Is Tom Thibodeau A Worse Head Coach Or Color Commentator?

There you have it folks, the inevitable has arrived.

The USA National Team just lost a quarterfinal matchup to France in the FIBA World Cup after allowing France to finish the game on a 22-5 run in the 4th Quarter. We all knew that would happen and no one in the country had any faith in Donovan Mitchell, Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum because why the hell would you have any faith in a team that has both Brook Lopez and Mason Plumlee. However that’s not what this blog is about. This blog is about how on top of the piss poor performance displayed by our countrymen Tom Thibodeau had an even worse showing off camera.

While the USA team was gettin dusted by Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier, Thibs was on the call, providing the viewers with one of the most unenthusiastic, boring analyses that my ears have ever heard. Just a disgrace.

This made me pose the question: Is Tom Thibodeau A Worse Head Coach Or Color Commentator?

Now let me start with this, when Thibs was coaching the Bulls we all thought of him as a god. He was coming off a run as an assistant with the Boston Celtics, where he won a ring as the “Defensive Coordinator”. He led the Derrick Rose Bulls to a 60 win season. He developed Jimmy Butler into the guy that we all love. He was that lunatic on the sidelines that everyone enjoyed watching. That said, times change, people change and opinions change. Revisionist history is very much a thing and I won’t try to do too much of that.

Tom Thibodeau ended his coaching tenure with the Bulls after they let him go to hire Fred Hoiberg because Thibs was too stubborn to deal with Chicago’s front office (which is impossible so we don’t hold that against him). What we do hold against him is the fact that every time those Bulls teams faced a single lick of adversity, that team would fold like they were playing Hold ‘Em with a 2 and a 7 if different suits. He had zero control over anything and it eventually led to his downfall. Another thing people forget is that Derrick Rose injury, up a ton in game 1 of the 1st Round Of the NBA Playoffs and we’re keeping the starters out to send a message? I understand that Derrick Rose had weak knees and his injuries were bound to happen eventually due to his style of play so him being out there at that point in time or not he was still going to get hurt, fine. It did, however, highlight the fact that Thibs had no issues with playing his guys until he burned holes in their shoes. We saw it early with D-Rose and then later with Jimmy Butler. Say what you want about load management and all that but these guy’s bodies aren’t made to play 48 minutes a night and Thibs just never understood that.

Now let’s get to the TV stuff, since he was let go by the Bulls he has had a few front office jobs and appeared on ESPN shows like The Jump and Countdown to provide his expert analysis. Now this blog isn’t about his lack of basketball IQ, he’s a damn genius when it comes to X’s And O’s- that was never the question. It’s just his skills do not translate to television. He is an awkward looking human with a reserved personality. Unless he’s trying to scheme for the Pick n Roll or tell you to be in your defensive gap, that is.

When he’s on these ESPN shows he is usually paired with Rachel Nichols or Paul Pierce. People with electric personalities to counteract Thibs.

Take all that away and just give him his voice and let him call a basketball game? YIKES.

You would think his energy or love of the game would translate to talking about how to stop Franky Ntilikina or how to get  Kemba to make a play.

Maybe he was just salty that he didn’t get asked to be apart of the coaching staff along with winners Pop, Steve Kerr and Jay Wright.

Maybe the other guy called in sick and they needed Thibs to fill in last minute, I don’t know but if that is ever the case again, just give me Brian Windhorst telling stories about LeBron’s childhood. You can’t distract me from the poor product on the court with an even poorer performance on the call.

There is really only one solution to this. Someone should hire Thibs as an assistant coach somewhere so he can utilize his basketball mind and so we the people of this great nation don’t have to hear his raspy voice on TV anymore.

-GAT