Yes, with this post, I am back. In time, I’ll throw up some pics and videos from the LBS Global Growth Trip 2007, but for now, I’ll keep it to sports. It just boggles my mind that a man who received decent consideration for the Coach of the Year a season ago can end up fired only a few months later. What the heck happened to the Bulls that they were so bad this year? Why all of a sudden did Chicago go from being a playoff team to one of the worst in the Eastern Conference?
At first, it was easy to attribute a lot of the problems to the rumors of the Kobe Bryant trade. That’s understandable; when the stars of the team are worried about their contract situations and futures (Gordon and Deng) it creates tension and uneasiness. But even last year when the Bulls were successful in the regular season and advanced to the second round of the playoffs, they still started the season just 3-9. Recalling that information makes me think that they fired Skiles too prematurely this year.
Additionally, I think Skiles was in a bad spot to begin with. The Bulls overachieved last year which resulted in lofty expectations this year. And when your only moves are not trading nor extending Deng and Gordon, while the rest of the conference is getting better, you’re probably going to look worse. I’m not quite sure why the Bulls made this move, but as they say, it’s easier to fire the coach than all the players. That sounds about right.
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This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 and is filed under Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Welcome Back !!
Christmas Eve is a dangerous time for Chicago coaches. Besides Skiles, longtime Blackhawk coach Billy Reay was fired Christmas Eve 1976 (It was not he who was too cheap to sign Bobby Hull) and Tim Floyd handed in his resignation on Christmas Eve 2001 (maybe 14 year old O.J. Mayo was better than any player on that Bulls team).
In a sign of compassion and loyalty, Ben Gordon is willing to shoot two less three pointers per game.