When Joakim Noah accepted his Defensive Player of the Year award in 2014, he deflected the credit to Tom Thibodeau.
“Thibs,” Noah said, in the middle of his acceptance speech, “we’ve definitely had our hard times, our ups and downs, but without your system, this wouldn’t be possible.”
Thibodeau was proud of Noah because he was recognized for his contributions to winning. Thibodeau pushed Noah so hard that once they had an exchange wherein, Noah told his former coach that he would hate him if they were not winning games.
That’s Thibodeau for you.