Harris, Bickerstaff look back on how the Bulls finally came together

The Bulls started the season with just one new player (Derrick Rose), and added a virtual chemistry experiment of a coaching staff.

They hired two assistants, Del Harris and Bernie Bickerstaff, with 28 years of head coaching experience between them, and each one has a coach-of-the-year trophy on his mantle. The new head coach, however, Vinny Del Negro, had never coached at any level.

The makeup of this group may have been unprecedented in NBA history. So with the mission of making the playoffs accomplished, Harris and Bickerstaff agreed to talk about the ride. We'll list some topics and let the coaches' speak:

Your thoughts on the 2008-09 season:

Bickerstaff: "To me, it was the first time in a long time when all I had to deal with was basketball. I had been in a situation (as coach and GM in Charlotte) where you had the contracts, who's coming into camp and all those things. Dick Motta told me one time that the best job in basketball was an assistant coach. And that's true. I thoroughly enjoyed it."

Harris: "It was a down-and-up year for me. We had so many issues and drama going on the first half of the season with injuries and personalities and things that came up, I was feeling pretty disappointed in everything. In the NBA, I've only been out (of the playoffs) very few times. I thought, 'I left a good situation in Dallas and we're just going down.'"

On the Bulls' surge to make the playoffs:

Harris: "To see this team gradually improve individually and then come together as a unit about a month ago, where all of the sudden we were pulling for each other and it seemed like personal agendas were no longer an issue - it really has made me feel elated over the way the year turned out. All the negative part, the down part, was worth it to see a team come from where it virtually had no pulse to where I think we're a pretty good team."

On how the Bulls turned things around:

Harris: "It really has to happen from within the ranks. Management or coaching can't make it happen, even though you're seeking that all the time. Unless it comes from within the team, from within the locker room, it won't happen. I give the guys a tremendous amount of credit for saving the season.

"It started to happen when Kirk (Hinrich) came back (in January from a thumb injury). I think you could see the beginnings of it. After the trade deadline, we had guys on our team basically ready to become a team anyway, and then Brad (Miller) and John (Salmons) came in as unselfish guys, as team guys, it just seemed to form in the last month."

Bickerstaff: "Our locker room is really good now. The one thing that sticks out for me is the respect Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich have for each other. Early in the year before we started, Derrick was concerned about Kirk, and then Kirk was concerned about Derrick. That speaks volumes about both guys."

On how the coaching staff meshed:

Bickerstaff: "Vinny grew leaps and bounds and I really think he's underappreciated in terms of the job that he's done. We were really together and everybody had ideas like they do in every situation. I've always felt that was a great thing. You want people who make you think."

Harris: "I don't think we had any problems whatsoever on a personal level. What's hard is when the head coach doesn't come in with a system he's comfortable with that has proved to be good for him over a period of years. None of the bench coaches had any experience with the personnel. So there's no system, no total knowledge of personnel. You just try to piece together something that you work through."

On dealing with the lack of an established system:

Harris: "Next year when Vinny starts, he's going to have a core of stuff that he now owns offensively and defensively that he didn't have at the beginning of the season. He was like at a smorgasbord, trying to pick stuff from me, stuff from Bernie, stuff from (Bulls assistant) Bob (Ociepka), some carry over of what worked here before, stuff that (Gregg) Popovich did, stuff that Bob Hill did, stuff that George Karl did. But he didn't have anything that Vinny did.

"It was all good stuff, but you have to figure out as a coach what makes sense for this group of players at this time. It took us a good bit of time to do that."

On the toughest part of the season:

Harris: "We were a so-called embarrassment. (But) no team could have played well with three captains all injured at the same time. A team that has an established system, they can survive one or two guys out, because they just plug in a new guy and the system still works. For us, not having a real oiled-up system and then having your three main guys out, we had no chance."

True, the team hit a slump in late December while Hinrich, Deng and Drew Gooden were sidelined. What about Wednesday's disappointing loss to Toronto?

Bickerstaff: "The high point is, yeah, we made the playoffs. But it hurt (Wednesday) night because a couple weeks ago, we wanted eight and then seven was in reach and then six was in reach. So you were somewhat disappointed, but when you look back and keep everything in perspective, there was some accomplishment.

"You never know when a night like that is going to occur. When you look at Toronto, we had a difficult time matching up. I remember when we were with the Bullets and we had a great team, but we wanted no part of Kansas City with Tiny (Archibald) and those guys. Sometimes teams have your number."

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