Donovan returns to Oklahoma City for 1st time with Bulls originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Wednesday night, Oklahoma City staged its first home game at Chesapeake Energy Arena since March 11.
That’s the night Rudy Gobert’s positive COVID-19 test result just before tipoff led to NBA commissioner Adam Silver pausing the 2019-20 season.
The world seemingly stopped shortly after that, with multiple countries moving into lockdown mode to mitigate the virus.
On that night, Billy Donovan prowled the sidelines coaching the Thunder. Nine months later, with some of his same assistant coaches in town, he returned as head coach of the Bulls.
“It’s a little bit odd just because the arena doesn’t look the same with no fans,” Donovan said. “It was good to see some different people. . . . I enjoyed my five years here. The people here were wonderful. I developed a lot of good and close relationships with a lot of people.
“I don’t know if it was surreal (to return), but it was definitely different. It makes you think back and reflect on your time here.”
Donovan guided five straight---and pretty different---Thunder teams to the playoffs, including a Western Conference finals appearance in his first season after leaving his 19-year run establishing an NCAA empire at Florida. When he and Thunder executive vice president Sam Presti mutually agreed to part ways in early September, multiple reports suggested Donovan wanted no part of a rebuild.
Donovan has disputed that and talked in only positive terms about his Oklahoma City experience. Since he left, Presti has traded Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, Steven Adams and Terrence Ferguson and hired Mark Daigneault, Donovan’s assistant, as coach.
Asked by longtime Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel if he knew how completely Presti would change the roster when he left, Donovan said no.
“I think that the feeling was that maybe down the road at some point it was going to happen,” he said. “There wasn’t necessarily a timetable given to me of when that would happen, whether it would be this year or after the next year.”
Regardless, both Donovan and the Thunder have moved forward and both seem content with their choices.
“They’ve been a really good group to work with,” Donovan said of the Bulls.
"much" - Google News
December 17, 2020 at 09:35AM
https://ift.tt/3mlIXGQ
Billy Donovan Returns to Oklahoma City Sideline–But So Much Has Changed - NBC Chicago
"much" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37eLLij
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Billy Donovan Returns to Oklahoma City Sideline–But So Much Has Changed - NBC Chicago"
Post a Comment