Tiago Splitter helped lead Portland to the SoFi Play-In Tournament and the NBA Playoffs in 2025-26.
The Chicago Bulls have reportedly settled on their next coach. Per multiple reports, the Bulls are finalizing a deal with Tiago Splitter.
Hired as an assistant last June, Splitter took over as interim coach of the Portland Trail Blazers after Chauncey Billups’ arrest and he led Portland to its first playoff appearance in five years.
BREAKING: The Chicago Bulls are finalizing the hire of Portland Trail Blazers interim Tiago Splitter as the franchise's new head coach, sources tell ESPN. Splitter succeeds Billy Donovan as the Bulls' coach after stepping into the head job and excelling in Portland last season. pic.twitter.com/m8e91FrvXC
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 15, 2026
New Bulls lead executive Bryson Graham is hiring Portland's Tiago Splitter as Chicago's new head coach.
This move will leave the Trail Blazers and Mavericks with the NBA's only two head coaching vacancies.
More coverage: https://t.co/IOsEtlZg1T https://t.co/U9CFqA58BC
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 15, 2026
Splitter succeeds Billy Donovan, who stepped down as coach shortly after season’s end.
The Bulls had conversations with Donovan about returning, but he decided to step aside rather than work with a new front office.
Chicago allowed 121.5 points per game this season, ranking 28th overall in the NBA. The Bulls finished with a 31-51 record while missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
Bryson Graham was hired as Chicago’s executive vice president of basketball operations on May 4. Stephen Mervis and Acie Law IV joined the team’s revamped front office on May 19.
Splitter, a 6-foot-11 center from Brazil, played seven years in the NBA with San Antonio, Atlanta and Philadelphia before officially retiring from basketball in 2018. He won an NBA championship in 2014 with the Spurs.
He previously served as head coach for Paris Basketball in the top French league for one season after a stint as an assistant for the Houston Rockets.
Uncertainty about Splitter’s future with the Trail Blazers swirled at season’s end. Still, Splitter was approaching the job with the same positivity that has helped carry the team through a strange season and into the NBA playoffs.
The sentiment was apparent after the Blazers won Game 2 against the San Antonio Spurs in the first round.
“This is why we do this, to have games like this, to experience wins like this,” Splitter said in April. “I told them before the game, I mean, all the stuff that we went through throughout the season is to get to these moments. And have fun. Go there and hoop. Go there and ball.”
According to recent reports, new Blazers owner Tom Dundon has been looking at different candidates to fill the head coaching job permanently.
Splitter shrugged off the reports.
“Just trying to be a pro,” Splitter said before Game 2. “Try to focus on my locker room and my staff to stay and think about basketball. Same way when I got the job and all the stuff that was going on.”
Splitter was tasked with continuing Billups’ development of a young and inexperienced but talented squad that included Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija.
Along the way, the Blazers withstood several extended absences because of injury. Scoot Henderson missed 51 games with a hamstring injury, Avdija struggled with a sore back, and veteran Jrue Holiday had a calf injury that sidelined him for 25 games.
And then there was the speculation over Dundon’s acquisition of the team. The former majority owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes struck a deal with the estate of former owner Paul Allen to buy the team before the start of the season. The sale became final in March.
Donovan was arguably the top candidate on the market when the Bulls hired him in September 2020.
Chicago’s lone playoff appearance since all three were hired came during the 2021-22 season, when it finished sixth in the Eastern Conference at 46-36 and got knocked out by Milwaukee in the first round. The Bulls lost in the SoFi Play-In Tournament the next three years.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
