Scott Skiles was fired on Monday as coach of the Chicago Bulls,
who have one of the worst records in the Eastern Conference.
The underachieving Bulls (9-16) have lost three of their last
four and were booed throughout by the home crowd during Saturday
night's 98-116 loss to Yao Ming's Houston Rockets.
"I felt like something was going to happen," forward Luol Deng
said. "I didn't know whether it was players or coaches. But you
could definitely feel there was something. It just didn't seem like
we were on the same page."
With three straight playoff appearances after a long postseason
drought, the Bulls' expectations were soaring. Then, they dropped
10 of their first 12 games and they've been unable to capture the
intensity that catapulted them into the second round of the
playoffs last season.
They've lacked a consistent inside scoring threat the past few
years, and now, their perimeter players are off target. Chicago is
shooting a league-worst 41.3 percent, which partially explains why
it hasn't been able to sustain a winning streak.
"This was a difficult decision to make, but one that was
necessary at this time," Bulls General Manager John Paxson said in
a release. "Scott helped us in many ways during his time with the
Bulls; most importantly, he helped this franchise get back to
respectability. I am appreciative of his hard work and the imprint
that he left on our team."
The Bulls didn't immediately announce a replacement for Skiles,
who went 165-172 after replacing Bill Cartwright in November
2003.
Chicago is in a familiar spot with this season's slow start.
The Bulls dropped their first nine in 2004-05 and were 4-15
before going on a surge that led to 47 wins and their first playoff
appearance since the Michael Jordan era. They needed a late surge
the next season to make it to the playoffs, winning 12 of their
final 14 regular-season games to finish with 41 wins.
And with high expectations following the arrival of Ben Wallace,
the Bulls promptly dropped nine of their first 12 last season
before turning things around. They wound up with 49 wins and swept
Miami to capture a playoff series, then lost in six games to
Detroit in the second round.
There were no major acquisitions in the offseason. Instead, the
most notable moves were the ones the Bulls did not make - contract
extensions for Ben Gordon and Deng and a blockbuster trade for Kobe
Bryant.
And Deng finally acknowledged the negotiations and trade talk
may have weighed down the team.
"I keep saying the whole idea that the contract thing isn't a
big deal with me, but it's getting to a point where I don't know,"
he said. "It's not like I came in and said I'm not going to play
hard. It's a life-changing decision. When I made the decision, I
decided that I'm just going to play. It became part of it because
that's what people kept talking about. We struggled and they kept
coming up."
He called Skiles "a great coach" but the effort wasn't there -
particularly the past few games. Whether this wakes them up or is
just the start of a shake-up remains to be seen.
"It's a lot on our shoulders right now," Deng said.
Skiles and the Bulls nearly parted ways in June 2005. Instead,
he agreed to a four-year, US$16.5 million contract extension after
talking with owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
"I wouldn't say we stopped playing for Scott," guard Kirk
Hinrich said. "Every time I go out there, I'm playing for my
teammates, my coaches. We should all be in this together."
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily December 26, 2007)