Bulls hire Floyd as new head coach
Posted: Wednesday July 22, 1998 07:29 PM
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Floyd was the only confirmed candidate for the job to meet with the Bulls twice Stephen Dunn/Allsport |
CHICAGO (AP) -- In a move that could push Michael Jordan
to retire, the Chicago
Bulls have chosen Iowa State's Tim Floyd as their new head coach.
The Bulls have called a news conference for Thursday at noon ET in
the stadium club of the United Center to formally announce Floyd, a Bulls
source said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bulls
spokesman Tim Hallam said he could not confirm that Floyd was hired to
succeed Phil Jackson. Floyd and his family arrived in Chicago from Ames,
Iowa, late Wednesday morning but would not comment. Floyd
resigned Wednesday, said Iowa State spokesman John McCarroll. The school
made the announcement at a 4 p.m. news conference. Jordan has
made no secret of his unwillingness to play for the 44-year-old Floyd, who
has no NBA coaching experience and compiled a 243-130 career record with
five NCAA tournament appearances. He has been at Iowa State for four years
and his team went 12-18 last season -- his only losing season in 12 as a
college coach. In his most recent public comments, Jordan
reiterated that he won't play for any coach but Jackson, who left at the
end of the season after the team won its sixth championship.
Jordan said he wouldn't announce a decision on his future with the Bulls
until after the NBA's lockout ends. He has ridiculed Floyd by
calling him "Pink" -- as in the rock group Pink Floyd. Dennis Rodman
also has called the possible hiring of Floyd "a joke." David
Falk, Jordan's agent, said Wednesday that Floyd's hiring was not a
surprise. "I think it would be a shock to anyone close to the
scene had Tim Floyd not been hired," Falk said. "This was a decision that
was made a year ago." He wouldn't say where Jordan was or if he
had made a decision on next season. "It's safe to say the only
thing that motivates [Jordan] as far as playing is to win championships.
He's not playing for money, he's playing because he loves the game of
basketball," Falk said. "We only have one piece of the picture.
It may be that piece is of sufficient weight to outweigh everything else.
Only time will tell." Floyd, a good friend of Bulls vice
president Jerry Krause, interviewed with the team July 13 and was
considered the leading candidate for the job. NBA assistants Scott Skiles,
Ron Rothstein, Paul Silas and Rick Carlisle have also interviewed for the
vacancy. Iowa State forward Klay Edwards said Floyd called the
team together around 8 a.m. EDT Wednesday to break the news of his
resignation. "We kind of expected it but the moment it happens,
it's kind of shocking," Edwards said. "It's just like being a player. You
work to go to high school to college and so on." There had been
reports earlier this week that Floyd was having cold feet over accepting
the Bulls job, perhaps because Jordan said he wouldn't play for him. That
would mean Floyd could be characterized as the man -- fairly or unfairly --
who drove the superstar to retirement. Floyd has wavered in the
past. He accepted the Iowa State job in the spring of 1994, then called a
news conference at New Orleans, where he was the head coach, to announce he
was staying. He said at the time he'd rather go bass fishing in Louisiana
than ice fishing in Iowa. Then, at the urging of former Iowa
State star and current TV analyst Gary Thompson, Floyd decided he would
become Iowa State's coach after all and was flown to Ames by private jet
for the announcement. Floyd played three years at Louisiana Tech
and served as a student assistant coach his senior year. Floyd's
father, Lee, was the basketball coach at Southern Mississippi but didn't
want his son to go into coaching. "He wanted me to be a dentist, a doctor,"
Floyd said in a 1996 interview. "But coaching was always in the back of my
mind because of my father." His first head coaching job was at
Idaho, where he served for two seasons with a 35-25 record. He had a 127-58
mark in six seasons at New Orleans University, where his team reached the
NCAA Tournament in 1991 and 1993.
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