He might be the most intense head coach in the NBA, both on and off the court. On the court, we've all seen him stalking the sidelines, out-yelling everyone in the arena not named Carlos Boozer, arms flailing and even getting into the occasional defensive stance to show his guys how it's done. Off the court, he lives in the gym and is notorious for watching game film non-stop, always looking on ways to improve, never satisfied.
Tom Thibodeau won the respect and admiration of his team early on, they all bought in, worked hard and subscribed to his winning ways. The result was a 62-20 season, best in the NBA, tied for best by a rookie head coach, and a 21-game improvement over last season. The result is also a probable Most Valuable Player award for Derrick Rose, and has been announced today, a Coach of the Year award for Thibs.
When Vinny Del Negro was fired and the Bulls turned to Thibs, most Bulls fans were excited about his hiring, but there were still those who were weary seeing another first-year head coach try to lead the squad. What they may not have known, was that unlike Del Negro, Thibs was not new to this. Despite being a 21-year assistant of the NBA and earning a well-deserved reputation as an outstanding defensive coach, he was never given a shot to be a head coach until this year. He actually was also offered jobs, more lucrative ones, by two other organizations but turned them down to sign with the Bulls, which he believed would be the best of the three.
We'll never truly know if the opportunity to coach LeBron James or Dwyane Wade factored into Thib's decision to go with the Bulls, but while those two joined up in Miami, Thibs coached Derrick Rose to an MVP season, and the Bulls wound up winning four more games than the Heat.
Today, all that hard work will pay off as Thibs will win the COY, but he will without a doubt say the hard work is still in progress, and a title is the only goal.
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