The most telling words on why Tom Thibodeau had to be let go as head coach of the Chicago Bulls came directly from the Bulls’ owner himself, Jerry Reinsdorf, who released the following statement on Thursday.
“While the head of each department of the organization must be free to make final decisions regarding his department, there must be free and open interdepartmental discussion and consideration of everyone’s ideas and opinions. These internal discussions must not be considered an invasion of turf, and must remain private. Teams that consistently perform at the highest levels are able to come together and be unified across the organization-staff, players, coaches, management and ownership. When everyone is on the same page, trust develops and teams can grow and succeed together. Unfortunately, there has been a departure from this culture.”
There is nothing to be translated there. The media got it right all along, with their months of reporting that the relationship between Thibodeau and the front office was beyond repair. Which is interesting, because to anyone who has been following this drama from the beginning is well aware, both parties had been denying there was a rift throughout the season. For instance, notice this quote from GM Gar Forman to the Chicago Tribune in January:
“While as an organization we try to avoid responding to rumors, there is absolutely no basis to this recent speculation [of tension between management and coach Thibodeau],” Forman told the Chicago Tribune. “We are very proud of what the team and our players have accomplished to this point. And we will not allow anything to distract us from our ultimate goal. The focus of the entire organization — from top to bottom — is on winning basketball games.”
I realize it is not Forman’s responsibility to be truthful to the media, and in some cases, it may not even be prudent to winning basketball games. But based on what transpired Thursday, with Thibodeau being let go as two years remain on his deal, it is clear now that Forman was lying when he threw support behind his coach a few months ago.
For the Bulls and their fans, that unfortunate truth is a tough pill to swallow. Because at the end of the day, there are few coaches in the league who can match up with Thibodeau tactically, and Bulls fans always realized that. He may have a fatal coaching flaw that led to his firing on Thursday, which is his inability to differentiate the significance of a mundane game in the middle of February versus a playoff game. But many Bulls fans will see his firing for what it is: a day in which their team took a decided step backwards.
Hopefully, Thibodeau’s final legacy in Chicago won’t be his inability to get along with the Bulls’ front office, or his tumultuous 2014-2015 season, where months of rumors and innuendo overshadowed what one could argue was his finest season of coaching. Instead, let’s hope his lasting legacy is guiding the the Bulls to the league’s best record in back-to-back seasons in 2011 and 2012. Or becoming the fastest coach in NBA history to win 100 games. Or turning Nate Robinson and John Lucas III and C.J. Watson into serviceable point guards. Or, hell, even turning Derrick Rose into an MVP and Joakim Noah into a Defensive Player of the Year.
People can speculate on whether or not any of those things would have happened without Thibodeau at the helm, but for those who watched these Bulls every day and know what they looked like before he arrived, the answer is pretty clear.