Oakley, coach feud over substitutions

CHICAGO -- A blowout that turned into a blowup has chilled this Windy City's NBA basketball team.

On Friday, a day after suffering the most lopsided loss in team history, the Chicago Bulls fined Charles Oakley $50,000 for criticizing coach Tim Floyd in comments to reporters.

Oakley's comments were part of a war of words between the player brought in to provide leadership for his young teammates -- two of which were in high school last year -- and the coach.

After Thursday night's 127-74 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Floyd had called the players' effort "pathetic" and said, "We couldn't have beaten a snappy junior-high team."

Oakley responded by questioning Floyd's coaching and wondered if the way Floyd substituted players was tantamount to throwing in the towel.

No cooling off

Friday, if anyone was thinking a night's sleep would give the parties time to cool off, they were wrong. At the Bulls training facility in Deerfield, Oakley, Floyd and Jerry Krause, the team's general manager, took turns taking shots.

"They're used to losing like this," said Oakley. "They don't win but 15 games a year. It's different breeds I guess. Different breeds of coaches and players. I guess I'm too old for the game."

Oakley, a 17-year NBA veteran, questioned whether Floyd's substitutions suggested he was throwing in the towel.

"You don't take out five veterans and put in five young guys," he said. "It's happened before, but I don't think in the first quarter. Sometimes, teams down 20 points make runs and get back in the game."

For their part, neither Floyd nor Krause was in a mood to be questioned by Oakley.

"I'm going to continue to make substitutions, and I'm not seeking our players' approval," said an obviously angry Floyd. "Not Charles Oakley or anybody else."

Floyd, in his fourth year as a pro coach, also suggested Oakley didn't have the right to question his coaching.

"Guys that typically speak out usually are putting up big numbers," he said. "And I haven't seen those numbers from our guy.

"When you lay down like we did last night, the best place to start is with yourself."

Returning the favor

Floyd even turned Oakley's criticism of his decision to cancel Thursday morning's shoot-around back around at the player.

"We were going to practice, but we were two hours late getting to the plane because we had a veteran late getting to the plane. His name was Oakley," Floyd said.

Krause called Thursday night's game "the worst we've played since I've been here," but he thought Oakley's comments to the media were inappropriate.

"If Charles had a problem, he should have gone to Tim and expressed it there," said Krause. "Everybody has the right to express opinions. I just want them to do it in private."

Krause called the fine one of the largest in NBA history and said it might be the first from the Bulls for player speaking out.