One month after coaching the final playoff game of a storybook Bulls season, Scott Skiles won’t be with the organization after the 2005-06 season–if his $2.75 million option for that season even is picked up.
Such decisions now face general manager John Paxson after talks on a contract extension collapsed and ended Monday in an avalanche of frustration, exasperation and sadness.
Asked in a phone interview if he even wanted to return as a lame-duck coach next season, a shell-shocked Skiles said he needed time to think.
“I have to let this sink in,” Skiles said. “I have a lot of thinking to do about my future. There are a lot of people I still respect in the organization that I don’t want to say anything that isn’t well thought out.”
Paxson declined to comment but has told confidantes he could work with Skiles in such a capacity. Nate McMillan coached a Seattle team that advanced to the second round this season after he failed to secure an extension.
But analogies and precedents weren’t the order of a day that began with Skiles and his longtime adviser Keith Glass asking for closure on talks–one way or the other–and ended with a bad taste in both sides’ mouths.
“I’ve been fairly shocked by the whole process,” Skiles said. “I guess at 41 I haven’t coached that long that I had a certain naivete about where this team has been and where we’d gotten it to that this wouldn’t be a prolonged, difficult process. Keith and I are reasonable people who thought this would be pretty simple to do. We thought wrong.”
Even the principals involved in the negotiations seemed confused by Monday’s collapse, especially since sources said a new four-year, $16 million offer fell just $1 million off the midpoint or compromise figure from when both sides made their first proposals.
Previously, Skiles’ camp rejected a four-year, $17 million offer first reported by the Tribune, of which $14 million was guaranteed.
Skiles and Glass said the collapse didn’t come down to money.
“The constant stating of our case, that’s what wore on us,” Skiles said. “It really got to a point where I said to Keith, `Let’s stop selling me.’ I’m not comfortable with that anyway. Their argument will be, `What do you mean we didn’t want him?’
“But I’ve got a pretty small but deep set of principles about how I conduct business. And ultimately, that’s what has happened here. The way this has been conducted is so far from the principles of how I do business.”
Glass, who has advised Skiles for 20 years, was even more direct, blaming Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s publicly stated stance that he wouldn’t negotiate with representation for coaches or managers.
“How would this play out in the papers if I said, `I’m not talking to the owner. I’m negotiating only with the general manager,'” Glass asked. “They would’ve hung me from a pole. That’s their whole tenor of the negotiations.
“You’re telling Scott you’re not entitled to representation. Forget the fact that I’m Scott’s family. What kind of statement is that? How could anybody in Chicago have one question in mind about what went on here? There’s history.”
Despite Paxson’s constant claims he wanted Skiles here for the long term, warning signs began showing during the season that an extension wouldn’t be reached. Skiles, according to multiple team sources, expressed concern to staff members that Reinsdorf was stalling the process and believed coaching was replaceable.
Sources close to the negotiations said a huge blow to Skiles’ camp came when one proposal included a stipulation that if Skiles were fired after two years, the remainder of the guaranteed money would be paid out over a 20-year period.
“There’s a difference in opinion not only about value but the way you reward somebody for a job well done,” Glass said. “They don’t understand how to do that, and that’s a very unfortunate thing.
“We’re not [ticked] off. We’re disappointed because it’s insulting the way that [Reinsdorf] does business. It’s aggravating. You turn around and say, `Do I really want to work here or not?’ This is the owner. People in Chicago have seen this happen before. This is a shame because the success should’ve been celebrated. But the tone was never that way.”
A post-business hours call left at Reinsdorf’s office wasn’t returned.
The final flurry of negotiations gives a window to the differences in perception over respect or a lack thereof.
According to sources, one Bulls offer included tearing up the $2.75 million option for 2005-06 and paying Skiles an average of $4 million for three seasons, with a team option for the fourth season that guaranteed $2 million of a $5 million salary.
Skiles’ camp wanted a guaranteed fourth year, sources said, mostly because the uncertainty over Eddy Curry’s heart condition, Tyson Chandler’s motivation level when he gets paid and a desire to save salary-cap room for the summer of 2006 could make next season a step backward.
Sources said the Bulls responded with this latest proposal that left the $2.75 million option intact and guaranteed the next three seasons at a total package of $16 million.
The Bulls saw this offer as a strong four-year deal. Skiles’ camp saw this as only a three-year extension–and, thus, the different perceptions in a nutshell.
Skiles said he’s ready for the criticism to start.
“The greedy thing to do would be to take the money,” he said. “But there’s also a tone to all negotiations where you get a feel if you’re wanted. I’m not all about money.”
Paxson has until June 30 to figure out if Skiles will return as a lame duck or if he’ll cut him loose and find a new coach.
“That would make more sense,” Glass said. “We know what’s coming. Every loss now, it’s going to be turned on Scott. I’ve got more faith in the people of Chicago to see through that.”
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this strange saga is the strong bond that remains between Skiles and Paxson, according to multiple team sources. After being out of the league for 21 months, Paxson hired Skiles in December 2003 to do exactly what he did last season.
And now, 18 months later, Skiles knows he won’t much longer be coaching a team he so loved that he would call Glass several times daily to praise its effort.
“Even though the tone was becoming very distasteful to me, I still held out hope all along that we’d work something out,” Skiles said. “When you’re the worst team in the league for six years and have the third-best record in the Eastern Conference, everybody contributed. I don’t believe I’ve given the impression that I wasn’t grateful for all the help.
“And if they bring me back, I’d talk to the guys about us still playing hard.”
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kcjohnson@tribune.com
