Makes no difference to the Bulls that it's the day before Christmas - they went right ahead and gave Scott Skiles his walking papers anyway.
With his hard-nosed, sometimes player-antagonizing style, head coach Skiles was one of the driving forces behind the Bulls' ascent from their post-Jordan malaise to contender status in the East. But, this year the Bulls took a step back, going 9-16 in their first 25 games. Eventually someone was going to have to get the axe for this failure, and Skiles was the guy. GM John Paxson said of the move:
This was a difficult decision to make, but one that was necessary at this time. Scott helped us in many ways during his time with the Bulls; most importantly, he helped this franchise get back to respectability. I am appreciative of his hard work and the imprint that he left on our team.
Let's face it - Skiles just wasn't the right kind of guy to coach today's NBA player. His "my way or the highway" act worked well when Deng, Gordon and Heinrich were young, but now they're seasoned vets with minds of their owns and big fat salaries (Gordon and Deng were both extended this off-season) and suddenly they just stopped listening. It was inevitable that Skiles would start grating on his players and that the players would start pushing back (Ben Wallace finally got him to cave-in on the headband thing - that should've been a clue). Now the Bulls will have to find a more player-friendly (i.e. less old-school-disciplinarian) coach to come in and try to turn this thing around. If they're smart they'll pick up someone Kobe Bryant likes (if such a person even exists). Anything to make the franchise more attractive for when Kobe finally becomes a free agent and flees the Lakers.
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Tags: chicago bulls, john paxson, scott skiles
