{"id":619074,"date":"2026-04-21T15:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/619074\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:30:08","slug":"billy-donovan-steps-away-as-bulls-coach-after-six-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/619074\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Donovan steps away as Bulls coach after six seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Chicago Bulls<\/a> coach Billy Donovan has resigned after six seasons, opting to step aside rather than work with a new front office, the team announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n

President and CEO Michael Reinsdorf made it clear after\u00a0firing executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley\u00a0near the end of the season that he wanted Donovan to remain on the job. He said anyone who wanted to bring in a new coach was \u201cprobably not the right candidate for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, it looks like whoever the Bulls hire to run their organization will get that opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we clearly wanted Billy to return as our head coach, we had open dialogue about the importance of respecting the process of bringing in new basketball operations leadership,” Reinsdorf said in a news release. \u201cTogether, we mutually agreed that giving that person the freedom to shape the organization was the best approach for everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 60-year-old Donovan consistently has said he still has a passion for coaching. The decision to leave the Bulls was made \u201cafter a series of thoughtful and extensive discussions with ownership regarding the future of the organization,\u201d Donovan said in the team release announcing the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it is in the best interest of the Bulls, to allow the new leader to build out the staff as they see fit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Donovan was arguably the top candidate on the market when the Bulls hired him in September 2020, a few months after Karnisovas and Eversley got their jobs.<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s lone playoff appearance since all three were hired came during the 2021-22 season, when it finished sixth in the Eastern Conference at 46-36 and got knocked out by Milwaukee in the first round. The Bulls lost in the play-in tournament the next three years.<\/p>\n

Donovan got a contract extension last off-season. Reinsdorf said after firing Karnisovas and Eversley that the problem was the roster construction \u2014 not the coach.<\/p>\n

Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, Michael’s father, praised Donovan for the \u201cclass and genuine care\u201d that he brought to the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted Billy to continue as our head coach \u2014 that was never in question,\u201d Jerry Reinsdorf said. \u201cBut through honest conversations, we all agreed that giving our new head of basketball operations the right to build out his staff was the most important thing for the future of this franchise. That is the kind of person Billy is \u2014 he put the Bulls first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karnisovas\u2019 inability to land a franchise cornerstone player and refusal to give the Bulls a better shot at the No. 1 pick by rebuilding were glaring. He finally changed course before this year\u2019s trade deadline,\u00a0dealing Nikola Vucevic to Boston,\u00a0Kevin Huerter to Detroit,\u00a0Coby White to Charlotte\u00a0and Chicago product\u00a0Ayo Dosunmu to Minnesota. The Bulls loaded up on second-round draft picks and did not get any first-rounders in return.<\/p>\n

One of the players Chicago got in return was\u00a0Jaden Ivey\u00a0from Detroit. Chicago waived him following anti-LGBTQ+ comments about religion he made in videos posted on his Instagram account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan has resigned after six seasons, opting to step aside rather than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-619074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}