The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf and Billy Donovan is the current head coach. They play their home games in the United Center. The Bulls first joined the NBA in the 1966–67 season as an expansion team. Coached by Johnny Kerr, the team finished its first season with a 33–48 record, the best record achieved by an expansion team in its first year of play, and secured a playoff berth. [1] The Bulls won their first NBA championship in the 1991 NBA Finals while coached by Phil Jackson. [1] They won five additional NBA championships in the 1990s under Jackson. [1]
There have been 21 head coaches for the Bulls franchise. Phil Jackson is also the franchise's all-time leader in regular season games coached, regular season games won, playoff games coached, and playoff games won. [2] Jackson and Jerry Sloan are the only Bulls coaches to have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach. [2] [3] Kerr, Dick Motta, Jackson, and Thibodeau have won NBA Coach of the Year with the team. [4] Ed Badger, Bill Berry, Bill Cartwright, Pete Myers and Jim Boylan have all spent their entire NBA head coaching careers with the Bulls. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Sloan, Cartwright, and Myers formerly played for the Bulls. [10] [11] [12]
| GC | Games coached |
| W | Wins |
| L | Losses |
| Win% | Winning percentage |
| # | Number of coaches [a] |
| * | Spent entire NBA head coaching career with the Bulls |
| † | Elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach |
Note: Statistics are correct through April 11, 2023.
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16, 1966, and played its first game during the 1966–67 NBA season. The Bulls play their home games at the United Center, an arena on Chicago's West Side.
Stephen Douglas Kerr is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is known as one of the most accurate three-point shooters in NBA history. Kerr is a nine-time NBA champion, having won five titles as a player and four as head coach of the Warriors. He was named one of the 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA History.
Gerald Eugene Sloan was an American professional basketball player and coach. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) before beginning a 30-year coaching career, 23 of which were spent as head coach of the Utah Jazz (1988–2011). NBA commissioner David Stern referred to Sloan as "one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history". Sloan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
James William Cartwright is an American former professional basketball player and a former head coach of the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A 7'1" center, he played 16 seasons for the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls and Seattle SuperSonics, helping the Bulls capture consecutive championships in the 1991, 1992 and 1993 seasons. He attended Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove, California, and played college basketball at the University of San Francisco.
Philip Douglas Jackson is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive. A power forward, Jackson played 12 seasons in the NBA, winning NBA championships with the New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973. Regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time, Jackson was the head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998, leading them to six NBA championships. He then coached the Los Angeles Lakers from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2011; the team won five league titles under his leadership. Jackson's 11 NBA titles as a coach surpassed the previous record of nine set by Red Auerbach. He holds numerous other records as a coach, such as most postseason wins (229), and most NBA Conference titles (13).
The National Basketball Association's Coach of the Year is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1962–63 NBA season. The winner receives the Red Auerbach Trophy, which is named in honor of the head coach who led the Boston Celtics to nine NBA championships from 1956 to 1966. The winner is selected at the end of the regular season by a panel of sportswriters from the United States and Canada, each of whom casts a vote for first, second and third place selections. Each first-place vote is worth five points; each second-place vote is worth three points; and each third-place vote is worth one point. The person with the highest point total, regardless of the number of first-place votes, wins the award.
Jerome Richard Krause was an American sports scout and executive who was the general manager of the Chicago Bulls in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1985 to 2003.
The 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, also referred to as NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, were chosen in 1996 to honor the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Basketball Association (NBA). It was the third anniversary team in the league. Fifty players were selected through a vote by a panel of media members, former players and coaches, and current and former general managers. In addition, the top ten head coaches and top ten single-season teams in NBA history were selected by media members as part of the celebration. The 50 players had to have played at least a portion of their careers in the NBA and were selected irrespective of position played.
John Graham Kerr, also known as Red Kerr, was an American basketball player, coach, and color commentator. He played in the NBA from 1954 to 1966, mainly as a member of the Syracuse Nationals. He later held several coaching and administrative positions before embarking on a thirty-three-year career as a television color commentator for the Chicago Bulls.
The 1993–94 NBA season was the Bulls' 28th season in the National Basketball Association. The Bulls entered the season as the three time defending NBA champions, having defeated the Phoenix Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals in six games, winning their third NBA championship, their first of two threepeats in the 1990s. This was the first season without All-Star guard Michael Jordan since the 1983–84 season, as he retired during the off-season to pursue a baseball career after the murder of his father. Instead, the Bulls were led by All-Star forward Scottie Pippen. In the off-season, the team signed free agents Steve Kerr, Bill Wennington, and Pete Myers, who was signed to fill in the void left by Jordan at shooting guard.
Thomas Joseph Thibodeau Jr., nicknamed "Thibs", is an American basketball coach who is the head coach for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He served as an assistant coach for the United States men's national basketball team from 2013 to 2016, and helped Team USA win a gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games.
The 1966 NBA expansion draft was the second expansion draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held from April 30 to May 1, 1966, so that the newly founded Chicago Bulls could acquire players for the upcoming 1966–67 season. Chicago had been awarded the expansion team on January 16, 1966. The Bulls were the third NBA franchise to play in Chicago, following the Chicago Stags, which folded in 1950, and the Chicago Packers–Zephyrs, which moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Bullets in 1963.
This page details the all-time statistics, records, and other achievements pertaining to the Chicago Bulls.