone. I think he is as professional as they come in our business. His reaction was based on what he saw, and I don't fault that at all.

It's always hard. When we brought Holcomb in, we didn't know how long Tyson was going to be out with an ankle injury. Tyson bounced back quickly. That Randy had been here before made the decision to sign him kind of an easy thing to do.

It's hurting me that Eddy's now saying that we didn't care about him, ... It's painful because Eddy's a good guy. We were trying to do the right thing for him, and for us, but more for him. As time went on, people were trying to get in the middle of it or trying to convince him we were trying not to do right by him. And reading his comments now, I really do get the feeling that that he believes that we betrayed him.

The issue with the sign-and-trade is we have to be willing to do that. Whether it's been requested or not is not the issue. In order to do that, we'd have to get something in return that we like, and I don't see that happening.

We're not allowed to make any agreement like that. The only thing I could do was get the financial situation the way I wanted it. That's what we did.

I would never put a player on the floor in a Chicago Bulls uniform if I didn't do everything in my power to find out all the information that was available. You can debate genetic testing till you're blue in the face. But from what I know, from what I've learned over the last six months, that test could have helped us determine the best course of action.

We've been fairly close for a week or so. We just have to iron out some of the details, and it won't be official until Tyson passes his physical. But this is obviously great news for our team.

Our intention through that whole process was to show him that we did care about him and that we were concerned about his well-being.

The Bulls spent the ensuing three months investigating Curry's health. Three years ago, Eddy told the Chicago newspapers that his mother had had a mild heart attack, ... Later we asked him about it, and he said that no, it wasn't true. Of course, we were not able to confirm that kind of information.

I don't now if there's a correct answer.

I respect the fact that he wants to play. We're also paying his contract, and we have the right to make sure it's the best thing for us. If we can get some financial relief out of the deal, then we'll certainly look into that.

It was during a conditioning drill, and Eddy complained of chest pain and lightheadedness, ... We took him to the hospital.

This is a very easy decision for the organization and I am extremely excited to watch these players continue to develop as Chicago Bulls.

I've been talking to a lot of teams. But there are a lot of people in the same boat Is there something they can do that helps but maybe strap them for the future Hopefully there is something in the next week that we can do that can make us better. But if there's not, there's not.

That's fine if the player doesn't want to know what condition he might have. But does the player also want to give up money on his contract if he doesn't do everything a team asks of him in regards to medical testing and then something catastrophic happens to him The players can't have it both ways. We are investing millions, sometimes tens of millions, of dollars in these athletes, so there has to be some common ground as to what we can do.

We were open to listening to other teams. But in the end, it came down to that we like our young guys and we weren't going to give them up unless we were convinced it was for good value.

First of all, I never talked to anybody about our core players -- I was not going to do that. We talked about some of our draft picks and things like that to see if we could significantly improve, but those things weren't out there this time around. There

We'd love to have a guy that could score 25 points a night, but they're hard to come by. Teams don't give up on them unless their whole philosophy changes. If there's a team like that out there that we can deal with and we don't have to mortgage everything we have, of course we'll try to do it.

He would have an above-average lifestyle that would put him in a position that most other people aren't in,

We're closer than that. I've tried to look at this all along and say, 'We obviously value Tyson.' We acknowledge a lot of things out there and that because of his size and athletic ability he's a valuable player. So I've approached the negotiations that way.

The bottom line, ... is if Eddy had not had any incident and a doctor hadn't suggested it, we wouldn't be asking for it.

What we have available to us now in terms of technology is unprecedented. With that said, I'm not sure there is a foolproof way of safeguarding against something that could possibly go undetected in an athlete and that is the greatest concern.