Don’t hand out minutes to rookies just because.
Don’t let others make decisions that you should make for yourself.
Don’t stand in the way of progress.
This is the code of honor that Billy Donovan operates by, and the latter was the primary reason he walked away from the Bulls’ head coaching chair after six seasons.
Exactly one week after meeting with owners Michael and Jerry Reinsdorf to have a heart-to-heart about the future of the organization, the team announced on Tuesday a mutual parting of ways with Donovan.
Not that it came as much of a shock since the April 14 summit with the Reinsdorfs, as Donovan left the meeting without giving an answer on whether he wanted to stay or go. That meant more time to weigh what he really wanted, and also a chance to really step back from the situation to focus on his priorities. It became apparent to the Hall of Famer that priority No. 1 was not being a hindrance to a new front office because he stayed on.
If the Bulls were looking to operate with a clean slate, in Donovan’s mind it should be a completely clean slate.
Also playing a factor was that the Bulls still felt like a fixer-upper. Donovan stressed several times that he missed the idea of coaching meaningful NBA games in May and June rather than having exit meetings in April.
Those breadcrumbs were put down weeks ago.
“When I got into coaching I never did it for the money piece of it and I never really did it for notoriety,” Donovan said. “I love the game, I loved competing, and I felt like outside my parents, the people that had the most influence on me in my life were the guys that coached me.
“I never really thought, ‘Hey listen, I’m going to get into coaching because I want to be in the Hall of Fame.’ I wanted to get into coaching to win and the competing part, and trying to get a group of guys how to compete, so I never looked at it from a legacy standpoint as much as the season comes to an end, how are we going to work to get into a place where we’re really competing and how do we build this out moving forward? Those are the things that we need to talk about.”
Donovan and the Reinsdorfs did – for hours. And while the Bulls are in a really good spot with cap space, two first-round picks, and two solid foundation pieces in Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis, it is still a roster with a lot of holes and possibly being at least three years away from becoming serious, and that’s if everything is done right by the new front office.
At age 60, Donovan couldn’t afford to take that trust fall.
“Selfishly, competitively, I want us to be in that situation where we’re playing in real legitimate (games),” Donovan said. “You’re in the playoffs, you’re going through a seven-game series and you’re trying to advance and move on.”
Something Donovan and his recently fired front office of executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley couldn’t do, making the postseason just once and winning just one playoff game.
Karnisovas and Eversley lost their jobs in the wake of that failure earlier this month, but Michael Reinsdorf was still all in on Donovan, despite the 226-256 (.469 winning percentage) record. Enough so that he made it clear that the new front office would have to be good with inheriting the coach.
While Donovan appreciated the sentiment and relationship, he’s also learned in his Hall of Fame career that it’s better to feel like a sail rather than an anchor.