It wasn't long ago that the Chicago Bulls were stuck in the mud and going nowhere. The Bulls had become irrelevant and something of a laughingstock after the Jimmy Butler trade, and fans were sick of the front-office duo of John Paxson and Gar Forman.

Chicago finally made big changes in the front office in early 2020, with Paxson stepping down as executive vice president of basketball operations and Forman getting fired as general manager. Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley stepped in to take over the front ofice.

In a recent appearance on Stacey King's Gimme the Hot Sauce podcast, Paxson acknowledged that things had gotten “stale” within the Bulls organization and that major changes were needed. In response to Paxson's admission, longtime Pax critic Ricky O'Donnell of Blue Wire's Cash Considerations pod finally had something nice to say about him:

“Wow, super self-aware John Paxson! Yes, you're the one who's responsible for the absolute abomination that the Bulls were over the last four years. Worst record in the NBA over the last four years since trading Jimmy Butler. Congrats, John Paxson, that's on you. … So, John Paxson, first time I'll say this in my life: Salute to you, dude, for the self-awareness of knowing you suck and knowing that you needed to fire yourself. … The Bulls are in a better place because of it.”

Karnisovas and Eversley have since dramatically remade the Bulls, acquiring Nikola Vucevic, Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan, among a slew of other new players. Chicago is hoping to take a step forward with All-Star Zach LaVine as the leader, and Paxson finally getting out of the way helped this.

Listen to the entire Cash Considerations episode here:

Cash Considerations: A Chicago Bulls Podcast is part of the Blue Wire sports podcasting network. The pod can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts.