Starting off badly with 5 victories in their first 24 meetings in 2018/19, the Bulls had decided to decide on the spot, by firing their coach, Fred Hoiberg. In his place, it was Jim Boylen who burst in.
Former champion assistant to Rudy Tomjanovich with the Rockets in 1994 and 1995, then again titled as an assistant with the Spurs of Gregg Popovich in 2014, he will not, however, leave an unforgettable memory in Chicago.
With the second-worst record in Bulls coaching history, behind Tim Floyd, with 39 wins and 84 losses, Jim Boylen has been more often talked about for his “outdated” coaching style than for his vision and his personal relationship with his players. On the contrary…
“There were talks about boycotting training, but it ended with us players gathering in the parking lot at training time”
While he imposed extremely hard and physical training on his players, a rebellion almost broke out at the beginning of December. Almost four years ago to the day.
“It’s part of the ups and downs of an NBA season, let’s say”smiles Lauri Markkanen in JJ Redick’s podcast. “We were back to back. We had won the first on a shot at the buzzer. And behind, we lose 56 points at home against the Celtics [133-77]the worst loss in franchise history. The holders are put back on the bench because we are supposed to have training the next day. We used to do rather tough workouts [après les défaites], you always had to get your ankles strapped, and we were expecting one of those after that back-to-back. There were talks about boycotting training, but it ended with us, the players, gathering in the parking lot at training time, wondering: what do we do in the end? Now, we no longer have a choice, we must remain united. »
The Chicago players had even contacted the players’ union to find out if it was “legal” in the NBA to schedule training the day after a back-to-back. Answer: nothing prohibited it in the regulations, even if no coach did it, according to a commonly accepted tacit rule.
The players therefore ended up putting on their training gear and the situation settled down, but Lauri Markkanen understood that day how much business could take precedence over the athlete in the NBA.
“It was my second year in the League, I had just come back from a three-month absence due to injury. I was still trying to find my way. It was a weird moment” he thus confirms. “We were all late to training anyway, so we might as well stick together now! »
| Lauri Markkanen | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2017-18 | CHI | 68 | 30 | 43.4 | 36.2 | 84.3 | 1.2 | 6.3 | 7.5 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 15.2 |
| 2018-19 | CHI | 52 | 32 | 43.0 | 36.1 | 87.2 | 1.4 | 7.6 | 9.0 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 18.7 |
| 2019-20 | CHI | 50 | 30 | 42.5 | 34.4 | 82.4 | 1.2 | 5.1 | 6.3 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 14.7 |
| 2020-21 | CHI | 51 | 26 | 48.0 | 40.2 | 82.6 | 0.7 | 4.6 | 5.3 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 13.6 |
| 2021-22 | KEY | 61 | 31 | 44.5 | 35.8 | 86.8 | 1.0 | 4.7 | 5.7 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 14.8 |
| 2022-23 | UTH | 26 | 34 | 52.8 | 41.3 | 83.3 | 2.2 | 6.4 | 8.5 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 22.2 |
| Total | 305 | 30 | 44.9 | 36.6 | 84.6 | 1.2 | 5.7 | 6.9 | 1.3 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 15.9 | |
