Fleming steps in for Bulls; Carlisle reached out to Donovan
Bulls assistant coach Chris Fleming made his NBA head coaching debut Sunday, filling in while Billy Donovan is in health and safety protocols.
Fleming, a New Jersey native, has been solely an assistant in the NBA, but was a head coach for many years in Germany.
"I might (feel nerves) when I walk out there tonight," Fleming said before the game. "The parts have been moving as we've talked about and luckily there hasn't been a whole lot of time to sit down and think about it, but I'm sure that moment will come."
The Bulls lost Lonzo Ball, Alfonzo McKinnie and Tony Bradley to protocols on Sunday afternoon, which will require some creative playing rotations. Fleming said all of the Bulls' coaches meetings these days are done on Zoom with everyone in their own space.
"Billy's in on all of our conversations," Fleming said. "Just in terms of rotations, there's been a couple iterations of that conversation today, with the team we thought we had before practice and then the team we ended up with after practice.
"I think a lot of it will be feel tonight and we'll rely on us as a staff to just kind of understand the moment and what the team needs."
Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle spent 10 days in protocols himself and this was his third game back.
"I talked to Billy two days ago for 15-20 minutes and we talked a little bit about how he was feeling, what I went through," Carlisle said. "He'll be fine, but it's just a world that's constantly adjusting and changing. The changes don't quite keep up with the speculations, but they're not far behind."
Since this omicron outbreak began with the Bulls on Dec. 1, they've had 12 players in protocols, but have gone 5-2 on the court.
"I think Billy's done a really great job of making it a player-driven team and including those guys in all the decisions," Fleming said. "Any conversation we have about basketball moving forward, our team is included in that. I think that ha enabled that group to compensate for some losses of personnel and continue to play the right way.
"I think in addition to that, obviously, you have guys with high character who don't dwell on it too much. Hopefully they'll continue to do that moving forward."
All-star voting begins:
Fan voting for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game began Saturday. Voting can be done at nba.com, on the NBA app or on Twitter by posting #NBAAllStar, followed by a hashtag and the players first and last name.
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