For fired White Sox manager Rick Renteria, there was no hiding from the inevitable

Wasn’t it Tom Hagen who told Sonny Corleone in ‘‘The Godfather’’ that even some deadly moves were just business, not personal? Or did Michael Corleone tell brother Sonny that? Or was it Salvatore Tessio to Hagen?

It might’ve been all three. And, by the way, is there any surer sign a columnist is fishing around for something to write about than the summoning of half-century-old movie quotes?

Here’s what I’m pretty sure I’m getting at: In sports, personal is for fools, saps and suckers. Business always wins in the end.

Take the White Sox’ firing of manager Rick Renteria. A bunch of reports Monday portrayed the move as a real shocker, but that’s as believable as the organization’s statement that it had “agreed to part ways” with Renteria.

‘‘This is not how we wanted it to end,’’ general manager Rick Hahn explained in a video conference with reporters. ‘‘We wanted it to end with Ricky leading us to championships. That was the intent from the start.’’

From the start? Renteria’s original contract was set to expire after the 2019 season. If anything, that the man made it four seasons was the surprise. Renteria was well-liked by players and appreciated by all for how much he loved the Sox, but the Sox have fully entered win-big mode now. They were always going to seek out a manager with championship experience to see this part of the process through. You know, someone such as Ozzie Guillen, just as long as it isn’t Ozzie Guillen.

Guillen was fired in 2011 despite being the only skipper to take more than one Sox team to the playoffs. His success was a far cry from Joel Quenneville’s, though. Yet the Blackhawks fired three-time Stanley Cup winner Quenneville early in the 2018-19 season, with then-president and CEO John McDonough calling him ‘‘the greatest coach in the history of our franchise’’ in one breath and throwing his ‘‘full support’’ behind GM Stan Bowman in the next.

Confusing? Yes. But, hey, it was only business. Don’t let the door hit your feelings on the way out.

Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton doesn’t seem like the sort of guy who worries about when his time is coming, but it’s coming. Far down the road, hopefully. Or — bam — sometime sooner. It came for Renteria, for the Bulls’ Jim Boylen, for the Cubs’ Joe Maddon.

Boy, that Maddon — he’ll live forever as a hero in Cubdom, won’t he? But ending a 108-year World Series drought wasn’t enough to save him. In 2019, his fifth and final season, he was unable to make ‘‘October begin in March’’ by Knute Rockne-ing his players into fired-up hitting machines. So president Theo Epstein said, ‘‘Arrivederci,’’ and that was that.

Only business. It happened to Tom Thibodeau, to Lovie Smith, to Phil Jackson, to Mike Ditka, too. It’s not personal. Well, maybe sometimes it’s a little bit personal. But it should never come as a shock.

Just sayin’

A week ago in this column, Lovie Smith’s desire to see all his Illinois football players register to vote was highlighted. Fair is fair: Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald deserves credit on this front, too.

From a video of Fitzgerald addressing his team Sept. 22, which was National Voter Registration Day:

‘‘Who’s registered to vote? Raise your hand. That’s a lot of guys.

‘‘If you’re not, let’s make sure that you get that done. . . . It’s our civic opportunity and our civic duty to do that, right? So if you didn’t raise your hand, let’s make sure we get on it.’’

Good stuff.

• Bears 24, Panthers 20. And print it.

No, really. That’s how this whole newspaper thing works.

• Here’s a very original thought: Maybe we should spend the rest of our time together in this life debating who’s better, LeBron James or Michael Jordan. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

I offer this semi-interested ramble: They are very different players, but, if they switched eras, each still would be the best player in the league at the time. James is the more exceptional athlete, but Jordan’s ego was bigger. James makes teammates better with his team-oriented approach, whereas Jordan made teammates better because they craved his acceptance and, even more, feared letting him down and incurring his wrath. Give me Jordan, though, simply because he rolled out of bed ready to dominate the fourth quarter — and nobody else ever did that close to as well.

But I’ll gladly take James instead if it means we can retire this subject once and for all.

• Big Ten football action doesn’t start until next week, but the Georgia at Alabama game Saturday means the time has arrived for anyone who digs the college game to engage. One of these teams is the best in the Southeastern Conference. Only Clemson belongs in the same conversation at this point. Ohio State should join them eventually.

• Why does it seem like the Rays just plain have more fun than everybody else? Manager Kevin Cash would look good on the South Side, but now we’re in dreamland. Never mind.