{"id":34964,"date":"2020-07-27T04:37:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T01:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tom-thibodeaus-relentlessness-and-a-called-off-wedding-drove-him-to-knicks-dream-job\/"},"modified":"2020-07-27T04:37:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T01:37:00","slug":"tom-thibodeaus-relentlessness-and-a-called-off-wedding-drove-him-to-knicks-dream-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tom-thibodeaus-relentlessness-and-a-called-off-wedding-drove-him-to-knicks-dream-job\/","title":{"rendered":"#Tom Thibodeau\u2019s relentlessness \u2014 and a called-off wedding \u2014 drove him to Knicks \u2018dream job\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Thibodeau\u2019s relentlessness \u2014 and a called-off wedding \u2014 drove him to Knicks \u2018dream job\u2019<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n He was a brick wall, sizing up the next blind-side screen. He was a propeller, unabashedly throwing elbows. He was a guillotine, killing any potential 3-point play.<\/p>\n

Tom Thibodeau was a 1990s Knick, starring at Division III Salem State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a total prick when I play and Thibs was the same way, so we hit it off immedia<\/a>tely,\u201d Salem State co-captain Pat Veilleux said. \u201cHe would just clobber guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

His toughness was unrivaled.<\/p>\n

\u201cTommy went to block a shot and caught the backboard, and his pinky finger was at a 90-degree angle, where the bone was through the skin,\u201d co-captain John Furlong said. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Get away from me before I throw up.\u2019 He just snapp<\/a>ed the thing back in and told the trainer, \u2018Put a piece of tape on it,\u2019 and went back in the game<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

His loyalty was unmatched.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started something with this guy, and after we left the court, he put up his fists. I thought I could take him. Then I saw him up close, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh boy,\u2019 \u201d Veilleux said. \u201cI never saw Tom run so fast. He blew by me and tackled the kid and just knuckled him until their team turned around and came up the stairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that point on, he owned me. I would\u2019ve done anything for that guy. And I don\u2019t speak alone about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/hr>\n

Tom Sr. saw the Knicks as family, a devoted fan and devout Catholic who took his five children to church on Sundays, and occasionally treated his second-eldest \u2014 set to become the franchise\u2019s next head coach \u2014 with long train rides from New Britain, Conn., to the team\u2019s golden age at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau\u2019s first shots came on a straw basket in the basement. Then, he graduated to the hoop his father nailed to the garage.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis father loved sports and passed it on to him,\u201d Thibodeau\u2019s mother, Ann, told The Post. \u201cBasketball and baseball were his passions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon arriving at Salem State in 1977, Thibodeau, also a standout first baseman briefly contemplated multi-sport stardom, before focusing on basketball.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/img>
Tom Thibodeau as coach at Salem State<\/span>Salem State <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe went to a couple tryouts and he hit some bombs,\u201d Furlong said.<\/p>\n

Long distance was his specialty, even when the prize was still two points. But a backlog in the backcourt motivated the 6-foot-1 guard to morph into an undersized power forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would hit shots from just inside the circle at halfcourt,\u201d Veilleux said. \u201cThen he became a Barkley-type player, built like a brick house, clearing everyone out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offense was his raison d\u2019\u00eatre. Stops were secondary to the man who became the architect of the Celtics\u2019 2008 championship defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe couldn\u2019t spell defense,\u201d longtime friend Mike Opat said. \u201cHow that happened in Boston remains a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Vikings earned their first two NCAA Tournament bids in Thibodeau\u2019s final seasons, he prepared for his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d always ask, \u2018Where are you going this weekend? Can I go to that clinic with you?\u2019 \u201d former coach Don Doucette said. \u201cWe used to drive four, five hours each way. You don\u2019t do those things unless you\u2019re really serious about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While an assistant at Salem State \u2014 earning a master\u2019s degree in counseling \u2014 Thibodeau got engaged. Less than two months before the big day, the wedding was called off.<\/p>\n

His career was to come first.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made a decision that this was gonna be his life. He gave up a lot, but that\u2019s what he wanted,\u201d Furlong said. \u201cOnce he made his mind up, he was all in. He knew what it was gonna take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thibodeau, 62, will become the Knicks\u2019 30th head coach. He is the first to never have been married.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not the norm that a guy with his intelligence and accomplishments would stay single,\u201d Opat said. \u201cI know he\u2019s had many opportunities, and probably continues to have many opportunities for relationships, but he is devoted, almost like a basketball priest. I\u2019m a Catholic. He\u2019s a Catholic. I don\u2019t make that lightly, but it\u2019s that kind of dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/hr>\n

Thibodeau went 7-19 as head coach at Salem State in 1984-85. More than a quarter-century passed before his next opportunity as a head coach. He prepared by borrowing from the best.<\/p>\n

He attended clinics run by Bobby Knight and Hubie Brown. He scouted the practice methods of Providence\u2019s Rick Pitino, Northeastern\u2019s Jim Calhoun and Boston College\u2019s Gary Williams, while working nearby at Harvard. Then, he stumbled upon Bill Musselman.<\/p>\n

After reading a Boston Globe story about the Albany Patroons coach, Thibodeau contacted a local agent, Frank Catapano, who knew Musselman and drove with Thibodeau to upstate New York to meet the coach about to win his fourth straight Continental Basketball Association title. Leaving in awe of a practice defined by precision, Thibodeau made numerous trip<\/a>s back in his Chevette. After Musselman was named the first-ever head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1988, he hired Thibodeau.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe learned a legendary work ethic,\u201d said Opat, a lifelong Minnesotan and politician. \u201cA lot of how he turned out as a head coach is from the tutelage he got from Muss.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first NBA season, with the Timberwolves in 1989-90, Thibodeau \u2014 then, ribbed by friends as still having his \u201cFirst Communion money\u201d \u2014 fell deeper into his addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go over his house and he\u2019s got four VCRs going. He\u2019d say, \u2018Look at this guy,\u2019 and then go the next TV and, \u2018Look at this.\u2019 We were mesmerized,\u201d Veilleux said. \u201cWe said, \u2018Thibs, let\u2019s go have a few drinks like the old days. He goes, \u2018I gotta do more film.\u2019 I said, \u2018I\u2019ll get a case of beers and you can still do film.\u2019 He said, \u2018I\u2019ll buy,\u2019 and throws a $5 bill at us. Are you kidding me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/img>
Tom Thibodeau (center) as a player at Salem State<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arne Duncan, who played under Thibodeau at Harvard, visited the same year. Before leaving, his wife was given an hours-long film tutorial.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was in awe of this apartment with all these TVs and nothing but baking soda in the fridge,\u201d said Duncan, the former U.S. Secretary of Education. \u201cI was friends with President Obama long before he was president and it was amazing to see his ascent, but I knew why. I knew his character. I knew his personality. I knew his work ethic. The same thing is honestly true with Coach T.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nonstop approach had him put the Timberwolves through practice immediately after landing in China in 2017. It was thrust upon Luol Deng, when he arrived at Chicago\u2019s practice facility during Thibodeau\u2019s first season as head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought no one was in here and I tried to just get a few shots up,\u201d Deng said then. \u201cHe came down [from his office] and he put me through one of the toughest workouts I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decades of preparation produce unshakeable confidence, giving the Bruce Springsteen fan a hint of John Lennon: I\u2019m an artist, and if you give me a tuba, I\u2019ll bring you something out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a saying, and he really believes this: \u2018If you\u2019re in the NBA, you have a unique talent,\u2019 \u201d said longtime assistant Andy Greer, who has spent 14 seasons with Thibodeau. \u201cHe\u2019ll find a way to use them and mesh it into a system. It\u2019s a puzzle and he knows how to fit the pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thibodeau was an advance scout for the Seattle SuperSonics, then, an assistant in San Antonio and Philadelphia, where he used personal time to train high school star Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was crucial. \u2026 Just doing drills and working on ballhandling and teaching me the game. He was there from Day 1,\u201d Bryant said in 2010. \u201cWhen I was in high school, I didn\u2019t really know what the hell was going on. I just knew he was this really nice man who was very knowledgeable about the game and willing to teach me things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The player\u2019s ceiling is irrelevant. The potential is the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always feel indebted to him because I was a kid who wasn\u2019t that good, but desperately wanted to be a pro basketball player,\u201d said Duncan, who played four years professionally in Australia. \u201cNinety-nine percent of people would\u2019ve said I was crazy, but he was willing to spend a ton of time after my senior season, when I was by definition no more use to the program. \u2026 He helped me reach my dream and I don\u2019t think it would\u2019ve happened without his help and encouragement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kobe<\/img>
Kobe Bryant (l) and Tom Thibodeau<\/span>NBAE\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n<\/hr>\n

Jeff Van Gundy didn\u2019t need to interview 10 other candidates. He didn\u2019t even need an honest answer.<\/p>\n

After receiving unsolicited advice from Jerry Tarkanian \u2014 who\u2019d worked with Thibodeau for only 20 games \u2014 to hire his former assistant, the new Knicks coach met with Thibodeau in 1996 about a position as video coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked him, \u2018Do you know how to do the video?\u2019 and the answer was yes and it was all bulls\u2013. He had no clue what he was doing,\u201d Van Gundy said. \u201cBut it took about one week to understand how great a teacher and coach he was, and we had other guys do the video.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was brilliant and had a great demeanor. He had confidence, toughness, passion, determination. He was such a great fit for our group. You can\u2019t come into that group without those traits or they would eat you up. Oakley, Mason, Starks, Ewing, they\u2019d have no use for you. He commanded their respect because of his sheer greatness right from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

After eight seasons in New York \u2014 including a run to the 1999 NBA Finals \u2014 Thibodeau joined Van Gundy in Houston, where he worked closely with Yao Ming and helped build a top-five defense for four straight years. As associate head coach in Boston, Thibodeau first earned national recognition, as the Celtics won their first championship in 22 years.<\/p>\n

At the 2016 Olympics, Thibodeau earned a gold medal as a Team USA assistant.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom is one of the great coaches on this planet,\u201d Duke Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski said then. \u201cTo be honest, he talked to the team more than I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have Thibs right next to me yelling, I\u2019ve learned a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/hr>\n

Senator Barack Obama was convinced Thibodeau should be the next coach of the Bulls. Next, Duncan worked on Jerry Reinsdorf.<\/p>\n

After first recommending Thibodeau for the vacant head position in 2008 \u2014 Boston\u2019s title run prevented an interview \u2014 Duncan made another run at the Bulls owner when the job opened again in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pushed that really hard,\u201d Duncan said. \u201c[Reinsdorf] said, \u2018How do you get [Ray Allen and Paul Pierce] to play defense? Those guys never play defense.\u2019 That was beyond intriguing to him and a big part of the attraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thibodeau was named NBA Coach of the Year after tying the most-ever wins (62) by a rookie head coach. He reached the Eastern Conference Finals, became the fastest coach in NBA history to 100 wins, then watched his top-seeded team\u2019s title dreams disintegrate when reigning MVP Derrick Rose tore his ACL in the first game of the 2012 playoffs.<\/p>\n

The best chance at a championship passed. His father, who called his ride in the Boston title parade \u201cthe thrill of his life,\u201d died on Christmas 2013. That day, Thibodeau led the Bulls to a win in Brooklyn. After the funeral, he coached the Bulls to a win in Memphis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s something my father would\u2019ve wanted,\u201d he said then. \u201cAnd our family, pretty much once I saw that they were good, I felt good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Rose being available for less than half of his five years in Chicago, the Bulls made the playoffs every season. A breakdown in the relationship with the front office led to Thibodeau\u2019s dismissal in 2015, with the coach blamed for too many injuries and too many minutes given to his stars.<\/p>\n

Core members of that roster (Rose, Deng, Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson) rejoined Thibodeau in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the first coach up here that I felt like loved me unconditionally,\u201d Rose told the Detroit News<\/a> this season. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about what I did for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/img>
Tom Thibodeau (l) and Derrick Rose<\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2016, Thibodeau became Minnesota\u2019s head coach and president of basketball operations, snapping the Timberwolves\u2019 14-year playoff drought in his second season. Nine months later, Thibodeau was fired after consecutive blowout wins, with the team only two games out of a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

Tension with owner Glen Taylor \u2014 multiple sources said his wife didn\u2019t like Thibodeau\u2019s penchant for profanity on the sideline \u2014 and a reported rift with star Karl-Anthony Towns contributed to the coach\u2019s removal halfway through a reported five-year, $40 million deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you talk to the winning players he\u2019s coached, there\u2019s near-unanimous loyalty and love for Tom because they know he gave them a great chance to win and they\u2019re smart enough to realize that he helped them make a ton of money,\u201d Van Gundy said. \u201cIt\u2019s not always gonna be ice cream after practice and medals for trying. Great coaches push you to the place you couldn\u2019t get to by yourself. Losing players think a good culture is when you all get along and eat dinner together. Winning players know there\u2019s inherent conflict to try and get further than you\u2019ve ever been.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Chicago, they ran Phil Jackson out. That\u2019s just what they do. In Minnesota, I told him, \u2018There\u2019s nothing to apologize about. You had incredible success.\u2019 \u2026 Since he left, they\u2019ve gotten dramatically worse. Chicago, dramatically worse. I don\u2019t think the question should be to Tom, \u2018What happened?\u2019 You need to ask the people in both those places, \u2018Are you nuts?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/hr>\n

The end in Minnesota inspired 10-mile a day walks around one of the 10,000 or so lakes and significant weight loss. Recently, living with his brother, Dennis, in Berlin, Conn. \u2014 where his mother and siblings still live within five minutes of each other and gathered together for so many games \u2014 Thibodeau has done a 6-mile loop, with his replaced right knee.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s had time for reflection. He\u2019s had more time than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing constant self-assessment and I\u2019m astonished at how he handled the Minnesota job,\u201d Opat said. \u201cHe shifted his diet completely, he started reading, traveling around, visiting other coaches, he calmed down. I kept looking for signs of distress or anger or frustration and I saw none of that. He\u2019s at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis dream job has always been New York,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cLots of coaches don\u2019t want to go to New York. That\u2019s too much pressure. Well, that\u2019s tailor-made for him.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

If you want to read more Sports News articles, you can visit our General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Thibodeau\u2019s relentlessness \u2014 and a called-off wedding \u2014 drove him to Knicks \u2018dream job\u2019” He was a brick wall, sizing up the next blind-side screen. He was a propeller, unabashedly throwing elbows. He was a guillotine, killing any potential 3-point play. Tom Thibodeau was a 1990s Knick, starring at Division III Salem State. \u201cI\u2019m…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44555],"class_list":["post-34964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-tom-thibodeaus-relentlessness-and-a-called-off-wedding-drove-him-to-knicks-dream-job"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}