Link:</p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> A day after suggesting Joakim Noah should keep quiet, Bulls coach Scott Skiles phoned the rookie forward and told him to go ahead and say whatever he wants.</p> <p class="News">Skiles delivered his free-speech edict to squelch the idea that he has any sort of problem with Noah.</p> <p class="News">"I don't understand that," Skiles said before Thursday's game. "That's the kind of thing that makes someone like me not really like most of you, to be honest with you. I said it in a very light-hearted manner, just taking a little jab at the rookie.</p> <p class="News">"So now I had to call Joakim this morning. I wanted to make it perfectly clear with him -- I want him to say whatever he wants to say. I love his personality. Really, one of the first times since I've been here I felt like I was treated unfairly, to be honest with you."</p> <p class="News">This all started late Tuesday night after the Bulls lost to the Los Angeles Clippers. After most of the other Bulls had left the locker room, Noah talked about how the team wasn't playing together.</p> <p class="News">When the quote was relayed to Skiles the next day at practice, he responded, "If I had just played my first game, I'd probably keep my mouth shut, to be honest with you."</p> <p class="News">Noah seemed dejected when he first heard what Skiles said. But following Thursday's win over Detroit, Noah worked hard to stay on the coach's good side.</p> <p class="News">"He can say what he wants, and I'll listen to what he has to say," Noah said. "I think it was blown out of context, too. I don't think I said anything that was trying to hurt the team or anything and I felt like the media tried to make it a division between me and Coach Skiles. As a rookie, you don't want to have too many divisions with your coach."</div></p> <p class="News">I think that sounds about right. Kind of. I think Skiles was a little bit frustrated and probably didn't say that in some sort of "light-hearted" way. But I do have a picture that the media guys immediately sort of ran over and told it to Noah in a shit-starting sort of way.</p>
I liked what I saw from Noah last night.</p> If Thomas can play like last night consistently, he and Noah will be a formidable pair in the front court, right about the time the Bulls have to trade away Gordon, Hinrich, or Deng to make cap space to sign them both </p>
I think PJ would have just been clearer that he was being "light-hearted". I've noticed Skiles has a bit of a voice modulation problem that perhaps explains why he's sometimes misinterpreted.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> I liked what I saw from Noah last night.</p> If Thomas can play like last night consistently, he and Noah will be a formidable pair in the front court, right about the time the Bulls have to trade away Gordon, Hinrich, or Deng to make cap space to sign them both </p> </div></p> </p> How about getting rid of Wallace, too?</p> BTW, welcome, Darius Miles Davis! Hope you enjoy S2.</p>
