Smith: There's A Method Behind Thibodeau's Madness
In the NBA, constantly yelling at players can quickly have them turning on their head coach. But Tom Thibodeau can yell with the best of them and still has the players full support.
"[Derrick] Rose really likes him, really likes him a lot," Bulls.com writer Sam Smith said on the Boers and Bernstein Show. "And you go by your leader...If you have a great player who buys into your coaching, you can do that. [Jerry] Sloan had done that with [Karl] Malone and [John] Stockton for many years.
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"And the difference with Tom, I've noticed...he's not just yelling out stupid stuff like when the TV goes into the huddles and the guy goes 'get a stop!' or 'score!'...What Tom does is he tells them how to get a stop and how to score. So he's doing teaching when he's doing it...Players tend to respect that."
After spending close to 20 years as an assistant coach, the Bulls gave Thibodeau his first opportunity to be an NBA head coach. Some may have been skeptical of the hire at first, but at this point there's no doubt he is the right man for the job.
"It would seem kind of draining," Smith said of Thibodeau's coaching style. "But they respond to it very well and the players, all to a man...seem to love it."
