Tracking Tom Thibodeau's Rise to the Chicago Bulls and the NBA All-Star Game

Tom Thibodeau will the Eastern Conference coach at the All-Star Game. The longtime assistant head coach finally got his shot as a head coach last year and led the Chicago Bulls to the best record in the NBA in his rookie year, tying the NBA record for wins by a rookie head coach ad becoming just the second to win Coach of the Year. 

This year, in his second season, Thibodeau and the Bulls again have the NBA's best record, and Tom Thibodeau will be coaching the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game. If the Bulls can win 14 more games before they lose five more, he'll break Avery Johnson's record to be the fastest coach to 100 wins. 

The things which have become the trademarks of Thibodeau are almost a running joke about coaching the All-Star Game. Will he have a three-hour film session? Will he call timeouts and/or bench players for blowing defensive assignments? Will we hear him hollering over the TV set, "Get back! Get back!" Will he play Luol Deng 48 minutes?

The thing about Tom Thibodeau is that while he is seen as a bit of a taskmaster by some, he gets away with it because while he might be demanding, conduct practices which make the games seem like a walk in the park and holler so much his voice doesn't last to the end of the game, he genuinely cares about his players. 

Thibodeau is well-known for his defensive aptitude. He's fairly widely considered as the best defensive mind in the game today. He has coached a top-10 defense in the league 15 times and counting. Last year, he was the architect of the top-two defenses in he NBA, the Chicago Bulls, his current team, and the Boston Celtics, his former team. 

The thing that was almost a secret when it came to Thibodeau, though, the thing that no one realized, is that the thing that really makes him special isn't his defense; it's his ability to develop players and work them. It's his genuine care for them that seems to endear them. 

When the lockout ended, the first thing Derrick Rose did was get a hold of Tom Thibodeau because he missed him. There is something special about that kind of relationship. 

When the Bulls play the Celtics, the former Celtics players always have a warm greeting for their former defensive coordinator. They know that he was a big part of the reason for the championship. They also just like him. 

Thibodeau has always been that way. When he was in Philadelphia as an assistant a very long time ago, a young high school kid by the name of Kobe Bryant used to come and work out where his dad played. 

Tom Thibodeau would help him out. Bryant remembers that, "He was crucial. He was with me when I was 16 or 17 years old. Just doing drills and just working on ballhandling and just teaching me the game. He was there from Day 1."

Yao Ming remembered him in his retirement speech. Thibodeau had even gone and spent three months in China with Ming to help him improve his game during the offseason. 

Any time you bring up Derrick Rose, he smiles like a proud father. When you talk about trading Luol Deng, he growls like a protective mother bear. 

If the Chicago Bulls are a family—and from every one of them, it seems they are—Tom Thibodeau is the dad. It all starts with him. 

When the lockout appeared eminent, he gave some advice to Rose to look out for the rookies. When the Bulls drafted Jimmy Butler, Rose took him under his wing and helped him along through the offseason. 

When you see Thibodeau, it's easy to see the growling and barking and the defensive genius, but the reason he gets away with all that is that at the heart of it, he cares about more than wins; he cares about the players that play for him. It's evident from everyone who ever has. That, more than all the other things, is what has carried him to the pinnacle of the coaching world.