page_title: Tom Thibodeau
section_title: Professional career
hierarchical_section_title: Tom Thibodeau / Professional career
caption_attribution_description: Jeff Van Gundy
context_page_description: Thomas Joseph Thibodeau Jr. is an American basketball coach who is the Head Coach for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association. He served as an assistant coach for the United States men's national basketball team from 2013-2016, and helped Team USA win a gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games.
  As a defensive coach, he helped the Houston Rockets rank among the Top 5 in the league in scoring defense and field goal percentage defense from 2004 to 2007, and he has helped his team finish in the league's Top 10 in team defense 15 times. He has coached in 214 playoff games as an assistant coach, associate head coach, and head coach. Also, he was part of the 1999 NBA Finals as an assistant coach with the New York Knicks before joining the Boston Celtics, with whom he won the 2008 NBA Finals as well as helping guide them back to the 2010 NBA Finals, serving as a defensive coach. In 2011, he was named the NBA Coach of the Year after leading the Chicago Bulls to a 62-win season.
context_section_description: After four years at Harvard, he entered the NBA in 1989, as an assistant coach with an expansion team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, who had hired Bill Musselman as the team's first head coach. Prior to the 1991–92 season, he joined the Seattle SuperSonics as an advance scout.
  Thibodeau moved to the San Antonio Spurs the following season, where he worked as an assistant coach to Jerry Tarkanian, Rex Hughes and John Lucas for two seasons. After the 1993–94 season, he left the Spurs along with Lucas to become an assistant under Lucas with the Philadelphia 76ers. After the 1995–96 season, he again left simultaneously with Lucas, this time joining the New York Knicks as an assistant to head coach Jeff Van Gundy.
  During his tenure with the Knicks, he helped the team set a then-NBA record by holding 33 consecutive opponents under 100 points in the 2000–01 season. As part of the Knicks coaching staff, he also helped Van Gundy to coach the Eastern Conference All-Stars in the 2000 All-Star Game. He spent seven years with the Knicks before joining the Houston Rockets prior to the 2003–04 season, where again he was an assistant to head coach Van Gundy, who has described Thibodeau as "brilliant".
caption: Thibodeau (left) as part of the Houston Rockets coaching staff with then head coach Jeff Van Gundy
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