NEWSLETTER
Billy Donovan has spoken. Before Tuesday night’s game against the New York Knicks, Donovan fielded the exact questions everyone expected.
Reporters asked the Chicago Bulls head coach about the ongoing buzz around the University of Kentucky head coaching job. Long-time leader John Calipari officially announced his departure from the franchise on Tuesday morning, and Donovan’s name has been reported as a dream candidate for the program.
If the former Florida Gators coach doesn’t have plans to change his mind, however, it sounds like Kentucky will have to move down their list. Donovan expressed full dedication to the Chicago Bulls organization during his talk with reporters, but he also stressed that Kentucky has yet to even reach out to him.
Here are his comments (video via Julia Poe on X):
“I have not been contacted by anybody. I haven’t spoken to anybody. My total commitment and focus is here to this team and to this group.
I think with what we’ve been through this year and the way we’ve started, and we’ve talked about it, I give our guys a lot of credit for hanging in there and battling through some of the things we had to battle through. And I’m with them on that, and I’m committed to them with that.
Again, I think a lot of this sometimes turns out to be speculation. But I have not had any contact with anybody and my commitment is here.”
Ok … so I have some thoughts.
Billy Donovan
The Chicago Bulls are one week removed from a Play-In Tournament appearance. Billy Donovan is a true professional, and it would be completely unprofessional for him to entertain the idea of another position at this point in the season. With that being the case, his response falls mostly in line with what we all should have expected.
At the same time, words matter. I do find it at least somewhat interesting that Donovan talked more about his commitments to this current team than the organization as a whole. Could that mean nothing? Absolutely. But it does make me wonder what his long-term outlook might be.
We also can’t ignore the fact that Donovan says he hasn’t even heard from Kentucky yet. All early reports are that the iconic Blue Blood program will give him a call, and can we really shut the door on this whole thing before that happens?
Donovan may say his commitment is here, but what happens if Kentucky drops a legendary stack of dollar bills in front of him when the season ends? Or what if the Chicago Bulls decide to drastically shake things up this summer?
Cody Westerlund of 670 The Score also outlined the immense praise that Donovan had for Kentucky during his pre-game remarks today. Let’s not forget that he started his coaching career as an assistant at the school under Rick Pitino.
Look, my expectation for now is that Donovan doesn’t head back to the college ranks, but we’ve surely seen crazier things happen! Until Kentucky is linked heavily to someone else, it’s hard to expect this story to completely go away. We’ll keep you updated.
You can listen to Billy Donovan’s response below:
