In April, the Minnesota Timberwolves announced the hiring of Tom Thibodeau as President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach, making him the 12th head coach in franchise history.
Thibodeau, who began his coaching career in Minnesota, returns to the Twin Cities after taking a year off of coaching in the NBA for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Here’s a look at the past year of Thibodeau’s journey back to the bench for the Wolves.
After spending the prior 20 seasons as an assistant coach, Thibodeau got his start as an NBA head coach with the Chicago Bulls in 2010.
In his five seasons with the Bulls, Thibodeau carried a record of 394-255 (64.7 percent) and led Chicago to the playoffs every year, highlighted by a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in his first season. Thibodeau was also named the NBA Coach of the Year that year.
“I want to start off by thanking (Chicago Bulls owner) Jerry Reinsdorf. He gave me an opportunity in Chicago to be a head coach,” Thibodeau said in his Wolves introductory press conference. “I had a great team there, a great staff, and I had five wonderful years there.”
After those five seasons, Thibodeau and the Bulls parted ways, ending his tenure in Chicago.
Thibodeau found himself away from the bench for the first time since the 1989. But that didn’t keep him away from the game entirely.
After departing Chicago, Thibodeau took a year off to reflect, recharge and learn before looking for another head coaching job.
“Last year was a great year. I visited some (NBA) teams in September and October and then went back the last month of the season. I believe I visited 13 teams,” he said. “When you don’t have your own team and you’re not worried about who you are playing next, you have a much broader view on everything. It was a great year and I took a lot from it.”
Along with visiting other basketball teams, Thibodeau branched out to two successful coaches in other sports: New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.
“You’re talking about two all-time greats in the history of their respective sports and to get the opportunity I had to spend some time with them was invaluable to me,” Thibodeau said. “What you find out is the winning characteristics are always the same in every sport. When you start to learn about leadership and what teaching is all about, you can learn a lot from those guys.”
As Thibodeau looked ahead to possible landing spots in the NBA, he knew what he was looking for. It was just a matter of which team fit his criteria.
“Going into the offseason, I put together a criteria of things I was looking for and it basically came down to three things: one being the roster, the second being who I would be working with and for, and the third one, the overall commitment to winning,” Thibodeau said before the season. “Once I felt comfortable with those three things and I felt it was a good fit, I was going to go for it.”
It was a valuable year off for Thibodeau, but he soon found that team he was searching for.
About 11 months after his tenure in Chicago ended, Thibodeau was announced as the new President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach of the Wolves.
“I think (the Wolves have) the best young roster in the league. Obviously, there’s another big jump that needs to be made and you take it step-by-step and put the necessary work into it,” he said. “This was Flip’s vision to rebuild the Timberwolves, and I’m excited about it and he had spoken to be about it before. When you look at all of the factors, the players that we currently have, the high draft pick, the cap room that we have, we are positioned very well moving forward.”
Along with Thibodeau, the Wolves hired Scott Layden as the team’s General Manager. Scott previously held front office leadership roles with the Utah Jazz, New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs.
“I’m excited for myself, I’m excited for the fans, I’m excited for our team, I’m excited for all of the employees of the Timberwolves. Why am I excited? Because you only get this unique opportunity to go for the top every once in a while in your lifetime,” Wolves owner Glen Taylor said of the hiring of Thibodeau and Layden. “The goal is to be one of the elite teams in the NBA for many years to come.”
As many Wolves fans know, this isn’t the first time Thibodeau has been on the Minnesota coaching staff. In 1989, he began serving a two-year stint as an assistant under then head coach Bill Musselman.
“I came from college, so there was a lot to learn. It’s a completely different game. I couldn’t have come in under a better coach and teacher,” Thibodeau recalled. “He was very demanding and I think that helped me a lot with learning the league. And I also felt like my relationship with Bill, he often talked about Flip so I always had that connection with Flip as well.”
Now, he finds himself in the same position that Musselman held 25 years ago.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to be back. I can’t thank Glen (Taylor) enough for this opportunity,” he said. “I’m thrilled to be here. When I think of Minnesota Timberwolves basketball, I go back to the beginning and those first couple of years were incredible . . . When I think of the Minnesota fans, they are some of the best sports fans in the country here. We feel they deserve to have a winning NBA team and we are going to put in everything we have into each and every day to make sure that we do everything possible to give that to them.”
It’s been a long journey for Thibodeau, but he’s found his way back to where it all started, back on the bench in Minnesota.
“I want a team that is committed to playing for each other, committed to winning and if we can do that, I will be very proud,” he said. “I’m not afraid of a challenge. Obviously, there are a lot of things I like, otherwise I wouldn’t have chosen this job. I’m excited about this challenge and I am looking forward to it.”
