Chicago ? When Scott Skiles walked away from the Phoenix Suns midway through the 2002 season, he knew he wasn’t done with basketball.

How could he be? The game was so ingrained in him as a child in hoops-hyper Indiana that it became much more than just a sport. It’s his hobby. What he does to relax. His passion.

“I love being around the game, being around the players,” he said. “I could sit all day and talk basketball with coaches.”

So Skiles went back home to Indiana, knowing he’d coach again someday.

“I wasn’t really worried about it,” he said. “I felt like sooner or later, it would come back around.”

The wait proved to be worth it. When Chicago Bulls general manager John Paxson fired Bill Cartwright Nov. 24, he went looking for someone with grit and determination. Someone who wasn’t afraid of a challenge. Someone with fire. Someone who was a ferocious competitor.

He went looking for Skiles, making him the Bulls’ coach.

“Guys that haven’t been handed anything, you know how they got here. They worked hard and they had to do things that maybe some of our young guys in this league haven’t had to do,” Paxson said. “I appreciate that background because you know they’re going to give you an honest effort every day.”

The Bulls, who started the season 4-12 before Skiles was hired, are 1-1 under their new coach going into tonight’s home game against the New Orleans Hornets.

Like so many other Indiana kids, Skiles grew up playing basketball. Raised in Plymouth, a city of less than 10,000 about 20 miles from South Bend, he still has a prominent place in Indiana prep lore.

Skiles led Plymouth to the 1982 state championship, a 75-74 double-overtime victory over Gary Roosevelt. He forced overtime with a basket at the buzzer, then scored eight points in the second OT. He was named tournament MVP, and his 39 points tied Oscar Robertson for second-most in an Indiana championship game.

At 6-foot-1, he was overlooked by most big schools, including Indiana and Purdue. So he went to Michigan State, where he became an All-American. He averaged more than 27 points and almost seven assists in his senior season, and still ranks among Michigan State’s all-time leaders in points, assists and steals.

Drafted by Milwaukee in the first round of the 1986 draft, he spent 10 gritty years in the NBA. He still holds the NBA record for assists in a game with 30, and he was the league’s most improved player in 1990, when he averaged a career-best 17.2 points and 8.4 assists.

“Even when I played, I always thought I got too much credit for playing too hard, just because I made more facial expressions or appeared to dive on the ground more,” Skiles said. “There were a lot of guys I played with who initially I thought maybe they weren’t playing that hard. After looking at tapes, I realized they were just smooth. They were playing hard, they just weren’t as herky-jerky.”

After retiring in 1996, he coached in Greece, then became an assistant in Phoenix. When Danny Ainge resigned in December 1999, Skiles took over.

Though the Suns were 116-79 and made the playoffs twice under Skiles, his no-nonsense, in-your-face attitude rubbed some of his players the wrong way — most notably Jason Kidd. Finally, in February 2002, he walked away.

“It wasn’t working,” Skiles said. “I read that I resigned and I read they fired me. I guess it was both at the same time, or whatever. I had a great couple of years there, I enjoyed it, it just didn’t work out.”

The 39-year-old coach was confident another job was out there, but his reputation seemed to scare some teams off. The Bulls were certainly worried, forward Corie Blount in particular.

Blount and Skiles had clashed in Phoenix, with Blount eventually getting traded.

“I told these guys, point blank, based on the situation we had in Phoenix … We were up a creek,” Blount said.

But Skiles had learned from his experience in Phoenix. When he was hired, he called Blount and apologized. Said it again in front of the rest of the team, too.

And then Skiles said that everyone — players and coach — was starting from scratch. Any preconceived notions or reputations were going to be tossed out.

“The way he approached the team, I think that’s what won everybody over,” Blount said. “Instead of just saying, ‘We want you here,’ he told them he wanted them here and he explained why. Why you’re in this position and how you can benefit from being in this position. I think guys caught onto that real quick.”

They were won over by his enthusiasm, too. You only have to spend a few minutes with Skiles to know how much he loves this game. In the days before cable, he used to stay up late to watch games on tape-delay.

He watched so many games on television after he left Phoenix that he didn’t need a crash course on the league when he returned.

“Coach Skiles, he wants you to play like you did when you were a kid,” point guard Jamal Crawford said. “Just have fun.”