A former two-time NCAA Tournament Champion men’s basketball coach enters his sixth NBA season with the Chicago Bulls.
Billy Donovan, 60, took over the program in the 2020-21 season after five years at Oklahoma City. He coached the Thunder to the Western Conference playoffs all five seasons, including a conference finals appearance in 2015-16. Donovan guided the Bulls to the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2021-22, but has missed the postseason in the last three years.
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Chicago believes Donovan has the team moving in the right direction. It feels so strongly about it that the Bulls had him sign a multi-year contract extension. Donovan signed the deal on Sunday via report from ESPN’s Shams Charania. He is viewed as a leader within the Bulls’ organization and has exciting talent to coach –including point guard Coby White from North Carolina.
Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan has signed a multiyear contract extension with the franchise, sources tell ESPN. Donovan is viewed as a leader within the Bulls organization, and will enter his sixth season in Chicago in 2025-26 with 800 NBA games coached over his career. pic.twitter.com/LVYMiZt2Tv
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 27, 2025
The Bulls and Billy Donovan started negotiations at the end of last season and continued conversations through this week amid offseason planning, a brief pursuit of Donovan by the New York Knicks, and the draft, free agency and summer league. https://t.co/hXAF7IWhgq
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 27, 2025
Donovan was a monster success in college, so hopefully he can achieve more of it in Chicago.
We will see if the Bulls can end a three-year playoff drought in the fall.
Stephen M. Smith is a writer for Ball Exclusives. You can follow him on X via @CoachingMSmith.
