Fred Hoiberg has agreed to leave his position at Iowa State to take over the head coaching role of the Chicago Bulls, according to a release from the team. It will be Hoiberg's first NBA coaching gig after five seasons leading the Cyclones in Ames. He will sign a contract for five years and $25 million, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Fred Hoiberg will reportedly be Chicago Bulls’ next head coach
The long-rumored hiring of Hoiberg in Chicago has come to fruition.
Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports
The Bulls have long targeted Hoiberg as their head coach, with rumors surrounding the two sides even before the team parted ways with Tom Thibodeau. Once that relationship turned sour, leading to Thibs’ departure from the organization, it seemed inevitable that Hoiberg would take his spot.
A star guard at Iowa State before an extended NBA career with stops in Indiana, Chicago and Minnesota, Hoiberg took his first coaching gig with the Cyclones in 2010. He's developed the school into one of the Big 12's top programs since then, earning back-to-back Big 12 tournament championships in 2014-15. In 2012, he was named the conference's coach of the year.
While Hoiberg never led the Cyclones past the Sweet 16 and watched last season's team get upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament despite being a No. 3 seed, his reputation as a quality coach has been cemented by the school's rise. In the four seasons before Hoiberg was hired in Ames, the team posted a .465 winning percentage. With Hoiberg, that number has jumped to .673.
Making the transition to the NBA isn't easy, though, something that Bulls fans know well after the team's disastrous hiring of Tim Floyd in 1999. That came after the ouster of another well-regarded coach, the legendary Phil Jackson, and Floyd was also hired from Iowa State. His time with the Bulls was a failure, though, and now Hoiberg will look to avoid repeating that fate.
The good news for Hoiberg is that he inherits a talented roster in Chicago. The Bulls nearly reached the Eastern Conference Finals this year and, assuming Jimmy Butler is retained, should have a pretty solid core going forward with Derrick Rose and Nikola Mirotic also around. How Hoiberg will differ from Thibodeau should be interesting to see, but after years of rumored headbutting between the coach and management, the hope is that this arrangement will have everyone on the same page.
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