Scott Skiles is an excellent coach, someone who treasures the game. A former overachieving point guard, he preaches unselfish, disciplined and spirited play. He stands for the right stuff about basketball, but he also has an uneven past and has produced his share of critics along the way.
Just like, oh, Larry Brown.
Skiles is something of a Larry Brown lite, a knowledgeable, hard-working motivator who’ll make your team better almost immediately, but who is destined to leave before his time. Skiles and Brown are even represented by the same agents, the Glass family of Joe and Keith.
Both are enmeshed in soap-opera scenarios with their teams, though Brown has been getting the most attention.
Brown’s way out
Don’t be surprised if Brown, even after this dance with the Cavaliers, goes to the Pistons after the season and says his health will allow him to coach and that he wants to return.
Brown and everyone around the Pistons know that’s untenable now. So the Pistons would terminate his contract, leaving Brown free to pursue the other jobs he has been eyeing all season. Then he could say to all his critics he never was lying, it all was media gone mad, and doesn’t everyone owe him an apology. Then he can head off to run the Lakers if Phil Jackson turns them down, as some have speculated.
Cavs insiders believe Brown is so far down the road toward being the team’s next president they’d be surprised if he doesn’t take the job. Of course, Brown has told them he’d live in Philadelphia and commute, which would make it a heck of an organization: An absentee owner and president, a first-year coach and a 20-year-old best player. Sure sounds like the way to a championship.
Don’t worry about the Pistons. Their run isn’t over. It’s a responsible, talented group of players (except for Rasheed Wallace) clearly distracted by Brown’s antics this season. That’s why this is a mark that may blot Brown’s legacy for good. Brown has a reputation for these kinds of departures, but he never let it affect a team’s chance for a championship. Pistons players privately admit Brown’s actions and the resulting media circus have not only distracted the team but also limited Brown’s ability to coach because everyone knows he wants out.
So let’s get this straight no matter the spin: Brown sought out the Cavs; they didn’t seek him out. He went to them before the regular season was over and brought up the president’s job.
I hope Brown is somewhere in the NBA. Overall, he’s good for basketball. He’s always gracious in defeat, he’s fair to other teams and players, he preaches the correct things, he is a mentor and a friend to lessers in the game.
This time he went too far with his own insecurities, but there’ll always be a job for someone like Brown. Heck, maybe even in Chicago after next season.
Skiles-Bulls tiff
Ah, yes, like Brown, Skiles often allows hubris to put a hard screen on his reason.
You can’t deny his confidence or right to live by it. He says he’ll test the open market after next season if a deal cannot be agreed to, which is any employee’s right. It’s the way our system works, and no one should be condemned or penalized for exercising that right.
It’s hard to imagine the Bulls could have done more. Published reports on the contract negotiations say the Bulls have agreed to forego Skiles’ option year next season for $2.75 million and pay him $4 million per season for each of the next three and $2 million guaranteed of $5 million for 2008-09. That’s $14 million guaranteed. If you’ve ever seen the way Skiles dresses, that is sweatshirts for 15 lifetimes.
Figuring in the eliminated option year, the Bulls’ offer for the next three years would make Skiles one of the highest-paid coaches in the history of the NBA. That sounds like a lot for someone who in five seasons or parts has reached the second round of the playoffs only once.
The danger with coaches like Skiles–and Brown–is committing for too long a period. They’re best at the beginning because of their minds and motivational techniques. But they wear on players. The situation got so bad for Skiles in Phoenix that management said he admitted he couldn’t coach the team anymore because it had turned on him.
Quitting like that is the reputation that followed Skiles and why he received no offers until the Bulls hired him almost two years later. The lack of quality coaches and Skiles’ success with the Bulls this season will make Skiles marketable. At 41, you’d think he’d want to get $14 million in the bank now and then worry about the rest later. But, hey, that’s just me. Perhaps that’s what makes Skiles and Brown so good at dealing with NBA players, their illogic.
Several general managers I talked with about the Bulls and Skiles generally agreed the Bulls would have little trouble attracting the best coaching prospects if Skiles were to coach out his option next season.
Said one team president who has looked for a coach this season: “I can’t compete with what they have–a good young team, tradition, a great city, big-time cap room in the next year or two. They’re welcoming back their former players now. It’s a great situation.”
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And who really believes Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni, Ben Gordon, Chris Duhon, Tyson Chandler and Luol Deng would become slackers with a new coach?
It’s the players. A coach and leader is important but hardly irreplaceable.
Personalities like Brown’s and Skiles’ burn out quickly and leave a trail. There’s a huge contradiction that hangs over both. They express the best in the game for everyone, but when it comes to their futures, the demands are individual.
There’s an old saying around the NBA: “Once a player always a player.”
It’s why Skiles talks about the appropriate behavior for players and how greed is ruining the NBA and then complains about not being appreciated and being disrespected because some coach is paid more.
It’s why Brown’s mantra is to “play the right way,” and then he looks for a job while under contract and with his team deep in the playoffs.
The hypocrisies eventually undermine them, which is why they are considered short-term solutions. They’re terrific at what they do, though they could use some advice and guidance about what truly is best for them.