Chicago have signed Tiago Splitter to a three-year deal after a high-pressure coaching run with the Portland Trail Blazers. The 41-year-old credits Gregg Popovich—his former Spurs mentor—as a major influence as the Bulls chase an end to a long title drought.
Chicago’s coaching search has ended, and the direction it points is unmistakable. The Bulls have signed Tiago Splitter to a three-year deal, bringing in a new voice with a tough apprenticeship already completed—one that began almost immediately at the top.
Splitter arrives fresh off his stint with the Portland Trail Blazers. where he was thrown into the job just one game into the season after Chauncey Billups was suspended by the NBA for his involvement in a gambling scandal. Despite having no prior experience as the main shot-caller in the NBA, Splitter embraced the challenge. He helped steer the Trail Blazers to the playoffs as the seventh seed in the Western Conference. The run. though. wasn’t enough to keep Portland from holding back on the kind of contract money that could have kept him there. forcing him to look elsewhere.
That elsewhere is Chicago. And the connection doesn’t stop at the paperwork. Splitter is the latest addition to the long line of figures shaped by Gregg Popovich. Popovich handled Splitter on the San Antonio Spurs from 2010 to 2015. and Splitter has been clear about how much that period still informs his approach.
“He was, of course, a great coach, mentor, and still is. A guy who calls me, texts me, and helps me. I saw how he did when certain things (happened) and how he would deal with situations, so I learned from it,” Splitter said.
He added that the day-to-day mattered as much as any lesson delivered in a moment: “The day-to-day things, how he treats players. He’s one of the best, if not the best, at how he makes everybody feel involved.”
Splitter also brings a career milestone from his time in Popovich’s orbit. At age 41, he won a ring with the Spurs in 2014.
Popovich, for his part, is no longer coaching games—but he is still close to the decision-making. He now serves as the Spurs’ president of basketball operations. For Splitter. who has “imbibed the wisdom” of that mentor like so many players before him. the Bulls job looks like a test with a familiar foundation: a coaching style learned under one of the sport’s most demanding standards. now asked to deliver urgency in a market that hasn’t tasted the top in a long time.
Chicago’s stakes are obvious. After the dynastic run of Michael Jordan. the Bulls have been stuck in one of the longest title droughts in the NBA. They have only been to the playoffs twice in the last 10 seasons. It’s a reality that turns any appointment into more than a hire—it becomes an opening statement about what comes next.
Splitter’s challenge, then, isn’t just learning a new organization. It’s doing it while the clock runs loud. with the Bulls still searching for the kind of consistent success that has defined teams built around elite coaching. His first season won’t be about theory either. In Portland. his shot at the top arrived immediately—one game after Billups was suspended by the NBA over a gambling scandal—and he was expected to perform without the luxury of a gradual ramp.
Now, Splitter will step into that same kind of pressure as he tries to reclaim the long-lost glory of the Bulls.
Chicago Bulls Tiago Splitter Gregg Popovich Portland Trail Blazers Billy Donovan Chauncey Billups NBA gambling scandal Western Conference seventh seed Spurs president of basketball operations