Skiles upbeat as he departs without any rancor
Once Scott Skiles walked out the door after being fired as coach of the Bulls on Monday, his parting words basically amounted to a pep talk.
"I really believe in this team, I believe in these guys," Skiles said in a phone interview. "I like these guys. I think they can get it turned around. I totally believe that."
By the time Ben Gordon emerged from the Berto Center locker room to address the media, he had already read and replied to an e-mail Skiles sent to every player.
"He just said a few things, that he really enjoyed working with us," Gordon said. "He congratulated the guys for coming to this team and helping turn things around. He had confidence that we'd be able to do it again if we just stick together and play hard."
When Skiles took the job on Nov. 28, 2003, the Bulls had been a complete joke since the championship era ended in 1998. For six seasons, the team never came close to reaching the playoffs, then made it three years in a row under Skiles. Last spring, the Bulls advanced to the second round before losing to Detroit in six games.
"Hardly any day goes by where I'm not talking to somebody about accountability and responsibility, and today was my day to be held accountable," Skiles said. "I totally understand that."
Considering Skiles' history of success, it would seem reasonable to give him more time to straighten things out, especially with a softer schedule awaiting in January. But back-to-back losses to Boston and Houston by a combined 43 points was the last straw.
"Yeah, I thought about (giving Skiles more time)," general manager John Paxson said. "After these last two games, I just didn't see the (team's) attitude changing."
Skiles left his first head coaching job with Phoenix in February 2002 and didn't take any kind of NBA job for the next 21 months until the Bulls called. On Monday, he looked forward to getting another head coaching spot, which seems to be a given after his work turning around the Bulls.
"Absolutely. I don't know why not," he said. "In Phoenix we were primarily a veteran team, then this was kind of building from the ground up. I feel like I've had two real good experiences. Look, I got to coach my childhood team. What's better than that?
"It may seem like I'm trying to sugarcoat everything, but I don't really have any complaints at all. The organization is great to work with; everybody in my office, the staff. The whole time I was here, I felt totally supported.
"I'll take a couple days here and rest and then I'll start poring back over everything and all the decisions I made and everything and try to get to the bottom of what I did wrong. Just like my first job, this is going to make me a better coach, I think."
Skiles said he planned to spend the holidays at his home in Bloomington, Ind., before returning to Chicago and sorting out what to do next. His three children live nearby in Columbus, Ind.
"I hope nobody's feeling bad for me because it's Christmas Eve," he added. "I'm not like people in, I'll say the real world, where somebody loses their job at Christmas and they don't have any money or anything. Nobody should feel sorry for me. When you think it's time for a coaching change, you do the coaching change, and that's just the way that it is."