Jerry Reinsdorf took over as the Bulls’ managing partner in February 1985. At the time, he told reporters he wanted to leave the basketball decisions up to general manager Rod Thorn and focus on the business end of the team. Alas, Reinsdorf had a quick change of heart: He fired Thorn the following month.

For Reinsdorf, that bit of Steinbrenner-ism was an enormous aberration. He hired White Sox scout Jerry Krause to replace Thorn, and Krause stayed on the job until he retired in 2003. Bulls guard John Paxson took over for Krause, and Paxson had been on the job since then. So Reinsdorf fired a GM in his first month running the Bulls, 31 years ago, and has not fired one since.

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This is relevant to the way things have unfolded this summer for the Bulls because Chicago’s front office — Paxson, the executive vice president, and general manager Gar Forman — has put together a bizarre offseason that has to make even Reinsdorf scratch his head. Reinsdorf generally sticks to the maxim he expressed when he bought the Bulls, letting his basketball people run the basketball team. But something has gone awry here, and it would seem Reinsdorf’s attention is required.

In the wake of the team’s trade of Derrick Rose last month , Forman went in front of the media and said his team was, “retooling,” and added that, “We felt we needed to start getting younger and more athletic.” Which makes some sense. But two weeks later, what have the Bulls done in free agency? They added 30-year-old point guard Rajon Rondo . And on Wednesday, it was 34-year-old shooting guard and Chicagoan Dwyane Wade .

Rondo and Wade will make the Bulls a fascinating team this year. They will help Chicago top the 42 wins they had last season, probably nudging them to the 45-47 range. But they’re old, on the back end of their careers. If the plan was to get younger and more athletic, it took Paxson and Forman all of 14 days to crumple that pin and toss it in the wastebin.

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That’s where Reinsdorf should be concerned. Reinsdorf has been fine with his basketball people running the Bulls, as long as they have some direction, some sort of plan. There’s no apparent plan here.

Really, Reinsdorf is not a difficult sell. He’s a baseball guy, and the White Sox are his passion. The Bulls are a business venture. Krause once sold Reinsdorf on a post-Michael Jordan/Phil Jackson plan that was built around Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry, with Tim Floyd coaching. Reinsdorf was sold on the blessings of losing spectacularly and collecting the resulting picks. He was way ahead of Sam Hinkie when it came to selling an owner on The Process, and the Bulls came away with Kirk Hinrich and Ron Artest, but also had Curry, Chandler, and beauties like Dailbor Bagaric and Marcus Fizer.

They went 49-190 under Floyd. But Krause, at least, had a plan.

We’re not getting that same clear-eyed direction from Paxson and Forman. They fired Tom Thibodeau last year despite his .647 winning percentage, and installed company man Hoiberg, who had to deal with players raised in the Thibodeau mold, guys who were not big on the new guy. Bringing in young guys seemed a good idea, giving Hoiberg a fresh start. Until the last week happened.

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Flailing from Rondo to Wade is not a direction. It’s inserting your business card into a random set of events that the Bulls could not have foreseen, first the unexpected splurge for Rondo, then the stunningly sudden willingness of Wade to pack up and leave Miami after 13 years. That’s not a plan. It’s playing spin-the-bottle. The Bulls won, and their prize is two talented but aging guards, a pair of guys who have little reason to embrace Hoiberg, and who also can’t shoot 3-pointers in an age when backcourt players absolutely must shoot 3-pointers.

Can’t Reinsdorf see this? The Bulls might be slightly better next year than they were this past season. But don’t mistake that for progress. Reinsdorf may have never fired his general manager in all his years in the NBA, but his Bulls are aimless now, without a direction. If this team can’t somehow vault back into relevancy, Reinsdorf will have no choice left but to finally boot his front office.