Through his time with numerous NBA teams, beyond the Chicago Bulls, as an assistant and head coach Jim Boylen made his mark with dozens of stars.
Amid the worst head coaches in the NBA right now, most would have Chicago Bulls recently extended head man Jim Boylen in the thick of the conversation. There was little to no respect for what the Bulls brought to the table around the NBA after Boylen first took over as head coach this past regular season.
Boylen has a lot of coaching experience before he took over the head coach role with the Bulls. Before John Paxson and Gar Forman entrusted Boylen with the Bulls head coaching job post-Fred Hoiberg-era, he was a head coach at the collegiate level and assistant with numerous different NBA teams.
That list of NBA teams Boylen was on the coaching staff with as an assistant includes the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, and the Bulls. He was the associate head coach under Hoiberg and got to learn under coaching greats like Gregg Popovich with the Spurs.
College basketball programs that Boylen coached with included the Utah Utes and Michigan State Spartans. He was an assistant under legendary Michigan State basketball head coach Tom Izzo and was a head coach with the Utes. But Utah promptly fired Boylen in 2011 after four disappointing seasons with him at the helm.
However, with Boylen going around to so many NBA destinations as an assistant coach, there were sure to be good players that he was surrounded by. With how many years he’s been around as an assistant coach, he had to play a positive role in the development of at least a few NBA players.
Here’s a look into the 10 best NBA players that were ever coached by the current head coach of the Chicago Bulls Jim Boylen.