As one Bulls player told it, “Billy wasn’t [bleeping] around.’’
Billy Donovan was born and raised in Rockville Centre on Long Island, and on that night his players were getting the full New York experience in the home locker room.
After that blowout loss to Charlotte, however, Donovan came into the media room, and rather than pointing fingers at his players, beating his chest about how he got after guys at the half, or just going with the usual coachspeak, he surprisingly pulled out the sword and fell on it.
“Some of the struggles that took place in the first quarter were things that we really tried to cover today at shootaround, and to be quite honest with you, I didn’t do a good enough job of creating maybe enough clarity for them on those situations,’’ Donovan said.