If you think Bulls fans feel a little jilted by Mike D'Antoni, well, they're not the only ones. Both GM John Paxson and chairman Jerry Reinsdorf left their meetings with D'Antoni last week thinking their discussions were fruitful only to be surprised when D'Antoni agreed to the Knicks job. From K.C. Johnson in the Chicago Tribune:

"I'm disappointed in him," Reinsdorf said. "I don't know what else we could've done. He chose to go to New York knowing there was a good chance we would make him an offer. If he had really wanted to be in Chicago, he would've waited. Instead, he misled us. It's not the end of the world, but it is somewhat rude."

[...] "The second subject, I said if we need to get something done this weekend we shouldn't even bother talking because it will take longer than that," Reinsdorf said. "He said nothing had to be done over the weekend.

"I also said if this proceeds to where we want to make an offer, we don't deal with coach's agents. He said that's not a problem and that money wasn't the most important thing anyway. He said he wanted a job where he was going to be happiest. He said he didn't want to coach the Knicks."

Avery Johnson had kind of a rough year. Still, he's got a .735 lifetime coaching winning record, which ain't exactly shabby, and there are quite a few coaching gigs available, even with the Knicks job filled by the Pringles guy. So he should be able to just slide right into a new coaching job like it's a warm pair of slippers, right? Well, that implies that he's sure he wants to coach next season.

A report in the Chicago Sun-Times lays out the fact that Johnson's representatives have not returned calls from the coachless Chicago Bulls to reschedule an interview that was delayed by General Manager John Paxson last week. Now, the Bulls haven't come out and stated why they delayed the meeting last week, but I'll bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that the reason rhymes with "Shmike Shmanshmoni."

Johnson had to put up with a lot last year, coming off of one of the most disappointing ends to a #1 seed's playoff run in history, struggling through a remarkably intense Western Conference, and of course, a trade that upended his roster and sent away one of his favorite players, on top of losing his former MVP star for two weeks late in the season with an ankle injury.

Mike D'Antoni is apparently, like most people, a big fan of lots and lots of money.

After tweaking the Bulls and Knicks into a two-way race, and after a late-night conference call with Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf that apparently dissolved the need for further talks, D'Antoni has made a verbal agreement to become the next head coach of the New York Knicks.

Apparently the sticking point between the two was, predictably, the matter of cold hard cash. The Bulls were rumored to be willing to extend the same amount of control to D'Antoni as the Knicks were, but were hesitant to dish out a huge sum of money to acquire his services. The Knicks, of course, have never really shown such restraint. At least with Donnie Walsh at the helm, the Knicks appear to be committed to throwing around money for the right reasons.

The Knicks deal will play D'Antoni $24 million over 4 years, making him the third highest coach in the league behind Los Angeles' Phil Jackson and San Antonio's Greg Popovich. While the Chicago roster is obviously in better shape than New York's, D'Antoni will be able sleep on a bed of money and still have more control than he would have had in Phoenix.

Donnie Walsh has a difficult choice to make: does he hire Mike D'Antoni, who has a high-profile and a proven track record, or does he roll the dice on Mark Jackson, who has zero head coaching experience but is a local legend? According to multiple reports out of New York, Walsh is still undecided, which is somewhat baffling to me.

I like D'Antoni a lot, but both his coaching style and personality would be a disaster in New York. Frank Isola of the New York Daily News spoke with an unnamed coach who agrees with me:

"He doesn't emphasize defense and he's non-confrontational," said a coach who has worked with D'Antoni. "In New York you've got to have someone who is confrontational and can stand up to these guys. Scott Skiles would have been that guy. And I think Jackson is that guy as well. Mike is an innovative offensive mind but to me he just doesn't fit in New York."

Not only that, but the Knicks simply don't have the personnel to run D'Antoni's system. Sure, they have some athletic spare parts here and there, but so long as Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry are on the floor, no one will ever confuse the Knicks with the Phoenix Suns.

First he was out. Then Steve Kerr wanted him to stick around.

Now it looks like he's on his way out again.

According to a report by KTAR in Phoenix, the Suns have granted head coach Mike D'Antoni permission to speak to other teams about their vacant head coaching positions, including the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks.

And so the drama begins anew.

ESPN reported on Friday that Chicago was the most likely destination for D'Antoni if the lunch planned for that day between owner Robert Sarver, General Manager Kerr and D'Antoni did not yield an acceptable resolution. It would appear that it did not.

What this means for former MVP Steve Nash, former MVP Shaquille O'Neal, and MVP hopeful Amare Stoudemire will of course be of heavy debate this summer, particularly considering the offensive fireworks D'Antoni's system provided Nash and Stoudemire. Avery Johnson is allegedly a leading candidate for the Suns' gig if D'Antoni does move on.

Chicago is a tremendous choice for D'Antoni if he takes it, who can implement his run and gun style into a team of young, athletic players who already have solid defensive instincts in place. With Joakim Noah, Tyrus Thomas, and Andres Nocioni, he has a bevy of interior players that can get up and down the court, a serviceable point guard in Kirk Hinrich, scorers in Larry Hughes (well, kind of) and Ben Gordon (just go with me here), as well as a high draft pick, D'Antoni has the elements to build a winner from the wreckage.

The end of one era and the beginning of a new one in both Phoenix and ... somewhere else, yet to be decided.

I guess the phrase is ... "Don't let the depressingly unrealized potential hit you on the way out."

(HT: Bright Side of the Sun)

Intrepid ESPN.com scribe/Dallas resident Marc Stein has the inevitable scoop: Avery Johnson has been canned by Mark Cuban today. Stein also reports (as he did early this morning) that Cuban considered firing Avery before the playoffs started, which sounds so insane it might actually be true.

Fear not, Johnson Family. Donnie Walsh (of the Knicks) and John Paxson (of the Bulls) would be suckers not to be on Avery's tail immediately. The Knickerbockers desperately need a firm hand to transition the franchise back from Hell; the Bulls have all the defensive talent to combine with The Little General in order to form the league's top defense for the next decade. Hell, the Sonics should fire P.J. Carlesimo, MJ should backtrack on the Larry Brown hire, and any of a half-dozen other squads should make room on the bench, if Johnson will have them.

Understand this: Avery Johnson is one of the league's best coaches, period. And he's 43 years old. You want the next Sloan, the next Popovich ... a guy who can lead your franchise for decades of wins? Then you try to hire Johnson. (Meanwhile, for Dallas ... does it matter who the Mavericks hire? No one is ever going to last more than a few seasons while Cuban owns the team. What top candidate -- like Mike D'Antoni or potentially Flip Saunders -- wants to work for Cuban?)

ESPN.com's Marc Stein reported last night that new Milwaukee head coach Scott Skiles is trying to hire disgraced former Indiana U chief Kelvin Sampson as an assistant. Sampson was last seen carousing with the Spurs, apparently after finding out disgraced former Missouri chief Quin Snyder got a gig with San Antonio's D-League affiliate. (Gregg Popovich is like the Dr. Drew for folks with an addiction to recruiting violations.)

Should Sampson land on Skiles's bench, it would complete (we hope) a massive shuffle of coaches in the Great Lakes region. As FanHouse's PostmanR (a Chicagoan) noted in an e-mail: Skiles (who lives in Bloomington during the summer) got canned by Chicago and went to Milwaukee, Sampson got exiled from Bloomington and could end up in Milwaukee, while Indiana hired Tom Crean ... from Marquette, in Milwaukee.

Since it seems unlikely the Bulls (or anyone) will hire deposed Bucks boss Larry Krystowiak, the only remaining solution: hire Detroit assistant Terry Porter, who previously coached the Bucks (check), was born in Milwaukee (check), and played at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point (checkmate). (Presumed Bulls frontrunner Rick Carlisle -- formerly of the NBA franchises in Detroit and Indiana -- would make plenty of "sense," too. And hey, maybe Flip Saunders can get canned and take the long-rumored/long-LOLed Minnesota Gophers gig.)

The whole Kobe maelstrom seems to have had a lasting effect on Chicago GM John Paxson: this coaching search he's working through has been relatively hushed. Just last night, through Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski and Dan Wetzel, we learn Rick Carlisle has already interviewed for the gig. But the bigger news is the rumor Pax's considering Michigan State coach Tom Izzo.

And Izzo doesn't refuse the proposal outright. In fact, it sounds like he really would like to give the league a shot.

"I go back and forth on (coaching in the NBA)," he continued. "I still think it's the ultimate level. There is something about it. I look at it and say, 'It's a real challenge.' But I love what I do too. I go down and look at what the Pistons (coaches) do in preparation and I think, 'That's insane.'

"But I look at what I do in terms of recruiting and I think, 'That's insane.'"

Basically, being a basketball coach at any of the top levels is insane. Could Izzo succeed in the pros? The old canard about college coaches failing in the NBA is overblown and too general. Reggie Theus seemed to do alright this year. Hiring any first-time pro coach is a crap shoot, whether it's a longtime assistant-in-waiting (Mike Brown or Larry Krystowiak), a recent ex-player (Avery Johnson, Nate McMillan), or a college guy (Theus, Tim Floyd).

These labels -- and that's all the talking heads will focus on today, the question of whether a college coach can succeed -- obfuscate the real question: Can Izzo handle it? I don't pretend to know. But if he wants an interview -- and it sounds like he does -- you give him one. Let him tell you what he can do with Ben Gordon and Luol Deng.

This Benny the Bull character is completely out of control. After an appearance on the Jerry Springer Show, shooting random Celtics with a t-shirt gun, and being arrested for punching an off-duty police officer, you'd think by now he'd learn to stay out of trouble. Well, not just yet, as the mascot is being sued for injuring a fan with an errant high five during a game back in February. The particulars:

Dr. Don Kalant Sr. alleged he was sitting near courtside on Feb. 12 when he raised his arm to get a high-five from Barry Anderson, who portrays the exuberant mascot in a bright red fuzzy costume. Instead of merely slapping Kalant's palm, Anderson grabbed his arm as he fell forward, hyperextending Kalant's arm and rupturing his biceps muscle, according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

Benny needs to seriously lay off the, uh, metabolism-increasing substances if he's so fired up (at a Bulls game, mind you) that he's tearing a fan's arm off while giving him a high five.

All kidding aside though, this lawsuit seems a bit fishy. After rupturing your biceps, are you really just going to hang out and watch the end of the game? That's a pretty painful injury, and one that I'm guessing you'd be feeling the effects of right away. Also, we're just deciding to sue people now, over two months after this allegedly occurred? There are a multitude of other things that this gentleman could have been doing that would have injured him, and there is likely very little evidence that Benny's action was the one that caused the injury. His troubled past aside, I'm thinking that just this once, Benny will be declared to be innocent.

Who's going to be the new coach in Milwaukee? The online sportsbook Bodog lists odds for six candidates plus the field -- Scott Skiles is easily the favorite with 1:1 odds, followed by Larry Brown at 3:1, Rick Carlisle at 7:2, Tom Thibadeau at 4:1, Jeff Van Gundy at 6:1 and Mike Fratello at 8:1.

What about the Bulls? Carlisle and Van Gundy are tied with 7:4 odds, followed by Fratello at 7:2, Terry Porter at 9:2 , Thibodeau at 6:1 and Mark Jackson at 8:1. Personally, I'd peg Carlisle as the favorite to land with the Bucks over the Bulls due to his history working with John Hammond, but all in all I can't disagree with these odds.

But what about the Knicks job? This is where it gets interesting. In talking with a contact from Bodog over email, I was told Bodog almost didn't post any odds on candidates since "Jackson is such a prohibitive favorite." What they settled on was a straight-up question: "Will Mark Jackson be named the new head coach of the New York Knicks?" The only option bettors can select is "no," which pays +150. In other words, which means they're so sure he's going to get the job they're not willing to risk a single dollar for people wanting to bet "yes," no matter how long the odds.

Granted, all of this might change once Donnie Walsh starts bringing in candidates to interview, but it's interesting that the snap judgment from a company whose business is based on making correct guesses is that the job is absolutely Jackson's to lose.

Previously on FanHouse:
Zeke Could Have Made You Some Money