Casey Holdahl: Tiago Splitter is a great up-and-coming head coach
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Rahimi Harris and Grody, middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 The Score. I think we, me and Michael, and it's going to be done collaboratively, we want the right guy. And if I said... You're picking him. Oh yeah, I'm picking him. I picked you, you get to pick the coach. Absolutely.
Welcome back in. Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. Michael Reinsdorf, the owner. And Bryson Graham, the executive VP of basketball operations for the Chicago Bulls. And a hiring has been made. If you didn't hear about it, that would be Tiago Splitter. who was 42-40 as the interim head coach of the Portland Trailblazers last year. He is to be introduced to the media tomorrow around 3 p.m., so we'll learn a lot more. In the meantime, we do continue to learn more about Tiago Splitter, and I think we have the perfect person because Casey Holdall, covered the the blazers for 18 years including last year the year of tiago splitter so i think that we're going to get a pretty good insightful talk right here with casey what's going on casey how are you i'm doing great how you guys doing we are doing well did the bulls make a good hire and bringing tiago splitter here
I believe they did. I think that Tiago is a is a great up and coming coach, obviously a guy who, you know, a former player has championship experience as a player in a great organization. San Antonio Spurs goes through the assistant coaching ranks in the NBA for a while. Heads to Europe, takes the reins in Paris, wins a championship there, comes to Portland to join Chauncey Billups' staff. They remade the entire staff basically under Chauncey Billups in his last season, bringing in a bunch of guys who basically didn't really know each other. And I don't think really had a whole lot of experience with each other, but a strong staff, a lot of guys who. You know, had a lot of great experiences in various other organizations, kind of brought a little something different.
Tiago, one of the only former players other than Chauncey on the staff. And so he kind of brought that mentality. And then obviously things go sideways and he steps into the head chair. And I thought did a really great job. He's he's an incredibly sharp basketball mind. He's a great motivator. He's he's. When you're a former player as a coach, you've got to straddle the line between the things that made you successful as a player and dialing some of those things back to deal with other athletes. I thought he was great doing that. He's honest. He has a good way of... of getting to players. So yeah, I think particularly for a, for a young team like the bulls, I think that Tiago is a, is a great hire. I think he's going to be successful there.
And I'm happy for him to Tiago, just also a great guy, really easy to work with again, as a journalist, the guy who, who shoots you straight is honest. And, you know, he's, he's obviously an international, a Brazilian. And I think a lot of times, you know, a little less guarded sometimes for some of the international folks that come to the NBA when they're talking about teams and players. So I think, you know, I think he's going to do a great job with the team. I think it's going to be great for you guys to work with from a media perspective. And I'm curious to see how it goes there, because I was really impressed with the year that Thiago had here in Portland.
And Casey, you mentioned it, but it's the sideways part of it for me that really I wanted to ask you about and really get into how unique the situation was that forced him into the head coaching role in Portland. How tough was that for him, the players, and what did you see and learn about him through that experience after Chauncey Billups was arrested?
Well, obviously a tough situation. As you mentioned, the second day of the season, We all wake up and Chauncey's getting walked out, which we were not expecting to see happen. And so and the thing about Tiago taking the top spot as well was that, you know, Tiago didn't even get to Portland until I think a couple weeks before training camp started.
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