In his own words: Scott Skiles

	Scott Skiles usually lets his opinions fly. John Biever/SI

The Bulls' outspoken coach provides the last word on Chicago's prohibition on headbands and its meaning in the larger world, his refusal to invent excuses for anyone and the unexpected lesson of Michael Jordan.

• On the Bulls' rule against headbands, which led Skiles to briefly bench Ben Wallace in November:

"We view ourselves as being ahead of the curve a little bit. It was clear a couple of years ago when we put the rule in that the league was moving in the direction of shorts above the knees, stand at attention at the national anthem, get your hands out of your pockets, all the things that were coming about -- I'll call it 'game decorum.'

"And we felt like a couple of things like having your shirt tucked in, things like that, were small symbols of sacrifice that mean, 'I'll go with the group on this one.' Nothing more than that. It's not that we view guys with headbands as bad guys, or not good players or team players.''

• On the shrill national reaction to the headband controversy:

"I always get labeled old school, but I just got done playing not that long ago. I was in the era when the salaries started going up; I was a beneficiary of that. And I was a beneficiary of what I'm about to say.

"Every team has an unbelievable practice facility now with a swimming pool, a steam room, a Jacuzzi and their own personal trainers who are the strength coaches. They can have massages every day, our masseuses are there every day. We have a chef who makes lunch. We drop our bag off at the airport and we never see it again until it gets in our Ritz-Carlton room. We provide a hotel for the guys to stay in on the day of the game downtown.

"I think pro athletes should be treated like that. I don't have a problem with any of that. I was treated like that.

"But then we make just two or three small rules and everybody goes, 'What are they doing?' There's a disconnect that we all stop and say, 'What's going on?' What's going on is not much; it's just two or three rules.

"These are elite athletes, and just like the elite actors they have a right to the perks that come with that. But then we need to stop for a second and realize, 'Hey, you know, a couple or three rules that are minor, that have to do with the togetherness of the team, it doesn't seem like that big a deal.' ''

• On the difficulties of young players trying to earn their next contract:

"The way this system is right now, your first contract for these guys is sort of for getting on your feet in the league, and it's the second contract where you really make your money. So we undoubtedly have some typical NBA-type stuff going on, where it doesn't make guys bad guys or anything. Guys are in this business to be professionals and make money and get paid for playing basketball.

"We've got [Andres] Nocioni and [Luol] Deng and [Ben] Gordon, and all three are eligible to be up next summer [for new contracts]. We're trying to set a standard here where if we win, we'll take care of guys. If we don't, we won't. We want that to be the important thing, not your individual stats and all that. That can be a tough sell in today's NBA, though.''

• On whether the Bulls will try to develop a superstar, or whether they will seek to emulate the Pistons with a balanced team devoid of an MVP-caliber scorer:

"It's a good question. I would answer it honestly by saying right now we're open to both.

"Would any coach or GM love to be able to pencil 25 points every game into your lineup? Absolutely. You know, the guy who gets all the attention so that maybe some of your other guys can fly under the radar: They don't want the heat and maybe that one guy allows the others to play well.''