Zach LaVine Reacts To Bulls Hiring Billy Donovan
Zach LaVine Reacts To Bulls Hiring Billy Donovan
Late Tuesday afternoon the Chicago Bulls hired Billy Donovan to become the team’s new head coach.
Donovan is fresh off an impressive campaign with the Oklahoma City Thunder and was widely regarded as one of the best available candidates.
Just as news of Donovan’s hiring was breaking, Bulls star Zach LaVine was playing Call of Duty and livestreaming himself.
As a result, his reaction to the new hire was caught live.
“Oh damn, we got Billy Donovan as our next coach,” he said. “Wow. That’ll be good… Really good coach.”
LaVine reacts to Bulls hiring Billy Donovan while streaming COD on Facebook Gaming pic.twitter.com/9f8tOFBhxJ
— Stephen Favetti (@stephenfavetti) September 22, 2020
Shortly thereafter, LaVine took to Twitter to make his feedback official.
🙏🏽🙏🏽👊🏽👊🏽
— Zach LaVine (@ZachLaVine) September 22, 2020
Chicago has not made the postseason since 2017, so hiring Donovan was objectively a move in the right direction.
Over the course of his five years in Oklahoma City Donovan amassed a record of 243-157 in the regular season and made it to the playoffs each and every time.
“We are very pleased to welcome Billy and his family to the Chicago Bulls,” Artūras Karnišovas, the team’s VP of basketball operations, said in a statement.
“The success that he has sustained over the course of his coaching career puts him on a different level.
“We feel his ability to help his players reach their potential, both individually and collectively, will mesh well with our roster. Whether as a player or as a coach, he has won everywhere his career has taken him, and we hope that will continue here in Chicago.”
Kevin Durant isn’t afraid to call it how he sees it. https://t.co/RYRXwYd4DY
— Game 7 (@game7__) September 22, 2020
LaVine and Donovan’s predecessor, Jim Boylen, had some very notable issues, so it will be interesting to see how the 25-year-old ultimately gels with his new head coach.
This past season LaVine averaged a career high 25.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per outing. He is currently in the midst of a four-year, $78 million contract with the Bulls.
Will he and Donovan ultimately be able to lead Chicago back into the postseason this year? Time will tell.
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Michael Kyaw, initially a PR Manager, built up a valuable network of connections in the sports world that he then utilized to become an influential sports business reporter. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, Fansided, ESPN and the Wall Street Journal.