Tom Thibodeau Finalizes 4-Year Extension with Chicago Bulls
By Josh Hill
During this past summer, the city of Chicago was un turmoil. Derrick Rose had just torn his ACL, the front office made “basketball decisions” and gutted the best bench on basketball but most importantly, the mastermind of the Bulls spectacular two season run may have been on his way out. It seems strange to the outside world that the Bulls even had to hesitate in giving head coach Tom Thibodeau a contract extension, but then again the outside world is a lot more sane than the folks forced to deal with Bulls management.
It took long enough, but Thibodeau has finally and officially inked a contract extension with the Chicago Bulls that keeps him with the team for the next four years. Thibodeau agreed to the contract back in October of 2012, but he had yet to sign it until today. In true Thibodeau fashion, he brushed off any notion that he didn’t sign it because he was concerned with money.
“It never was an issue,’’ Thibodeau said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “I don’t know how it became an issue. As I mentioned, the lawyers had it. They were changing language and stuff. Quite honestly, I wasn’t paying attention to it. It was done in October.’’
Thibodeau’s new contract will pay him $17.5 million over the next four years, meaning his annual salary over that time will be just below $4.5 million. Now that the contract is taken care of, Thibodeau can continue to focus on making the Bulls and NBA Championship caliber team as he’s given the Bulls two of their best seasons in recent history over the past two years and is aiming to make the playoffs with an oft-injured squad that has been sans Derrick Rose all season long.
He’s earned most of his contract already, but now the hard work begins as the expectation that there’s a seventh championship banner hanging in the United Center at the end of Thibodeau’s contract is even higher than it was before.