Tom Thibodeau and Chicago Bulls reach agreement over a 4 year contract extension – NBA News
The Chicago Bulls have finally reached a contract extension with their head coach, Tom Thibodeau. The new deal, which is said to be close to the $18 million deal that Scott Brooks signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the summer,
will be for four years, excluding the 2011-2012 team option that Chicago picked up on Thibodeau.
“Obviously, I'm very excited to be here and very thankful to (owner) Jerry (Reinsdorf) and to (executive vice president) John (Paxson) and (general manager) Gar (Forman) and certainly all our players and our fans. I love being
here, I never doubted it would work out. This is where I want to be. Jerry has been great to me from the day I arrived,” said Thibodeau during the team’s media day on Monday.
Reports had surfaced that Thibodeau was not happy that his contract extension had not been finalized last year, as he felt that he had earned his right to be named the Bulls head coach for the coming years. The Bulls General Manager,
Gar Forman, maintained throughout the past few months that it was the Bulls intention to lock Thibodeau up for the foreseeable future, even though negotiations stalled earlier in the summer.
However, Thibodeau says that he was never worried about the extension and always knew that it was going to happen sooner or later.
"I knew it was going to happen, it was just a matter of when. I felt good about it from the middle of last season. Basically Jerry had called me up and said 'Look, we'll get this done at some point,'” said Thibodeau on "Carmen,
Jurko & Harry" on ESPN 1000.
Thibodeau was acquired by the Bulls before the start of the 2010 NBA season after serving as an assistant to Doc Rivers with the Boston Celtics. In his first season with the Bulls, he led them to the best record in the league and
a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. He developed Derrick Rose into an MVP player and won coach of the year honours. This past season, his second with the Bulls, Thibodeau again led them to the best record in the league, and finished 2nd in
coach on the year rankings. In the process, he also became the fastest coach to win 100 games in the NBA.
Next season has a whole new set of challenges for Thibodeau, with Rose out for almost half of the season with an ACL injury, and the Bulls famous bench mob having undergone a major reshuffle. It will be a true test of his coaching
abilities, as he will hope to keep the Bulls within playoff contention till the time Rose returns, and then make a deep playoff push with Rose back in the squad.
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