The Chicago Bulls will move forward without coach Billy Donovan.
Donovan decided Tuesday to step down from the team after six seasons following a meeting with Bulls ownership. His decision came nine days after the Bulls finished the season with a 31-51 record.
“After a series of thoughtful and extensive discussions with ownership regarding the future of the organization, I have decided to step away as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls to allow the search process to unfold,” Donovan said in a statement. “I believe it is in the best interest of the Bulls to allow the new leader to build out the staff as they see fit. My gratitude for this community and this organization is permanent.”
Donovan didn’t tip his hand in the final days of the season about a potential decision to leave or stay. He followed through on a promise to meet with ownership before coming to a final conclusion.
This isn’t the end of coaching for Donovan, 60, who figures to be a top candidate for openings around the NBA. Although he passed on several premier opportunities to return to college basketball over the last three years, league sources expect him to hear out offers for NBA openings in the upcoming weeks. Currently the Milwaukee Bucks and New Orleans Pelicans have vacancies.
The decision places the Bulls at a critical turning point — one that ownership always hoped to navigate with Donovan as a guide.
President/CEO Michael Reinsdorf emphasized the team’s desire to retain Donovan after the April 6 firings of executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley. Bulls ownership saw Donovan as a crucial building block to its vision for the team.
Reinsdorf said in an April 7 news conference that any potential top executive who didn’t see Donovan as the proper fit as coach was “not the right candidate for us.”
Without Donovan, Reinsdorf now will work with senior adviser John Paxson and assistant GMs JJ Polk and Pat Connelly to seek a new top executive and a new coach — a massive undertaking for a team in flux after missing the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.
“Billy Donovan is one of the finest people and coaches I have had the privilege of knowing and working with,” Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “He brought class and genuine care to this organization that made a real impact on people.
“We wanted Billy to continue as our head coach — that was never in question. But through honest conversations, we all agreed that giving our new head of basketball operations the right to build out his staff was the most important thing for the future of this franchise. That is the kind of person Billy is — he put the Bulls first.”
Donovan signed a multiyear contract extension in July 2025, the terms of which were not disclosed. The Bulls originally hired him on a four-year contract in September 2020, replacing Jim Boylen, and Donovan signed an extension two years later.
The six years in Chicago mark the first losing stretch of Donovan’s decorated career. His Bulls teams went 226-256, finishing over .500 just once — 46-36 in 2021-22 — advancing to only one playoff series and recording only one playoff victory.
They did qualify for the play-in tournament the previous three seasons, losing each year to the Miami Heat. But Michael Reinsdorf didn’t lay the blame on Donovan, saying he believes the coach did the best he could with the rosters and situation provided.
Donovan was the third-longest-tenured coach in the NBA behind the Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, who succeeded Pat Riley in April 2008, and the Golden State Warriors’ Steve Kerr, hired in May 2014.
After 26 years in college basketball that included a 19-season run at Florida with back-to-back national championships in 2006 and ’07, Donovan moved to the NBA in 2015 to coach the Oklahoma City Thunder. He went 243-157 in five seasons there, qualifying for the playoffs every year and advancing to the Western Conference finals in 2016.
Donovan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September for his college coaching accomplishments.
