No sooner was one Chicago coach in then another was on his way out Monday, turning what's normally a slow day into one of the wackier afternoons in city sports history.

Two hours after the Chicago Bears announced that Dick Jauron will get a contract extension after the season, Chicago Bulls coach Tim Floyd resigned.

And all of this on Christmas Eve, no less.

"Timing," Floyd said, "is never great."

No, but this was weirder than most. That either happened wasn't a surprise. It was the timing that made it all so surreal.

With the Bears 11-3 and on their way to the playoffs for the first time since 1994, there's been increasing support for Jauron to get a contract extension. But with new general manager Jerry Angelo, there was no guarantee Jauron would even make it to next season, the last on his original, four-year deal.

Angelo was hired in June, too late to make a coaching switch, so there was speculation he might want to bring in his own man.

Not so, Angelo said, he just needed time to make sure he and Jauron were comfortable working together. Of course, that six-game winning streak didn't hurt, either.

"Dick Jauron (is) very much in our future," Angelo said. "I can't be any happier in terms of the good work that Dick has done and his staff. I feel very, very comfortable with that and very comfortable with my relationship with Dick."

No details have been worked out yet, but Angelo and Jauron said they'll begin negotiations when the season ends.

"Hopefully that won't come until early February," Angelo said, smiling.

That touchy-feely atmosphere around town didn't last long, though. No sooner had Angelo and Jauron wrapped up their news conference than word came that something was brewing with Floyd at the Berto Center, the Bulls practice facility.

This wasn't really a surprise, either, with Floyd compiling an unimpressive 49-190 record in three-plus seasons. Granted, he didn't have much talent to work with, but that number of defeats can get a little hard to take.

The Bulls are 4-21 this season, the worst record in the NBA.

"This was an incredible opportunity, and things just didn't work out," Floyd said. "I would have hoped for more. I believed in this place wholeheartedly. I believed in this organization."

Assistant Bill Berry will be the interim coach, and general manager Jerry Krause said the search for a new coach could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. The Bulls' next game is Wednesday night in Memphis, Tenn.

Floyd, who had a contract that ran through the 2004-05 season and paid him a reported $2 million a year, said he doesn't know what he'll do now.

"I'll step back and review, analyze it, look at it and see where I am," he said. "I'm going to rebound from this and do fine. Change is not always a bad thing. Change can be a good thing."