Iowa State AD Met With Search Firm 9 Days Before Bulls Fired Tom Thibodeau
(CBS) Putting on his best front last week, Bulls general Gar Forman maintained that the decision to fire Tom Thibodeau came after a thorough offseason evaluation and that the team only began its search for a new coach after the day of reckoning for Thibodeau came on May 28.
Many have called baloney on that idea, noting Forman's decades-long friendship to Fred Hoiberg gave the Bulls the knowledge that Hoiberg would become the new Bulls coach, as he did officially on June 2. Now there's more information to support that obvious logic.
Anticipating that Hoiberg would be leaving, Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard met with the Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search firm on May 19 -- nine days before Thibodeau was fired -- the Ames Tribune reported Tuesday. At that point, the Bulls were in a holding pattern, waiting to see if anyone would ask permission to speak with Thibodeau.
At last week's introductory press conference for Hoiberg, Forman said, "We didn't know it would move this quickly."
Everyone else sure did, though, long before that.
