Posted by Rich:

Stupid rules should be ignored.

Do you ignore stupid rules at your job?

In order to establish a true winning atmosphere you have to fall back before you go forward.

Skiles is the coach, and a fairly decent one at that. Wallace was brought in to be a leader on this young team. The coach asked the leader of the team to do something. If the coach let's the player walk all over him and just not listen to him, you get last year. If the coach and the gm don't present a united front, and let the leader of the team get away with not listening to the coach, you get what happened last year.

wearing a headband is in no way detrimental. that would be like saying you can't wear a red tie to work....it's idiotic. What makes it worse is that a headband is useful because it keeps sweat out of the eyes. sounds like skiles is trying to pick a fight with ben wallace - he's worn a headband for as long as i can remember.

Posted by joec32033:

Posted by Rich:

Stupid rules should be ignored.

Do you ignore stupid rules at your job?

In order to establish a true winning atmosphere you have to fall back before you go forward.

Skiles is the coach, and a fairly decent one at that. Wallace was brought in to be a leader on this young team. The coach asked the leader of the team to do something. If the coach let's the player walk all over him and just not listen to him, you get last year. If the coach and the gm don't present a united front, and let the leader of the team get away with not listening to the coach, you get what happened last year.

I have always hated arbitrary and capricious exercises of authority.

I complained about them when I worked for other people, and sometimes got them changed, BUT I never had the leverage that Wallace did because he is FAR more important to the organization than I ever was.

Posted by Rich:

Posted by joec32033:

Posted by Rich:

Stupid rules should be ignored.

Do you ignore stupid rules at your job?

In order to establish a true winning atmosphere you have to fall back before you go forward.

Skiles is the coach, and a fairly decent one at that. Wallace was brought in to be a leader on this young team. The coach asked the leader of the team to do something. If the coach let's the player walk all over him and just not listen to him, you get last year. If the coach and the gm don't present a united front, and let the leader of the team get away with not listening to the coach, you get what happened last year.

I have always hated arbitrary and capricious exercises of authority.

I complained about them when I worked for other people, and sometimes got them changed, BUT I never had the leverage that Wallace did because he is FAR more important to the organization than I ever was.

He is only far more important at his job than you are at yours (your word) if the GM and owner are not more committed to the coach than to the player they just signed. I personally think the loyalty is gonna fall behind Skiles on that one.

skiles and his headband rule (and we can include Jerry Sloan) is up there in stupidity with LB and lets start players based on where they are from.

This reminds me a bit of both coughlin & the giants and Mangini and the jets with their supra micromanagement, absolute style.

Skiles is making it easy for Paxon to replace him with Larry Brown.

Skiles is being overly controlling here... that's a ridiculous power play on his part that's completely unnecessary... a guy like Ben Wallace of all people is not your typical spoiled primadonna who is all about selfish play on the court... for Skiles to get into it w/this guy who just signed a huge contract to help them win a title over a lousy headband is idiotic.

hey, if CHI would trade us Big Ben for Curry & Frye, i'd take that in a heartbeat... Big Ben can wear all the headbands he wants in NY.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
A molehill of an issue
By Scoop Jackson
Page 2

Has it really come to this?

A team that is expected to be one of the elite teams in its conference and possibly battle for a trip to the NBA Finals opens the season at 4-9, and when it finally wins on the road after losing six in a row, we're sitting here talking about headbands.

Headbands?

So when Chicago Bulls coach Scott Skiles decided in the one game the Bulls had a chance to win -- one in which his $60 million man had a chance to re-establish himself as the player the team spent $60 million to sign -- that he'd sit Ben Wallace down twice to prove a point or to exercise his power (which he has the right to do), it basically gives public notice to where the team's priorities are and what's more important in the team's direction.

Get a team its defensive swagger back or bench a star player for wearing a headband. Find the defensive chemistry that wins games and stops you from losing large leads in the second half of games or bench a star player for wearing a headband. Develop a consistent offensive rotation so that each player knows what his exact role is from game to game or bench a star player for wearing a headband.

The choice is theirs.

And the Chicago Bulls choose to be more concerned about professional images and subliminal messages sent.

The headband rule began before Wallace came to the Bulls. Apparently the execs and hierarchy didn't like the way Eddie Robinson and Eddy Curry were rocking theirs. Too black, too wrong.

So general manager John Paxson (not Skiles) instituted (mandated, whatever word is most appropriate here) a team policy, similar to George Steinbrenner's facial hair and grooming policy with the Yankees, that when playing for the Chicago Bulls you cannot wear headbands. And upon being hired by Paxson, Skiles inherited the rule and it became his responsibility to protect it.

Cool.

But why Wallace pictured in the team's media guide wearing a headband? Why has the organization created marketing material that allowed the players to wear headbands?

Why is there this standard double?

But I'll digress.

True, BW might have crossed the line or been insubordinate Saturday night, but let's be very real here: This has nothing to do with rules. Headbandgate (as it is now being called) has everything to do with an exercise of power in the middle of a storm that no one inside the Bulls organization has an answer for.

I say that because I truly believe had the Bulls won every game as opposed to losing every game on their road trip going into Saturday's game against the Knicks, this would not be an issue.

If the Bulls were 9-4 instead of 4-9, above the Pistons instead of tied with the Bucks in the Central Division standings, the issue of Wallace and the team's headband policy would have been squashed, if it ever even surfaced.

But losing has a way of making a molehill Rushmore.

This is no different.

But since it is out -- since Wallace said after shootaround Tuesday according to reports, "If you know the rules and break them, you expect to be punished. I can't try to put myself above the team or anybody else and wear a headband like I did. I'm man enough to take the punishment. But I'm not sorry." -- let's put this entire Gloria Monty-inspired soap opera into perspective.

The Bulls and Wallace have issues so much bigger than this to deal with that it's insane this is being given this much attention, an A-List topic on "Quite Frankly." The grievance that the players' union already has with the League over its issue with Jermaine O'Neal wearing a wristband too high up on his arm (he was fined $5,000), doesn't deserve attention either, but is another mini-Rushmore issue.

See, what Wallace should do, since he's on this defiant trip, is tell Paxson, "OK, I'll abide by the headband rule if you stop letting (or giving away, as the Bulls did during the home opener to welcome him) fans wear those back-to-slavery Buckwheat wigs during games."

Think that'll happen?

Never. Because, like honestly dealing with why the team is losing, the Bulls really don't want to deal with real issues of professional image and subliminal messages being sent.

Scoop Jackson is a national columnist for Page 2 and a contributor to ESPN The Magazine. He appears regularly on "Quite Frankly" and other ESPN shows. He resides in Chicago. Sound off to Scoop and Page 2 here.

Posted by nyk4ever:

I think the rule is stupid but the fact is, it's a rule. I don't think Skiles would be enforcing with the rule without some backing from management so I don't see the problem here. I think it's really stupid but what can you do, it's a team rule.

There is backing from management. In the pregame, SKiles was interviewed and said "it was a rule that Paxson and I came up with..."

Posted by Bonn1997:

Dumb rules SHOULD be broken. Wear a beard if you're a Yankee or a headband if you're a Bull.

How many dumb rules have you broken at your job?

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by joec32033:

Posted by Bonn1997:

Dumb rules SHOULD be broken. Wear a beard if you're a Yankee or a headband if you're a Bull.

How many dumb rules have you broken at your job?

I'm a grad student; we have no rules! Maybe that's why I don't appreciate rules enough!

LOL!