Can’t trust a rebuild with either the White Sox or the Bulls

The White Sox are the Bulls. Same owner, same trip to nowhere.

So when the discussion turns to whether to trade ace Chris Sale in an all-out rebuild, I immediately ask the same question I asked when the Bulls pondered going the rebuilding route:

Will the same people who made all the bad decisions in the first place be rebuilding the team?

This is the problem with a Jerry Reinsdorf production. Because he’d have an easier time gnawing off his own arm than firing one of his beloved front-office employees, his teams are doomed to life in the unexceptional middle.

Trading Jimmy Butler in addition to Derrick Rose would have been the right thing for the Bulls to do, but the reality was never far away: You want vice president John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman doing the rebuilding? I don’t think so.

Same with the White Sox. Given that the franchise has all but flat-lined since winning the World Series in 2005, you want vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn in charge of starting from scratch? I don’t think so.

So that’s where we are, with an owner who prefers comfort over the possibility of dynamic change. The best job in the world is to put on a business suit in the employ of Reinsdorf, the chairman of both the Bulls and the Sox. It’s the closest thing to lifetime employment that there is in professional sports.

It’s why the Bulls are stuck, and it’s why the Sox are stuck. It’s why the Bulls resorted to making a splash by signing two aging players in Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo. And it’s why there is zero confidence that the Sox would make the right moves if they traded Sale.

How did one city get so lucky?