Hornacek says he shares similarities with Paxson

Now 45, Hornacek -- who had a 14-year NBA playing career -- spent about five hours Friday trying to convince Bulls general manager John Paxson that he'd be the right man to coach his hometown team.

''I always felt I would coach someday,'' Hornacek said in a telephone interview after meeting with Paxson. ''I felt like my coaches looked at me as a coach on the floor, and I tried to take that responsibility. Before I got to the NBA, I probably never thought I'd coach in the league. Before then, I thought I'd probably end up coaching a college team.''

Hornacek, who said he thought his meeting with Paxson went well, believes he can strike the right balance between offense and defense, given the coaches he played for: Iowa State's Johnny Orr in college and Phoenix's Cotton Fitzsimmons and Utah's Jerry Sloan in the NBA.

''I've been blessed with having some great coaches,'' Hornacek said. ''With Cotton, we didn't have a lot of set plays. He was more about pushing the ball up the court and trusting you. He was very positive, very upbeat and just gave us great confidence. He would tell you taking an open 18-foot jumper early in the shot clock was just as good as a layup in the final seconds. Johnny Orr was a lot like that, too.''

Having played under Jerry Sloan for a number of years, I think we could do much worse than Hornacek as coach.