Former teammate Nick Anderson says Scott Skiles is a no-nonsense coach
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Scott Skiles already had three years of NBA playing experience with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers when he came to the Orlando Magic in the 1989 expansion draft.
Nick Anderson had just been the first player taken by the Magic in the college draft and was in for a little bit of culture shock which would grow into a whole lot of admiration for the tough-nosed undersized point guard.
"I knew from Day One that he was going to be a coach," Anderson said. "This is no surprise to me, him being an NBA coach. It wasn't a surprise because he was a coach on the floor. He was the extension of the coach on the floor."
After an extensive coaching career which began when Danny Ainge stepped down 20 games into the 1999-2000 season with the Phoenix Suns, Skiles has returned to Orlando to serve in that capacity with the Magic. While it's not as if he ever actually went away, given that he makes his home in nearby Mount Dora, the thought of Skiles pacing the sidelines was hard for his former teammate of five years not to envision after the Magic concluded a 25-57 season under Jacque Vaughn and interim coach James Borrego.
"When his name came up, me personally, I wanted him to be here," said Anderson, the Magic's all-time leader in games played who has served since 2006 as a community ambassador for them. "That was my own personal opinion. I wanted Scott to have this job."
Skiles reached the NBA playoffs twice with the Suns, three times with the Chicago Bulls and once with the Bucks following a 10-year playing career in which he was named in 1991 as the league's most improved player.
"He came to practice every day," Anderson said. "He came to get something out of practice. And what he got out of practice, he brought to the floor. He was gritty, he was no-nonsense, he didn't back down from anybody -- I don't care how athletic you were, how tall you were, how skilled you were."
Never was that fearlessness more evident than when the 6-foot-1 Skiles got into an altercation with Shaquille O'Neal, whose arrival before the Magic's fourth season turned the franchise into the center of national attention.
"We had just gotten our (rear ends) handed to us," Anderson said. "And the next day in practice, I wouldn't say everybody, but a lot of guys were BS-ing. He came to practice and some guys didn't, and he got upset about it. And him and Shaq had words, and they went at it. That's not fabricated. I stood there. I watched the whole thing."
Anderson had pretty much become the Magic's fulltime starter at shooting guard by the night of Dec. 30, 1990, when Skiles made NBA history by recording 30 assists in a 155-116 rout of the Denver Nuggets. Part of what Anderson recalls from that game is Skiles defiantly shouting out to no one in particular, "Can anybody check me?"
"I still remember it like it was yesterday," he said.
But as a frame of reference, currently Magic center Nikola Vucevic was only two months old at the time while Tobias Harris, Victor Oladipo, Maurice Harkless and Elfrid Payton had all not even been born. And Aaron Gordon wasn't born until September 1995, more than a year after Skiles was traded to the Washington Bullets so the Magic could create salary-cap space required to sign free agent Horace Grant.
"A lot of people out here, especially the younger people, they don't know," Anderson said. "But I personally know what he brings to the table."
During his introductory press conference Friday, Skiles said the goal for the Magic next season should be to not simply make the playoffs but finish with a winning record. That would be a huge step forward for a team which has gone 68-178 since the trading of Dwight Howard and the firings of coach Stan Van Gundy and general manager Otis Smith following the 2011-12 season.
"I'm just overjoyed inside for Scott and for the organization and for me as a fan," Anderson said.
You can follow Ken Hornack on Twitter @HornackFSFla or email him at khornack32176@gmail.com.
