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Chapter 1: Why did Billy Donovan step down as head coach of the Bulls?
Billy Donovan is stepping down from the Bulls. The Bulls' exact terminology is that he stepped away as head coach, which we didn't know what was going to happen. Here is the biggest quote that was issued. This from the press release. Shams Sharani reporting it earlier.
After a series of thoughtful and extensive discussions with ownership regarding the future of the organization, I have decided to step away as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls to allow the search process to unfold. I believe it is in the best interest of the Bulls to allow the new leader to build out the staff as they see fit. My gratitude for this community and this organization is permanent.
Thank you, Jerry Reinsdorf and Michael Reinsdorf for giving me this opportunity and more importantly for the relationship that has been forged. I was so blessed to be able to work with such great owners. I owe so much to my players and staff over the last six years. You all have worked side by side with me day in and day out to drive the Bulls organization forward.
And a huge thank you to Bulls fans. Your energy, passion, and unwavering support provided a home court advantage that is generally unmatched around the league. Marshall, I feel like Billy took one for the team.
Bulls fans have to be believing that their prayers have been answered with this news because we knew that it was headed down a very difficult, not impossible, but very difficult road to navigate if the head coach is allowed to stay and then you bring in executive leadership above him that he has a say in to a degree because that's what Michael Reinsdorf outlined that would happen and that was their hope and their wish is that Billy Donovan would continue to be the head coach and
They would go out, they would find a GM or a vice president or a president of basketball operations who saw fit to work with Billy Donovan. Because in their minds, if you don't want to work with Billy Donovan, and I'm quoting here, you're probably not the right candidate for the job. Those are scary thoughts.
And so Billy Donovan, in ducking out and now doing whatever it is he wants to do, and I wish Billy the best in whatever route he decides to embark on after this Bulls job, he's giving the Bulls a chance to clear everything out, a real reset in that whoever comes in now can bring their staff as far as front office and hire the coaches that they want to lead this team into its next iteration.
Yeah, you and I talked about this, was we were trying to figure out If you're searching for a GM, how much your candidate pool gets limited? Understanding that I believe in the Reinsdorf's eyes and Michael's eyes that he didn't want to punish Billy Donovan for being functional in a dysfunctional atmosphere.
where there wasn't a clear direction when it came to understanding what Arturas Karnaschovas and Mark Eversley was doing, where Billy was trying to coach the players to still win, he was still trying to do his job. Now, in the greater picture of it is tanking and understanding what that looks like in the NBA. And the coach has to play along with that.
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Chapter 2: What impact did Billy Donovan have on the Chicago Bulls during his tenure?
sees how this thing falls apart at the very end, and then is offered or at least considered to be either part of a Brad Stevens type of role where he moves up into the front office or he's in a role where he becomes more of a factor in how the Bulls move forward as the future. He had everything in front of him. And decided at 60 years old, this isn't what I want to do right now. And steps away.
That is the most honest place I could think of to be in when it comes to all of this.
I think another thing, if we're being honest, the Bulls, as they go through their rebuild, unlike that Oklahoma City team, that team that didn't win 25 games in back-to-back seasons, at least you had a future MVP on the roster in Shea Gilchrist Alexander. That doesn't...
sit in front of you on this Bulls team in a year in which, yes, they have a couple of draft picks, including a chance at winning the lottery, or at least moving up to the top of that lottery. I think for Billy Donovan now, the opportunity comes, hey, let's see what shakes out around the rest of the NBA. We know Doc Rivers just said he's done coaching basketball in Milwaukee.
We know that there's other cities with good players who... Let's be honest. If they don't go deep enough in the playoffs, leadership may change. Billy Donovan now might have his pick of jobs to choose from where he doesn't have to do any of the things we've just been talking about.
Well, that's it. And I know that he was reportedly given a contract extension last season after he interviewed with the Knicks job. And I wonder how much that weighs on him as well. There's another franchise where you want to know what direction they're going in. I know they're in the playoffs right now.
But when you consider that could be Billy Donovan coaching that team, that Tibbs gets fired, you know, Tom Thibodeau, former Bulls head coach, gets let go after the first time they make the Eastern Conference Finals in 25 years. And nothing's guaranteed.
But when you can't see your future like you just talked about, when you don't necessarily have the bevy of first round picks, that the thunder was really accruing at that time. When you don't have a future MVP or at least somebody you feel like is a real star. And this is of no discredit to Modest Buzellas or to Josh Giddey, but SGA had that pedigree in college too.
So when you have that building block and what was in place and what they were trying to do, I think it gives you a more clear picture of what Billy Donovan wanted to do. And that's why I wasn't as big on the, was this an internal power play? And I think given the Bulls history as a franchise, I understand why that's an incredibly reasonable question to ask.
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Chapter 3: How does stepping down affect the Bulls' future direction?
So if you feel like you need to talk ball anytime, I'm just issuing an open invitation because you and I both love to hear that man just talk hoops.
Because he is so able to explain things in layman's terms about the game itself. His passion for the sport comes through
with the way he's so thoughtful in every answer that he gives, regardless of the topic concerning his time at the Bulls and what he was trying to do, what the players as individuals were trying to do, what the organizational goals were, because we know who was not available to talk about those things over the course of the regular season.
Right, and front office didn't. Arturis Karnaschovas and Mark Eversley left that to Billy Donovan. And now that the direction is completely wide open for the Bulls, This is the hard part.
That would be a no.
Joe Kelly also putting out his article today at the Sun-Times, by the way. Bulls coach Billy Donovan steps away after six seasons at the helm. And he had an interesting quote in here, Marshall, that I think is worth listening to or reading right here on 104.3 The Score. He goes back to a couple of quotes that he had weeks ago. When I got into coaching, I never did it for the money piece of it.
And I never really did it for notoriety. I love the game. I love competing. And I felt like outside my parents, the people who had the most influence on me in my life were the guys that coached me. I never really thought, hey, listen, I'm going to get into the coaching because I want to be in the Hall of Fame.
I wanted to get into coaching to win in the competing part and try to get a group of guys to compete. So I never looked at it from a legacy standpoint as much as the season comes to an end. How are we going to work to get into a place where we're really competing and how do we build this out moving forward? Those are the things we need to talk about.
That didn't sound like somebody who wanted to be part of a rebuild where we don't necessarily know what the assets are and we don't necessarily know what the direction is yet.
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Chapter 4: What challenges does the Bulls' front office face in finding a new coach?
There's only 30 of these, so anybody wants this job. It's a big market. It's an ownership group that doesn't like to make change. Are there some, you know, constraints, quote unquote, you know, from their longstanding history of, you know, paying the luxury tax only if you're in championship contention? Sure. But, you know, these books are clean.
And this was reported, including by me that first day. I mean, I think one of our tourists' biggest disappointments in this is that, you know, he not only inherited a very good situation from John Paxson and Gar Foreman, but he's leaving a very good situation to whomever succeeds him. I mean, so it was I would say that Portland pick was an asset. regardless because it was sitting there.
But now that it's a reality, sure, that just makes this situation, you know, you can attack this offseason and make a pretty big dent in what you need to do if you make the right moves, you know, to getting this team back into contention.
Casey Johnson on with Mully and Hawk. I made a comment earlier in the week on Mully and them. Them boys. Talking about the Bulls and the Bulls' job being attractive. And Casey is 100% right. It's way more attractive now that there are two first-round picks. And we'll see what ends up happening at the draft lottery and where the Bulls end up picking. But it's a...
It's definitely an attractive job because there's opportunity here, the sleeping giant idea of the Bulls being a sleeping giant. But it's going to need someone who is motivated and smart and is ahead of trends or sees trends that can be gotten to versus reacting to trends, which it feels like the Acme group was kind of doing.
Boy, it is a sleeping giant, but that is a deep sleep. This is some Rumpelstiltskin type stuff here that like, you know, like decades of sleep. And now this is a place that doesn't have a coach, doesn't have a GM, doesn't Doesn't have, you know, strong, aggressive ownership, frankly, unless it gets sort of redirected by a baseball executive or basketball executive that it believes in.
Its best two players are a young, modest Bozellis and Josh Giddey. And the rest of the roster is really, really bad. And yeah, there are a couple of picks in what could be a very good draft, but it's a big bus that's going to make a slow turn. It's a giant in a deep sleep. But at least it's a cleaner sleep now after what Billy Donovan did for the organization today.
Yeah, I feel very strongly that, and honestly, I'm so relieved today Because I did not want to think of Billy as being so selfish because he's never come off that way. And him staying in that gig and staying as the head coach, knowing, like him knowing that that's not how any of this works and it never works out well.
I'm so glad that his integrity stays intact where we can hold him up and be like, this is the way that a professional adult should act.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Billy Donovan's departure for the Bulls' roster?
Their wrongheadedness was exposed yet again. From Jerry, quote, we wanted Billy to continue as our head coach. That was never in question. But through honest conversations, we all agreed that giving our new dot, dot, dot. Michael, in part, quote, while we clearly wanted Billy to return as our head coach, we had open dialogue about the importance of respecting the process.
Together, we mutually agreed, dot, dot, dot. It is amazing. Billy saved the Reinsdorf from themselves from themselves. It is without a doubt. And even in their carefully prepared PR driven statements, Billy had to explain to the owners that this is not how pro sports works. It's just not. Imagine owning a franchise and thinking that this is the right way to do it.
Everybody knew it was the wrong way to do it, including Billy, who didn't even want any part of it. It's amazing.
I love that even in those final moments of him having to look out for the organization speaks. Even in the final moments of him being here, it's like, no, guys, that's not how any of this works.
I mean, remember even just a few years ago when an architect of a baseball rebuild ā is denied the opportunity to choose the manager to see it to fruition. The owner thought that any old guy, including his old buddy La Russa, could come in and finish the job that Rick Hahn started. And La Russa's existence made sure that it wasn't going to finish the right way.
It ensured that it wasn't going to finish the right way. We all know it. Here they are, a few years later, still thinking they could let a coach drive the bus, even in a sport like basketball, where we know the head coach does not drive the damn bus.
That's why I keep extolling Billy's virtue. Because a less virtuous person, a less serious person, sits here and takes their money and takes their adoration and stays on the job even though he knows that it's not the right thing to do. And it's what should have happened in 2020 with Tony La Russa. He should have just said no. It's like, no, I'm not going to do this.
This doesn't feel right at all. And imagine where the White Sox as an organization could have been if there had been that level of honor.
That is a great point by you. And remember what I was told by somebody who knew Tony very well. When I asked this person, I can't believe Tony took this job. He's got to know. And look at him. And the person said, quote, narcissism is a bitch, unquote. Like, Tony was... In no way was Tony ever going to say, I'm not right for this job. Or this isn't how this should work. Or no, I'm not the guy.
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Chapter 6: How does Billy Donovan's coaching style fit into the NBA landscape?
It's not modern, ruthless, let's win at sports.
I don't even think that it needs to be ruthless. And I do appreciate that that is one of the things that... that people think about Jerry Reinsdorf is the idea of him taking care of people. And you and I both know people who have benefited from the loyalty from the top down. But in some cases, that loyalty has put...
them organizationally in a trick bag, whether we're talking about the White Sox or the Bulls, you don't have to be cutthroat. You just have to be forward-thinking. And there are times when I feel like they're not, like they're not seeing it, which is part of the reason why I didn't like Michael speaking until we got word on what Billy was going to do.
And now that you, like those are conversations that, quite honestly, could have happened behind closed doors. The idea of, no, guys, seriously, you don't want me as the head coach while you're trying to hire a basketball executive. And then you can come out and say, at the end of it, after Billy's made his decision and everyone is made aware of it, you look like a more buttoned up, smarter orc.
Other than Billy having to save you from making a mistake. I think those qualities and keeping good people around them has been really solid for different realms of the organization. But when it comes to competing with the very best... In the particular sports, you got to be a little bit more ruthless. You have to be a little bit more when it comes to the competitive components of it.
You can get away with some of this on the business side, but on the competitive side, it's like it's like all those times like. assistant coaches and members of a coaching staff were left around for multiple managerial regimes because they were good soldiers. Like, at a certain point, you're not coaching up your prospects well enough because you don't have good people around.
It can come back and bite you in the ass.
And it can be uncomfortable. Like, it can be uncomfortable for the people that are in charge because you then wonder, wait, is this person... Is this person tricking off? Like, is this person talking about to the owner what it is that's going on in the clubhouse or what's going on in the locker room? And in some cases, in the Bulls and White Sox history, that was exactly the case.
So here's the question. Because of their good fortune at being advised correctly and their decision in trying to do it, The Bears hired Ben Johnson, who turned everything around. In basketball, it has to be an executive. And now, look, overall, for the search, this is good news. As much as we respect Billy, as much as it shines a light back on the dysfunction up top, this is good news.
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Chapter 7: What are the potential candidates for the Bulls' coaching position?
John Paxson was kind of cooking like the Jimmy Butler draft pick happened when Matt Lloyd was here. And that's one of the great value draft picks, like certainly in the history of the franchise and really overall in the league. That's a guy who went, what, 25? You got Jimmy Butler, 25. And when you think about that and what he's accomplished in his career, and there were some other draft picks.
I mean, Taj Gibson as a draft pick down low in round one happens when Matt Lloyd is here. There are, So look, so maybe John Paxson as an advisor without full power is just fine. As long as a guy like Matt Lloyd is here, if he's strong enough of personality to truly have that top job.
When it comes to Matt Lloyd, who I've known for a really long time and who I like, we haven't talked in a long time, but I like that guy and I've liked his approach to it. With him, I wonder if the familiarity, he was a kid when he was here. I do wonder, is that one of those things where he might still be seen as that? Right.
You know, like he walks back into the building and it's like, oh, wow, man, when you were 24 and you were starting out here in the media department. Oh, we love that. Like, no, I'm a full grown man who's been running basketball organizations for the last 15 years.
It's a great point, and we don't know. It takes a very specific kind of set of stones to fight through that and be like, hey, man, I'm here, but this is my show now. And that's an extra level. It's an extra level that you've got to go and show. I mean, some people might not be interested in that. Some people might think they're up for it and not realize what an actual challenge it is, etc.
And that's a personal dynamic that needs to be scouted really well. In that situation.
We'll have more on this as we get more candidates and we hear more stuff about the Bulls. But if you're just joining us, Billy has stepped down and now the deck is cleared and the Bulls can go and figure out how they want to run their basketball operation.
I'm sorry, but today is the day for us to really focus on this. I'm glad we are, Lawrence. But the Steve Kerr thing and the Bob Myers thing, but really the Steve Kerr thing, if he does leave Golden State, we're going to have to do deep dives on what Steve wants to do with the rest of his basketball life.
Alex, get those folders together.
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Chapter 8: How will the Bulls navigate the rebuilding process after Donovan?
But generally, if you're operating under the guise of a clean slate, like this was the phrase I believe Michael used, There's no such thing as a clean slate if you're not allowing your next decision maker to really build out a staff. And that's not just the front office. That's a coaching staff and get someone who is aligned in his vision.
Sure, if this was Dennis Lindsay or Matt Lloyd or whoever they might call on, maybe it doesn't take long for them to get aligned with Billy. But I did think it was... Sure. It wasn't the best way to begin your search. And to Billy's credit, I imagine Billy saw the writing on the wall. And to me, a lot of this signals there is going to be a rebuild.
And we've known for some time now who Billy Donovan is, and he's wired to be competitive.
And
He's tried to do it with some really poor rosters, this year included, where Yabusele is like their one active big for a lot of the time. And it just wasn't enough. Not to mention the sort of turbulent personal year.
He had and in the statement they released today, he basically says like he wanted to step down to get out of the way for them to sort of build out a new staff, which I thought was honorable. So there's a lot of variables to this. But bottom line is like, look, it looks like the Bulls could really. do a rebuild now.
And they, they, they're looking at two new hiring processes where they can actually bring in a decision maker. They can trust to fulfill that. And now they're going to have to bring in a coach that can sort of raise the floor on that pretty soon. And then maybe eventually raise the ceiling on that too.
I mean, taking super garbage teams and one with them, Joel, is a bar. That might be like something you put on the resume. Super garbage is an incredible term to use.
You know, you had some garbage, you saw it in the phone booth, you put a cape on it, it came out, it was super garbage. I get it. I get it, Joel, because that's what we're looking at here.
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