Monday 24 December 2007
Bulls fire Skiles
A year ago today Charlton sacked their manager and replaced him with Alan Pardew. 12 months later the Chicago Bulls did exactly the same and fired Scott Skiles after 5 years in charge.
A childhood Bulls fan, Skiles inherited a ramshackle Bulls side (sound familiar?) but in my time in the city has turned the laughable Bulls into championship contenders mainly by bringing through young players such as Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Tryrus Thomas and Kirk Hinrich and blending them with some astute signings, notably four-time Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace.
After season's of desperation following the Michael Jordan era, Skiles took the Bulls to the last three end of season play-off's, last season extending their nemesis Detroit Pistons to six tough games in the conference sem-ifinals before being eliminated.
However this season despite great expectations they have started horribly and after losing 3 of their last 4 matches including an absolute hammering at Boston on Friday and an 18-point loss at home to Houston Saturday, when the team were booed throughout, the underachieving Bulls currently sit bottom of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference with a record of 9-16.
Rumours that Skiles' intense personality was wearing a bit thin on his multi-millionaire players, and talk of splits in the locker room, ongoing contract extension debates plus Kobe Bryant is he coming, is he not to Chicago have been in the media all season.
Lweisham boy and my favourite player Deng said: "This year we were losing games knowing that guys, they just looked like there was no interest out there, a lot of unhappiness. We kept turning it around but it was really hard to do when you’re just not playing against your opponent, you’re kind of playing against each other."
But as we know players don't get sacked but coaches and managers do. Last words to Skiles:"Hardly a day goes by that I don’t demand accountability and stress results andtoday was my day to be held accountable. The fact that it’s Christmas Eve is neither here nor there. The timing doesn’t bother me. I’m not destitute." (more) ¶ 22:46
A year ago today Charlton sacked their manager and replaced him with Alan Pardew. 12 months later the Chicago Bulls did exactly the same and fired Scott Skiles after 5 years in charge.A childhood Bulls fan, Skiles inherited a ramshackle Bulls side (sound familiar?) but in my time in the city has turned the laughable Bulls into championship contenders mainly by bringing through young players such as Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Tryrus Thomas and Kirk Hinrich and blending them with some astute signings, notably four-time Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace.
After season's of desperation following the Michael Jordan era, Skiles took the Bulls to the last three end of season play-off's, last season extending their nemesis Detroit Pistons to six tough games in the conference sem-ifinals before being eliminated.
However this season despite great expectations they have started horribly and after losing 3 of their last 4 matches including an absolute hammering at Boston on Friday and an 18-point loss at home to Houston Saturday, when the team were booed throughout, the underachieving Bulls currently sit bottom of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference with a record of 9-16.
Rumours that Skiles' intense personality was wearing a bit thin on his multi-millionaire players, and talk of splits in the locker room, ongoing contract extension debates plus Kobe Bryant is he coming, is he not to Chicago have been in the media all season.
Lweisham boy and my favourite player Deng said: "This year we were losing games knowing that guys, they just looked like there was no interest out there, a lot of unhappiness. We kept turning it around but it was really hard to do when you’re just not playing against your opponent, you’re kind of playing against each other."
But as we know players don't get sacked but coaches and managers do. Last words to Skiles:"Hardly a day goes by that I don’t demand accountability and stress results andtoday was my day to be held accountable. The fact that it’s Christmas Eve is neither here nor there. The timing doesn’t bother me. I’m not destitute." (more) ¶ 22:46
