Chicago Bulls, Tom Thibodeau Agree To Four-Year Contract Extension

The Chicago Bulls and coach Tom Thibodeau have agreed to a four-year-contract extension that will pay the coach somewhere in the vicinity of $18 million. That deal would be inline with a similar $18 million contract handed over to Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks during the off-season.

The four year extension is on top of the option years the Bulls recently picked up for the 2012-2013 season.

On Monday Thibodeau said of the agreement:

“Obviously, I’m very excited to be here and very thankful to (owner) Jerry (Reinsdorf) and to (executive vice president) John (Paxson) and (general manager) Gar (Forman) and certainly all our players and our fans … I love being here, I never doubted it would work out. This is where I want to be. Jerry has been great to me from the day I arrived.”

Speaking on ESPN 1000’s Carmen, Jurko Harry Thibodeau said his contract wasn’t a big concern on his mind:

“I knew it was going to happen, it was just a matter of when … I felt good about it from the middle of last season. Basically Jerry had called me up and said ‘Look, we’ll get this done at some point.’ He’s a man of his word and everything that he has said he has done so I felt good about it.”

After hearing the news, Bulls star Derrick Rose proclaims:

“It’s great, man. Just to know that we finally got a deal done, he got his deal done. I don’t know if he has been thinking about it. He hasn’t said anything (to) me. No one has said anything to me about that but you all. I’m just happy that he’s my coach for an x amount of years. He’s a guy that we need around this organization, where he’s pushing everyone in the entire organization to want to be better and try to push this organization to win a championship.”

Thibodeau became the fastest head coach in NBA history to win 100 games after being hired two summers ago. Thibodeau honed his skills as an assistant coach under Doc Rivers and the Boston Celtics.