Post-Skiles era begins with 94-79 loss to Spurs

SAN ANTONIO -- Two days after head coach Scott Skiles was fired, the Bulls faced an awkward situation in San Antonio.

While one assistant, Pete Myers, led the team against the defending NBA champion Spurs on Wednesday night, another assistant, Jim Boylan, stayed behind to essentially interview for the interim head job with general manager John Paxson.

No decision was made Wednesday about the next Bulls coach. Meanwhile, Myers threw his hat in the ring, saying he'd welcome the opportunity to become a head coach.

"This is someplace I would like to get one day," Myers said. "I'm not just sitting there as assistant coach just to be a great assistant. I would like to run my show some day, for sure."

Myers' audition resulted in a 94-79 loss to San Antonio, but he refused to believe his job status would have anything to do with Wednesday's result.

"I hope not," he said. "I've been in this organization for some time now. If they're going to judge me on one game, that would be totally unfair, don't you think?"

The Bulls also are considering outside candidates, but that option is a longshot because they don't want to commit to anyone long term until the summer.

Unemployed former head coaches such as Rick Carlisle and Paul Westphal have been considered, but the most likely scenario is to choose between Myers and Boylan, perhaps sometime today. Adding former Bulls star Scottie Pippen as an assistant coach also has been discussed.

The Bulls (9-17) actually played very well during stretches of Wednesday's game and shared the ball, but San Antonio simply shot the lights out.

The decisive stretch came early in the second quarter when the Spurs (20-7) knocked down 12 of their first 14 shots and went on a 24-5 run after the Bulls finished the first quarter up 22-21.

The Bulls' next game is at home Friday against Milwaukee. Asked how long he expected to be in charge, Myers answered, "I don't know that. Which is kind of good, because we always talk about taking one game at a time. That's basically what I'm doing now."

Several players expressed confusion following Wednesday's game about what was going on with Myers and Boylan.

"I didn't understand what that was about," Ben Gordon said. "Right now I think guys are going to ride with whoever gets the nod and know that everybody's in it together. I think whoever is going to be the head coach will still be getting a lot help from the rest of the staff. I don't know if it will make a major difference."

Added Kirk Hinrich: "It really doesn't matter. In the past, Pax has done a good job. Whatever happens, the bottom line is as a team we've got to keep playing hard, stay focused. There's a lot of season left, so who knows what will happen?"

While Boylan is a longtime Skiles confidant, Myers has become a Bulls fixture over the years. He played three seasons with the team and assumed the thankless role of replacing Michael Jordan in 1993 following the baseball retirement. He joined the front office first as a college and minor-league scout, then moved to the bench early in the 2001-02 season.

Myers said he received no specific instructions from Paxson regarding starting lineups or playing time.

"John basically talked about he just wanted to see guys enjoying themselves," Myers said before the game. "I think we kind of got away from that in the sense that we have moments when things are not really going well for us, we just deflate. We've got to just go back to playing all-out basketball on both ends."

The All-Interim list

Each of these five coaches have held the title of "Interim Head Coach" for the Chicago Bulls:

Scotty Robertson: coached final 26 games of 1979-80 season after Larry Costello was fired.

Phil Johnson: coached 1 game in 1981-82 season after Jerry Sloan was fired after 51 games.

Rod Thorn: coached final 30 games of 1981-82 season after Jerry Sloan's firing.

Bill Berry: coached 2 games in 2001-02 season after Tim Floyd was fired 25 games into season.

Pete Myers: coached 2 games in 2003-04, and selected to coach Wednesday's game after Scott Skiles was fired after 25 games into the season.