Tom Thibodeau

Tom Thibodeau
Player information
Full name	Thomas Joseph Thibodeau, Jr.
birthday	17th January 1958 (age 62)
place of birth	New Britain , Connecticut , United States
college	Salem State
Clubs as coaches
1981–1984 Salem State ( NCAA I) (Assistant) 1984–1985 Salem State (NCAA I) 1985–1989 Harvard (Assistant) 1989–1992 Minnesota Timberwolves (Assistant) 1992–1994 San Antonio Spurs (Assistant) 1994–1996 Philadelphia 76ers (Assistant) 1996–2004 New York Knicks (Assistant) 2004–2007 Houston Rockets (Assistant) 2007–2010 Boston Celtics (Assistant) 2010–2015 Chicago Bulls 2016–2019 Minnesota Timberwolves

Thomas Joseph "Tom" Thibodeau Jr. (born January 17, 1958 in New Britain , Connecticut ) is an American basketball coach . From 2010 to 2015 he was head coach of the Chicago Bulls in the NBA , then from 2016 to 2019 coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves , where he also worked as a manager.

He won the NBA Coach of the Year title in the 2010-11 season when he led the Bulls to a 62:20 record that season. As an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics , he also won the 2008 NBA championship. Thibodeau is best known for playing a heavily defensive style with his teams. In his career he also worked as a defensive coach for several years .

college

Thibodeau studied at Salem State University in Salem , Massachusetts and played basketball for the Vikings , the university team. After completing his master's degree in counseling (social counseling, life support), he worked at the Vikings from 1981 as an assistant coach and from 1984 to 1985 as head coach. He then worked for four years as an assistant coach at Harvard University .

Assistant coach in the NBA (1989-2010)

The first stop in the NBA was the team Minnesota Timberwolves , which was newly established after a league increase . With Bill Musselman as head coach and Thibodeau as assistant coach, the Timberwolves achieved 22 wins out of 60 losses in their first season, and then 29 wins out of 53 losses the following year.

In the 1991/92 season , Thibodeau worked as a game observer for the Seattle SuperSonics . He then moved to the San Antonio Spurs for two seasons , where he was an assistant coach under Jerry Tarkanian , Rex Hughes and John Lucas . For the 1994/95 season he left Spurs together with Lucas and was under Lucas assistant coach at the Philadelphia 76ers .

After two seasons in Philadelphia, Thibodeau moved in 1996 as an assistant coach to the New York Knicks coached by Jeff Van Gundy . In the 1998/99 season , the Knicks managed to move into the NBA Finals , where the team lost 4-1 to the San Antonio Spurs. New York, which had finished the regular season in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, surprisingly won in the first round against the number one seeded Miami Heat , then in the Conference semi-finals against the Atlanta Hawks and in the final of the Eastern Conference against the Indiana Pacers . For the first time in the history of the NBA, an eighth-place team made it into the NBA Finals. With Thibodeau as defensive coach, the Knicks set a new record in the 2000/01 season when they were able to keep their opponents under 100 points for 33 games in a row. As part of the coaching staff, he also supported Jeff Van Gundy in leading the Eastern Conference team at the 2000 All-Star Game .

Thibodeau (left) as assistant coach to Jeff Van Gundy at the Houston Rockets

From 2003, Thibodeau worked a second time with Jeff Van Gundy, this time with the Houston Rockets , where he stayed until 2007. The advances on the defensive that Houston made thanks to Thibodeau caught the attention of the Boston Celtics under head coach Doc Rivers . The Celtics had strengthened themselves with Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett and now hired Thibodeau as an assistant coach to specifically work on the defensive work of the newly formed team with their "Big Three" Garnett, Allen and Paul Pierce . Thibodeau was instrumental in the fact that the Celtics had to accept the second fewest opposing points in the 2007/08 season , with opposing throwing quota (41.9%) and opposing three-point throwing (31.6%) they were league leaders. Garnett was also named Defensive Player of the Year . Boston ended the season with the best record in the league: 66 wins to 16 losses. In the playoffs, the team prevailed in seven games against the Atlanta Hawks, again in seven games against the Cleveland Cavaliers and in the conference final in six games against the Detroit Pistons . Boston won the final 4-2 against the Los Angeles Lakers. During the playoffs, Thibodeau was the head coach for the New York Knicks (for which he had worked as an assistant coach for seven years) and the Chicago Bulls, but stayed in Boston. The following season , the Celtics finished in second place in the Eastern Conference and were subject to the Orlando Magic in the Conference semifinals. In the 2009/10 season , however, succeeded again in the NBA Finals, again against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers retaliated for their defeat two years earlier and won the series 4-3. During the finals, Thibodeau accepted the contract offer from the Chicago Bulls, who were looking for a new head coach.

Head Coach of the Chicago Bulls (2010-2015)

A few days after the final, Thibodeau was officially introduced in Chicago as the successor to head coach Vinny Del Negro . In his first season as head coach, he led the Bulls to a result of 62 wins and 20 losses, unmatched since the Michael Jordan era, and thus the best record of the season. At the same time, he set the record for the most wins by a new coach. In recognition of his achievements, Thibodeau was named Trainer of the Year by the NBA on May 1, 2011 . Tom Thibodeau is the only coach in NBA history to celebrate his 100th win after just 130 games. He surpassed the previous record holder Avery Johnson , who had 100 wins after 131 games. After he did not get past the second playoff round in the next three years and had fallen out with the Bulls management, he was dismissed by the Bulls in May 2015 and replaced by Fred Hoiberg .

Head Coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves (2016-2019)

On April 21, the Minnesota Timberwolves announced the signing of Thibodeau as their new head coach. He succeeded Sam Mitchell with the Wolves , who had looked after the team on an interim basis in the 2015/2016 season. In addition to his work as head coach, Thibodeau also took on a large part of the team planning as President of Basketball Operations. In early January 2019, Thibodeau was released from the Timberwolves.

Web links

Commons : Tom Thibodeau  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Short biography on nba.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ NBA Encyclopedia: Eighth Seed Upsets , accessed May 21, 2011
2. ^ Thibodeau is Celtics' minister of defense , accessed May 21, 2011
3. ↑ 2007-08 NBA Season Summary , accessed May 21, 2011
4. ↑ Replacing Isiah: Options abound in Knicks coach search , accessed 21 May 2011
5. ^ Thibodeau on radar: Assistant may be in line for top job , accessed May 21, 2011
6. ↑ Thibodeau not done in Boston yet: Celtics' defensive guru still must figure out how to slow potent Lakers , accessed May 21, 2011
7. ↑ Chicago's Thibodeau named 2010-11 NBA Coach of the Year ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 21, 2011 
8. ↑ [1]
9. ↑ Fred Hoiberg new Bulls head coach