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Tiago Splitter has been watching the Bulls from afar. Not just Wednesday morning before his introductory news conference at the Advocate Center, not just earlier this season when he was a thousand miles away trying to right the ship in Portland, and not just years ago when he was a championship player in San Antonio. “I’m actually a Bulls fan myself,” Splitter admitted. “Growing up in Brazil, I watched many games late at night, hidden from my parents at 1 am, watching MJ [Michael -Jordan] games and rooting for the Bulls. So super excited to be here.”
Sean Sweeney landed interviews for more than a few NBA head coaching vacancies over the last few years, and many of them seemed the same. Talking to Orlando, he said, was different. Sweeney was introduced Thursday as the new coach of the Magic, which was the obvious proof that he won them over by his answers during the interview process. Turns out, the Magic won him over with their questions as well. “The Magic were the most thorough and they did the best job of asking questions and asking follow-ups to get to layers underneath the first answer,” Sweeney said. “Some interviews that I’ve had in the past, I did not get that same level of detail. And given how I am and how I want to coach, that stood out.”
He stayed locked in on his tasks with the Spurs, even though the interview process started early in their postseason run. But with the finals over, Sweeney wasted little time in getting to Orlando and starting on the new job. “When we finally did get in front of him, it was a long day and he had a lot going on,” Magic President Jeff Weltman said. “It was during the playoffs and not only was he able to kind of compartmentalize his work with the Spurs and present well to us, but he really knocked our socks off. In Sean Sweeney, we have somebody who, in our minds, has the potential to be one of the elite coaches in this league.”
“Coach Pop’s office was right next to mine and I was very fortunate,” Sweeney said. “When you’re next to a guy who’s the greatest coach of all time daily, the fact that he even said hello and knew my name meant something to me. So yeah, Coach Pop, he built that program and guys like me are fortunate to be part of it. I’m very grateful and that’s part of the reason why I’m here now.”
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Cam Smith: As the 25th head coach in Chicago Bulls history, what do you think that you can bring to this story franchise that can make this group, this organization a consistent winner? Tiago Splitter: Well, I think it's all small steps, right? You got to now we got to finish our staff. We’re going to have the draft coming up, a free agency coming up. Once we have the group of guys that we want, we're going to start the plans and day by day, small steps, we're going to get better. It's not smart by me saying we're going to win this, we're going to do that, we're going to shoot 50 percent from the three-point line. No, that's not it. It's step by step, smart in every step, doing everything with excellence, high standards, and create this culture that is needed.
KC Johnson: One of the ways you created buy-in in Portland with a video that's made its way to Chicago is the box, where the defensive player of the game after a win would write his name and drop it into a box. It was an idea you came up with. You said thinking outside the box. Some teams have the belt or the chain but yours was a different wrinkle. Will we have something similar this season in Chicago? And what did that experience mean to you and the Portland team last season? Tiago Splitter: Yeah, I mean, one of our best defenders there was Toumani Camara, right? And never whenever he got like a big stop, he would do the box sign and basically saying, I put that offensive player in the box. And I want to create something different than the belt or the chain and why not, you're going to put their whole squad in the box and whoever is the best defender. something of course to create a bond and the guys had fun with. Still, I don't have a great idea for the Bulls. I have time. But we'll figure out something, but the most important thing you know like I said is the bond.
Michael Scotto: Sources: The Orlando Magic will add Mfon Udofia as an assistant coach. He won the most games in Long Island Nets history as head coach and had 3 NBA call-ups this year. He was Nigeria’s head coach at the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 Qualifiers and an assistant at the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
Yaron Weitzman: So there's this idea floating around that one reason the Knicks turned things around was because James Dolan was so consumed by the Sphere that he stopped meddling with the basketball operation. Easy narrative. Also false. A few examples: 1. Dolan regularly met with Thibs and Mike Brown in his office after games — and not briefly. Ask any reporter who covered games at MSG. Postgame press conferences started late all the time because the coach was in with Dolan. 2. Did everyone forget that Dolan was in player exit meetings last year? Or that he was the driving force behind the decision to replace Thibs? That, obviously, turned out to be the correct call. But firing your head coach after the team's best season in 25 years is not the move of a hands-off owner. 3. His son Quentin doesn't just work for the team. He's the Senior Vice President of Player Performance/Science Leader. That's not a title-only role. There are plenty of other examples. These are just three public ones. None of this is a criticism of Dolan. But the idea that he faded into the background in recent years isn't accurate.
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Marc Stein: Mahlalela, first reported by @TheSteinLine as a Dallas contender along with Nori, Ivey and Terry Stotts on June 4, has worked the closest with Ujiri to date among known candidates for the post. TBD whether new names emerge.
This quote couldn’t have been easy for Thibodeau to read, just as Dolan’s newly released video — a pre-playoff pep talk for the team — couldn’t have been easy to see and hear. The owner acknowledged in his speech that the Thibs firing “shocked the world” and that if the Knicks failed in the postseason, the decision-makers would be second-guessed forever. Dolan told the players the change was made because “Leon and I believe that you, the team and the rest of the organization needed to be heard more, needed to work together more, not just led or dictated to. And coach Thibs was a great coach, brilliant, etcetera, but we thought you needed a coach that would pull you together, that would have you play as a team.”
Though Thibodeau didn’t respond to The Athletic’s message seeking comment, one of his favorite players, Taj Gibson, told SiriusXM NBA Radio that he had spoken to the coach and that “he didn’t have any kind of malice in his heart. He didn’t have any kind of hatred. He was so happy for the guys. He was just really so proud of the guys and what they accomplished.”
Before the season, The Athletic reported that Thibodeau was deeply wounded and “had a sense of betrayal” after his firing and believed some people in the organization he had helped over the years didn’t return that loyalty. On Tuesday, a friend of Thibodeau’s said he is “genuinely very happy for the players and his guys” for winning a historic championship. “But Tom is still hurt that the decision-makers made it appear he needed to be replaced.”