Parting comments on the departed Skiles

Outgoing Bulls coach Scott Skiles figures to get another head job in the NBA soon. So several Bulls were asked what they would tell someone on another team about playing for Skiles.

"I would just tell them, first of all, Scott is a coach who's going to demand your best, which all coaches should do," Ben Gordon said. "He just wants you to come and play hard every night. I think if you can do that, you'll be fine and have success."

Said Luol Deng, "I'd tell them it's tough. He's going to demand a lot out of his players. If I had another (NBA) coach, I could compare them. I think he was a great coach."

Naturally, the Bulls had plenty of nice things to say about their former coach in the hours after he walked out the door. But the reality is if they were 5 games above .500 instead of 9-16, he wouldn't have been fired.

"I have no bad feelings toward Scott," Kirk Hinrich said. "He helped us get to where we were. He came into a situation where this organization hadn't won in a long time and provided that."

Added Ben Wallace, "I think Scott did a great job here. Any time you come in as a coach or a GM or whatever, you always want to try to leave the situation better than what you found it. I can definitely say it's a better team than it was when he found it."

Skiles was never a screamer or a drill sergeant, as he was often portrayed. But when the Bulls went south early this season, there seemed to be a mutual frustration between Skiles and the players that became difficult to repair.

"Coach, he's a professional," Gordon added. "I guess people got on him sometimes because maybe he was too hard on guys or whatever you want to call it. But I thought overall, he was a professional. He was good at what he did."