Players take share of blame

The Christmas Eve curse caught up to another Bulls head coach.

Tim Floyd vacated his job on this date in 2001, and Scott Skiles was dismissed Monday when most of the players were more focused on holiday plans than a coaching change.

"I felt like something was going to happen," forward Luol Deng said at the Berto Center. "I didn't know whether it was players or coaches or what. It just seemed like we weren't on the same page, that something was missing.

"I didn't think something would happen today. I thought something might happen in the next month or so. It's just surprising for all of us."

For many Bulls -- including Deng, Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni -- Skiles is the only NBA coach they have played for. The players who spoke on Monday accepted a share of the blame. The Bulls have been lackluster and lifeless for much of the season while getting off to a disappointing 9-16 start.

"I wouldn't say we stopped playing for Scott," guard Kirk Hinrich said. "We let each other down. Every time I go out there, I'm playing for my teammates, my coaches, myself. We should all be in this together, so I wouldn't say that anybody had necessarily given up on him. The effort and the performance was unacceptable all the way around."

Added Gordon: "As a person who works hard, you never want to see anybody lose their job. I guess it was just time for a change, and we have to move on from there."

At this point, there is no reason to believe personnel changes are imminent. The new coach, most likely lead assistant Jim Boylan, will get a chance to see if this group of players can find its old form. Nine of the top 11 players returned from last season's team that won 49 games and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.

"I hope everybody wakes up," Deng said. "Last year, we were losing games knowing that we played hard. This year we are losing games knowing that guys looked like there was no interest there and a lot of unhappiness.

"We kept talking about turning it around, but it was really hard to do when you're not only playing against your opponent, you're playing against each other."

Deng didn't try to dodge any blame for Skiles' dismissal, but he acknowledged the relationship between coach and players grew wearisome at times this season.

"We had a lot of practices where we would disagree on certain things," Deng said. "I'm not necessarily talking me, but players and coaches. There are a lot of things you could point you finger to."

"Speaking to some of the older guys around the league," Gordon added, "they say at some point, there can just be a disconnect with the team and the coaches. If that's what happened, I guess it makes sense why (general manager John Paxson) would make this decision."

Most of the players tried to muster up some optimism that the team's annual turnaround after a slow start can still be achieved.

"Maybe this will be exactly what we needed," Hinrich said. "I don't know. It's unfortunate, but we can still salvage the season as a group. That's our focus right now. We're just trying to turn this thing around at all costs."

Said center Ben Wallace: "The worst thing for us to do is pack it in and give up as a team. I think Scott, even though he ain't here, he still wants to see this team do well, so we owe him that much."