As the NBA All-Star Weekend gets underway in San Francisco, finalists for this year’s class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame were named, with the Chicago Bulls’ head coach on this year’s list.
Naismith HOF Finalists: Carmelo Anthony Sylvia Fowler Billy Donovan (coach) Jerry Welsh (coach) Tal Brody (contributor) Maya Moore Dwight Howard Sue Bird Micky Arison (contributor)
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Donovan, 59, is in his fifth season as the Bulls’ head coach, following an illustrious career primarily at the NCAA level.
After two years as a head coach for Marshall in West Virginia from 1994-96, Donovan began one of the most successful head coaching tenures in college basketball history with the University of Florida from 1996-2015.
In that time, Donovan won back-to-back NCAA titles with the Gators in 2006 and 2007, part of 14 NCAA tournament appearances which featured four appearances in the Final Four.
Additionally, Donovan’s teams were SEC regular season champions six times during his tenure at Florida, with the Gators winning the SEC tournament four times in that period.
Donovan won four Coach of the Year awards as a college coach, being named the Southern Coach of the Year for Marshall in 1995 before winning three SEC Coach of the Year awards within a four-year span in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
At the age of 50, Donovan left for the NBA and took over as head coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2015-16 season, a team led by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook that came within minutes of defeating the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, who went on to lose in that year’s NBA Finals.
Donovan coached the Thunder for five seasons, leading them to the playoffs each year in his tenure.
In Oklahoma City, Donovan led the Thunder to a 243-157 record over 400 regular season games, with an 18-23 record in the postseason.
As head coach of the Bulls, Donovan’s teams have gone 178-195 over the course of 373 regular season games, with the Bulls going 1-4 in Donovan’s lone postseason appearance with the team in 2022.
