It's awkward, but Boylen apprecated support from Hoiberg
Asked before Friday's game about the contact he's had with fired Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg, Jim Boylen thanked the questioner.
"I really appreciate that question because it's awful," he said. "It's gut-wrenching for him, it's gut-wrenching for me."
Boylen is talking about the circumstances. After serving as Hoiberg's lead assistant for three-plus seasons, he got his first chance to be an NBA head coach at Hoiberg's expense.
"He sent me a text before the Indiana game, 'Good luck. I know you're going to be great.' It was awesome," Boylen said. "I texted him back, obviously. This thing, it's raw, it's tough and it's hard. We're different people. We have different styles. It's not one bad or one good, we're just different."
Boylen lost on Tuesday at Indiana, but Friday was his home debut as Bulls head coach. He said his wife and kids would be in the seats and he's bought plenty of tickets for friends.
"I never thought in my whole life I'd be head coach of the Chicago Bulls," he said. "I wanted to be a head coach in the league, but of the Chicago Bulls ... it's unbelievable. I'll probably look at my wife and kids (during introductions). It's a strange moment, but it's a cool moment."
Boylen out to improve will:
The Bulls got off to a fast start against Oklahoma City on Friday, which made a pregame comment by Boylen relevant.
"Our will needs to be better when we're tired," he said. "That's a big issue with us now. Our will comes and goes during a game.
Boylen said that in response to a question about his vow to improve the Bulls' conditioning by running more sprints in practice.
"If you're mentally tougher, if you're in better shape, I think maybe your will can last longer," he said. "That's where that's coming from."
Here's one more coaching philosophy quote from the Bulls' new head coach.
"When you're coachable, teachable, you become reliable," Boylen said. "To me, all those things come within ownership of what's best for the team. If I want what's best for the team, I'm going to be coachable, I'm going to be teachable and then I'm going to be reliable. That's what I want."
Saying no to Noah:
It would have made sense for Oklahoma City to sign former Bulls center Joakim Noah, since he played for Thunder coach Billy Donovan in college at Florida. Noah joined the Memphis Grizzlies and played his second game Friday.
"Obviously, I love Jo, I have great feelings for him," Donovan said before the game. "Nothing was brought to my attention about the possibility of that happening. Our roster's pretty complete, so that's probably the biggest thing. No one is a bigger fan and admires him more than I do."