The Chicago Bulls and head coach Billy Donovan are going their separate ways after Donovan decided to step down after six seasons.

The Bulls announced this decision last month, adding that they wanted Donovan to remain the team’s head coach but respected his decision to step down. Donovan elected to step down following meetings with the Bulls’ ownership this past week.

“After a series of thoughtful and extensive discussions with ownership regarding the future of the organization, I have decided to step away as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, to allow the search process to unfold,” Donovan said in a released statement.

“I believe it is in the best interest of the Bulls to allow the new leader to build out the staff as they see fit.”

The Bulls will be starting fresh next season after cleaning out the front office and bringing in a new head coach.

Despite cleaning house in the front office, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf wanted Donovan to remain with the organization as they head in a new direction. “We wanted Billy to continue as our head coach — that was never in question.”

“But through honest conversations, we all agreed that giving our new Head of Basketball Operations the right to build out his staff was the most important thing for the future of this franchise. That is the kind of person Billy is – he put the Bulls first. We are deeply grateful for everything he has given to this organization.”

The Bulls even offered Donovan a managerial role if he wanted to move into a front office position, but Donovan thought it was best to move on.

Donovan made the playoffs just one time during his tenure in Chicago, but he remains a popular name in coaching cycles. Donovan’s name popped up during North Carolina’s coaching search before they decided to hire Michael Malone.

A move back to college could be in the cards for Donovan, as the Warriors are expected to pursue current Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden if Steve Kerr elects to retire, and that would create an opening for a potential reunion for Donovan and the Gators.

The 2008 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team, featuring Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, lead this year’s list of finalists for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Along with them, women’s basketball legends Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles made the list, as well as coaches Billy Donovan and Mark Few.

Anthony sits 10th on the NBA’s career scoring list with 28,289. The 10-time All-Star also helped lead Syracuse to a national championship in 2003.

Known for his defensive dominance, Howard won three consecutive NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards from 2009 to 2011. He was named to eight All-NBA teams, led the Orlando Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals, and claimed a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020.

Following a bronze medal finish in 2004 and no medals at the 2002 and 2006 world championships, Team USA’s men’s basketball team reclaimed its dominance by winning gold in the 2008 Olympics. The star-studded roster included Anthony, Howard, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh and LeBron James. The team was built by Hall of Fame chairman Jerry Colangelo.

Moore’s decorated career saw her win two national championships at UConn and four WNBA titles with the Minnesota Lynx before she retired in 2018 to pursue criminal justice reform. Bird, who also won two NCAA titles at UConn, won four WNBA championships with the Seattle Storm and is widely recognized as one of the greatest point guards the game has ever seen.

Fowles dominated the paint at LSU, leading the program to four consecutive Final Four appearances. She later won two WNBA titles alongside Moore with the Lynx and was named the league’s MVP in 2017.

A two-time national champion coach, Donovan led the Florida Gators to four Final Fours in 19 seasons, winning titles in 2006 and 2007 with a roster featuring Al Horford and Joakim Noah. He left college basketball to coach in the NBA, first with the Oklahoma City Thunder and now with the Chicago Bulls.

As Gonzaga’s all-time winningest coach by percentage, Few has taken the Bulldogs to 25 straight NCAA tournaments and twice to the national championship game, in 2017 and 2021.

Other finalists for the Hall of Fame include veteran NBA referee Danny Crawford, five-time All-Star Marques Johnson, longtime college coach Jerry Welsh, three-time All-Star Buck Williams, Stanford and WNBA star Jennifer Azzi, women’s basketball trailblazer Molly Bolin, Serbian coach Dusan Ivkovic, Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, and Israeli icon Tal Brody.

The nominees advance to the final stage of the selection process, where a panel of 24 anonymous voters will evaluate their candidacy. To be inducted into the Hall of Fame, a candidate must receive at least 18 votes.

The announcement of the 2025 class will take place on Apr. 5 in San Antonio as part of the NCAA men’s Final Four festivities.

The enshrinement ceremony will take place on Sept. 5-6.

The Chicago Bulls held a players-only meeting after their first game of the 2023-24 season Wednesday, a 124-104 blowout loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It is not the start that Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine expected or wanted after reaching the play-in tournament last year.

“We just didn’t respond once they did that run in the second half,” LaVine said after Wednesday’s game. “Wasn’t a great showing from us. Didn’t shoot the ball well. Don’t feel like we played with enough heart. And that’s on us. Terrible way to come out and start the season, but it gives us opportunity to bounce back the next game.”

Lavine, who shot just 4-for-16 from the field in the contest, was not the only player who struggled in Chicago’s 2023-24 debut. The team as a whole shot 41.5% accuracy and the defense failed to curb Oklahoma City on a number of fronts, trailing significantly on defensive rebounds and allowing the Thunder to make nearly half of their three-pointers. Oklahoma City point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was unstoppable all night, scoring 31 points with ten  assists.

Things did not appear much better for Chicago off the floor, as tensions on the bench rose to the point of a verbal altercation in the third quarter. Center Nikola Vucevic, one of the team’s better performers in the game, was seen yelling at coach Billy Donovan and receiving a similarly energetic response. Donovan addressed the incident after the game.

“I got all the respect in the world for Vooch,” Donovan said. “He felt a certain way and I said what I felt. And he’s probably not wrong for feeling the way he did, but how do you channel that in a way that galvanizes the group and lifts them up? In the moment, maybe I could’ve handled it better with him and maybe he could have handled it better with me. It wasn’t anything disrespectful or anything else. I think he was just kind of frustrated with the way we were playing, and I didn’t blame him.”

Specific details from the players-only meeting are naturally unclear, but several players expressed satisfaction with the team’s vision going forward. Besides a few minor roster changes, the Bulls have maintained most of their roster from last year, one that went 40-42 and snuck into the play-in tournament as the tenth  seed. Donovan is happy that the team is communicating following the loss and is hopeful that things will improve with more time on the floor.

Oklahome City guard Chris Paul was on the receiving end of a delay-of-game call in Sunday’s 108-96 win over the Trail Blazers.  This came after an overtime win against Minnesota on Friday when Paul pointed out to officials that Timberwolves’ forward Jordan Bell didn’t have his jersey tucked in. Bell was called for delay of game giving the Thunder a free throw and allowed them to tie the game and force overtime after Steven Adams hit Dennis Schroder with a full court pass and a layup. The Thunder would go on to win in overtime.

Paul would get a taste of his own medicine getting whistled for two delay of game calls Sunday resulting in the Trailblazers getting a technical free throw. He voiced his displeasure to the refs as the audio was picked up on ESPN’s microphone. Paul claimed, “He’s trying to prove a f—ing point. You’re going to be on SportsCenter tonight, good job.”

Paul is notorious for complaining to referees during games and can get under the skin of opposing players. Last April he was ejected at the end of game one of the NBA Western Conference Finals after walking towards and bumping a referee to dispute a no-call on a three point attempt. Paul was fined $35,000 for the offense but was surprisingly not suspended, even though that is the usual offense for making contact with an official, according to NBA Rules.

In the locker room post-game Paul told Sports Illustrated, “They both was on me, wasn’t it? That was good. He got me. He got me back. I learned something, too—that you can’t have your shooting shirt and your pants on when you’re checking in. They said if I’d had just one of them on—so you learn something new. They got me.”

Thunder Head Coach Billy Donovan spoke to the media postgame and claimed he had clarified the delay of game with officials. “I asked them if that was the case, were they being a stickler? They said no, and that’s the rule and they were following it. I didn’t see either one of the delays, so I don’t want to comment on it. But once I see it, I’d be more than happy to comment on it.”

With Sunday’s win the Thunder are on a two-game winning streak. They hold the eighth spot in the Western Conference with a 10-12 record and play their second game of a four game road trip tonight in Utah.

Now that the Thunder have ended their season in dramatic fashion at the hands of Damian Lilard and the Portland Trail Blazers, the first thing on their priority list has to be their off-season moves.

Donovan Set To Rejoin OKC Thunder

Billy Donovan came out and said he expects to return next season and called the meeting with the general manager “business as usual.” OKC had high hopes all year, with Paul George having the best season of his career and Russell Westbrook averaging a triple double once again. Thus, many fans thought this could be the year we see OKC go far in the playoffs. So what went wrong?

Many people speculate Westbrook may be the issue, he might need to be traded or become the second option on offense. Some think a new coach is the change OKC needs, a fresh face handling the team. Donovan quickly came out to put these rumors to rest as he looks forward to returning to the team. The coach said he has been impressed with what they were able to accomplish this season and that he looks forward to the next.

Donovan has been coaching college basketball for over 25 years, his last coaching job having been with the Florida Gators. This was Donovan’s first NBA-level coaching job and he wasn’t going to disappoint. Donovan was able to help lead OKC to a 55-27 record in his first season with the team. Many credited Donavan with the success they had that year.

After 2016, Kevin Durant decided to leave OKC for the Golden State Warriors and since then, the Thunder have not had that same level of success. This prompted many to feel that Donovan wasn’t the reason they were successful because of the combo that Durant and Westbrook formed at its peak.

The Thunder have still managed to make the postseason in many recent years, but have been eliminated in the first round of each series. After Durant’s departure, many fans felt that OKC was missing that additional star needed to advance. They got George in a trade and after the best season of his career while he was in the MVP discussion, and OKC were still eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

There’s been a lot of speculation about what moves need to be made in OKC if they want to be a real contender. For now, no real answer remains regarding what direction OKC will try to pursue in the future. One thing for sure through is that something has to change.

In today’s end of the season interview, Coach Donovan had this to say:

After plenty of rumors and speculation, Billy Donovan will replace Scott Brooks as the Oklahoma City Thunder head coach. However, an official announcement will likely be made over the next few days, with ESPN claiming the confirmation could come tomorrow or Friday.

Though it was never confirmed, many believed that the position was Donovan’s to lose, with him being GM Sam Presti’s number one choice. The GM has made a few trips to Gainesville to scout and talk to the coach. Both supposedly share a similar work ethic and philosophy — advanced metrics — on basketball, according to ESPN.

On top of this, the Oklahoma City franchise has previously hired two former Donovan staffers: Mark Daigneault to coach the organization’s D-League team and Oliver Winterbone as an analyst. So needless to say, the Thunder has always been leaning towards this decision, if they care to admit it or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCFJ5QWR4Dg

Donovan has been coaching division one basketball since 1994-95, where he originally started out with Marshall. After posting back-to-back winning seasons, he decided to move onto Florida, which is where he has been for the last 19 seasons. In that time span, he has a record of 467-186, won two back-to-back national championships and has only had three losing seasons — 2014-15 was his first one since 1997-98.

In recent years, Donovan’s name has been a constant when talking about vacant NBA head coaching positions. Last offseason, he was rumored as a candidate for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves jobs, but he chose to stay with the Gators. However, now he takes on a team that should be an automatic playoff contender — barring anymore unforeseen injuries — with two bonafide superstars in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.

In what may be the craziest play since the Mark Sanchez butt fumble, Florida loses to Florida State after tipping the winning shot into their own basket.

After Florida State’s Devon Bookert badly missed a go-ahead three-pointer, he was shocked to see the shot accidentally tipped in by Florida forward Jacob Kurtz. Worst of all, the tip-in beat the buzzer, helping Florida State secure a 65-63 victory over the struggling Gators.

Florida coach Billy Donovan  does not blame the forward for the loss: “We lost on a fluke play, but even if that play didn’t happen, what’s to say they still wouldn’t have won that game in overtime. You don’t know what would have happened.” It certainly was a fluke play because even after re-watching it for the 20th time, it still looks unbelievable.