Billy Donovan Steps Down as Bulls Coach
- Veteran coach Billy Donovan, 60, resigned from his role with the Chicago Bulls after five seasons. - He was hired before the 2020 NBA season and is a Hall of Famer. - Departure marks a significant change for the team amid ongoing rebuild efforts patch.com
Billy Donovan stepped down as Chicago Bulls head coach on April 21, ending his six-season run with the team. (nba.com) The Bulls said Donovan, 60, made the decision after meetings with ownership about the franchise’s future. ESPN reported he held an option for next season and chose to leave after those discussions. (nba.com) (espn.com) Chicago finished 31-51 in 2025-26, one week before Donovan’s exit was announced. The Associated Press reported his Bulls record was 226-256 from 2020-21 through 2025-26. (sports.yahoo.com) (nba.com) The move came two weeks after the Bulls fired executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley on April 6. Chicago went 224-254 under that front office and reached the playoffs once, in 2022. (espn.com) (nba.com) Michael Reinsdorf had said the next basketball operations chief needed to be “sold on Billy” and called Donovan a Hall of Fame coach. Donovan’s exit leaves the Bulls searching for both a new front-office leader and a new coach at the same time. (espn.com) (cbssports.com) Donovan said he stepped away “to allow the search process to unfold” and to let “the new leader build out the staff as they see fit.” The Bulls said they wanted him to remain in Chicago and respected his choice. (espn.com) (nba.com) His Chicago tenure produced one playoff berth and four straight seasons without one. Before the Bulls, Donovan coached the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2015 to 2020 and took that team to the postseason in all five seasons. (sports.yahoo.com) (apnews.com) Donovan’s Hall of Fame case was built mostly in college basketball. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame lists his two national titles at Florida, in 2006 and 2007, and the Hall inducted him as part of its Class of 2025. (hoophall.com) (nba.com) The Bulls now head into the 2026 offseason without the executives they fired on April 6 and without the coach ownership had hoped to keep. Donovan left after saying the next phase should belong to the people who will run it. (nba.com) (espn.com)
