Tom Thibodeau
Tom Thibodeau ( born January 17, 1958 in New Britain, Connecticut) is an American basketball coach. Since 2010 he has been head coach of the Chicago Bulls.
College
Thibodeau graduated from Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts and played basketball for the Vikings, the university team. After his master's degree in Counseling ( Social counseling, life coaching ), he worked for the Vikings in 1981 as an assistant and then as head coach in 1984-85. He then worked for four years as assistant coach at Harvard University.
Assistant coach in the NBA (1989-2010)
First stop in the NBA was a league after topping newly established team Minnesota Timberwolves. With Bill Musselman as head and Thibodeau as assistant coach the Timberwolves reached in its first season 22 wins in 60 defeats, the following year, then 29 wins against 53 defeats.
In the 1991/92 season Thibodeau worked as a game observer for the Seattle SuperSonics. He then moved for two seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, where he worked as an assistant coach under Jerry Tarkanian, Rex Hughes and John Lucas. For the 1994/95 season he left the Spurs along with Lucas and Lucas was assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers.
After two seasons in Philadelphia Thibodeau joined in 1996 as an assistant coach to the trained by Jeff Van Gundy New York Knicks. In the 1998/99 season the Knicks managed the way into the NBA Finals, where the team with the San Antonio Spurs defeated 1:4. New York, which had finished the regular season in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, won in the first round surprisingly against the set of number one Miami Heat, then in the Conference Semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks and the finals of the Eastern Conference against the Indianapolis Pacers. For the first time in NBA history had thus a set of eight place team made finals in the NBA. With Thibodeau as a defensive coach put the Knicks in the 2000 /01 season a new record, as they were able to hold their opponents under 100 points 33 games in a row. As part of the coaching staff he helped Jeff Van Gundy also in the management of teams in the Eastern Conference at the All -Star Game 2000.
As of 2003, Thibodeau worked a second time with Jeff Van Gundy, this time with the Houston Rockets, where he remained until 2007. The progress on the defensive, who scored Houston thanks to Thibodeau, attracted the attention of the Boston Celtics under head coach Doc Rivers in coming. The Celtics had reinforced with Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett and now committed Thibodeau as assistant coach to hone especially on the defensive work of the newly formed team with their " Big Three" Garnett, Allen and Paul Pierce. Thibodeau played a key role in ensuring that the Celtics in the 2007/ 08 season had to accept the second fewest penalty points on opposing throw percentage ( 41.9 %) and opponent's three-point throws ( 31.6 %) they were top league. In addition, Garnett was named Defensive Player of the Year. Boston finished the season with the best record in the league: 66 wins to 16 losses. In the playoffs, the team sat in seven games against the Atlanta Hawks, but once in seven games against the Cleveland Cavaliers and in the Conference Finals in six games against the Detroit Pistons by. Boston won the final 4-2 against the Los Angeles Lakers. During the playoffs, Thibodeau served as head coach for the New York Knicks ( for which he had worked for seven years as an assistant coach ), and the Chicago Bulls in conversation, but remained in Boston. The following season ended the Celtics second place in the Eastern Conference and was defeated in the Conference semi-finals to the Orlando Magic. In the 2009/10 season, however, succeeded again the way into the NBA Finals, again against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers got their revenge for their defeat two years earlier and won the series 4-3. Even during the Finals Thibodeau accepted the contract offer the Chicago Bulls, who were looking for a new head coach.
Head coach of the Chicago Bulls (since 2010)
A few days after the final Thibodeau was officially launched in Chicago as the successor to head coach Vinny Del Negro. In his first season as head coach, he led the Bulls to an unequaled since the Michael Jordan era score of 62 victories in 20 defeats and thus to the best record of the season. At the same time he set the record for most wins by a new coach. In recognition of his achievements Thibodeau was awarded on 1 May 2011 by the NBA as coach of the year. Tom Thibodeau is the only coach of the NBA history, after 130 games celebrated his 100th win. It topped the previous record holder Avery Johnson, who had recorded 100 wins after 131 games.