The Chicago Bulls have hired Billy Donovan as the team's head coach, according to Adrian Wojnarowski from ESPN.
Billy Donovan has agreed to a deal to become the next coach of the Chicago Bulls, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 22, 2020
'Woj' also reported Arturas Karnisovas, the Bulls' executive vice president of basketball operations, aggressively pursued Donovan after the coach left the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The 55-year old was the National Basketball Coaches Association's co-Coach of the Year with Milwaukee's Mike Budenholzer for 2019-2020.
Billy Donovan's contract expired with the Thunder's season ending in a Game 7 loss to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. He signed a five-year deal with OKC in 2015 upon arriving from the University of Florida, where he won two national championships.
Despite taking the loss in the first round, it was an impressive season overall for OKC. Even though they lost Paul George and Russell Westbrook in the summer, still managed to finish as the fifth best team in the Western Conference during the regular season.
During his five years with the Thunder, he held a record of 243-157 (.608) and made five consecutive trips to the playoffs. His winning percentage ranks 16th (min. 100 games) in NBA history, and trails only Nick Nurse (.721), Steve Kerr (.709) and Gregg Popovich (.675) among active coaches.
He is also one of only four active first-time head coaches in the league (along with Rick Carlisle, Kerr and Erik Spoelstra) to lead their teams to the playoffs in each of their first five seasons as a head coach.