Fred Hoiberg Is Our Man; 6 Reasons To Believe In The Bulls’ New Head Coach

6. Personality

Mar 27, 2014; New York, NY, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach Fred Hoiberg speaks during a press conference during practice for the east regional of the 2014 NCAA Tournament at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

A big reason to believe in Hoiberg really has nothing to do with basketball or even coaching, in a sense. Coaches have been stereotypically viewed as mean, hard-headed old guys who show tough love as their way of caring about you. They don’t show emotion or ever let their guard down in any manner and are all about work, work, work.

Thibs was that type of coach. He was always about basketball and only basketball and if you’re not putting in the work at all times, then you’re failing at your job.

It was an admirable approach and it’s what kept the Bulls alive during all of these injury-riddled seasons. But after a while, it becomes difficult to deal with and it clearly got impossible from a management stand-point and possibly even the players’ stand-point the way the season ended.

Fred Hoiberg is not only different from Thibodeau as a coach, they’re even more unalike as humans beings. They may both breathe game tape as oxygen, but Hoiberg seems like he would be more personable if any suggestions about making changes to his methods were brought forward.

Plainly put, Hoiberg appears as though he’s easy to get along with, unlike Thibodeau.

I don’t mean to bash on Thibs – I really loved him as a coach – but it seemed like he rarely ever liked anyone who wasn’t one of his players. In his introductory press conference, Hoiberg was already talking about recognizing media members from his playing days and wanting to get to know the new faces. He even complimented Thibodeau, saying:

"“I think Tom Thibodeau is an excellent, excellent basketball coach and I think he instilled a lot of unbelievable qualities in this team that hopefully I can build on.”"

Recognizing the work put in by his predecessor, especially after such an ugly break-up, shows us the kind of person Hoiberg is and how easily he should be able to get along with the players.

Steve Kerr is a very similar type of person and look where he is now.

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