Imrem: Why the disparity in demand for Thibodeau and Guillen?

The latest Tom Thibodeau speculation has him headed for the Timberwolves.

Awhile ago it was the Cavaliers. Last week it was the Knicks. Next week, who knows, maybe the Lakers?

So why doesn't Ozzie Guillen's name come up in the same manner every time a baseball team fires its manager?

Thibodeau has been mentioned for six NBA jobs, 11 college jobs and four jobs in the Intergalactic Summer League.

Guillen? Well, he settled for the La Guaira Sharks in the Venezuelan Winter League because the Peru Mountain Daisies hired a llama.

All kidding aside, why the disparity in demand for Thibodeau and Guillen?

Thibodeau, an outstanding coach, didn't really win anything significant with the Bulls before being fired last year.

Meanwhile Guillen won the 2005 World Series with the White Sox before they divorced him in 2011.

Yet Thibodeau figures to get a big-time job sooner than Guillen will.

Maybe the Cavaliers passed on Thibodeau because LeBron James wouldn't play for him. Maybe the Knicks will pass on him because Phil Jackson couldn't work with him.

Heck, there's always a chance that the carousel will swing all the way around to where the Bulls' job opens again and Thibodeau becomes a candidate.

No, no, no, that isn't going to happen. That marriage ended so acrimoniously that it couldn't be reconciled at gunpoint.

That's the similarity: Thibodeau had a rocky relationship with the Bulls and Guillen a rocky one with the Sox.

Still, every basketball team in need of a coach seems to need Thibodeau and no baseball team in need of a manager seems to need Guillen.

All sorts of MLB jobs were open this offseason but Guillen wasn't a prominent candidate for any of them.

Look, Guillen isn't for everyone's taste: He's colorful and controversial in a sport where bland and calm managers generally are preferred.

Thibodeau has a lot of Guillen in him as a difficult coach for management to coexist with.

Bulls' executives John Paxson and Gar Forman have proved to be difficult to get along with, too, which might be why other teams think they can live with Thibodeau.

Guillen has been out of baseball's managerial conversation since he and Kenny Williams couldn't coexist.

Even Williams, then the Sox' general manager and now a club vice president, said last season that Guillen should be back in the game.

However, nobody with the White Sox ever indicates that Guillen should be back in their dugout.

So where then?

Last year I suggested that the best place for Guillen would be with the Mets, where he could and would compete with the Yankees for the back page of the New York tabloids.

Then the Mets went on a roll all the way to the World Series and manager Terry Collins went from a lock to be fired to locked into the job.

Last year, San Diego columnist Nick Canepa wrote that the Padres needed Guillen:

"He would grab this sleepy little yawning baseball town by the throat and shake it until it blows its cork."

Nothing came of that either and Guillen remains on the outside looking in while Thibodeau has NBA insiders looking out at him.

Thibodeau deserves another shot at being an NBA head coach and Guillen deserves another shot at being an MLB manager.

Tom Thibodeau will get his shot sooner than later while it's starting to look like Ozzie Guillen won't ever get his.

mimrem@dailyherald.com