‘The Decision’ is coming for Billy Donovan and future with the Bulls

DALLAS – There will be no Boys & Girls Club anywhere in sight.

Jim Gray, LeBron James? Stay at home.

This “decision” is Billy Donovan’s to make and his to make alone. The Bulls coach made that very clear on Sunday, with the regular season ending and Donovan’s future up in the air.

What he would divulge is he plans to sit down with owners Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf early this upcoming week, doesn’t plan to drag his decision on, and will make it by himself.

There was a lot of speculation that with Donovan’s father and mother-in-law dying in the same week back in February and his mother currently dealing with health issues, that there would be a lengthy discussion with family members, but it doesn’t work that way for the Hall of Fame coach.

“One is I feel like I need to do that (make a quick decision) moving forward and certainly listen to what they have to say,” Donovan said. “The one thing, as difficult (a time) as I went through at the All-Star Break, and I mean this in all respect, my family is not going to necessarily have anything to do with the decision. They have been incredibly supportive, and it would be more my internal (decision), with my mom and her situation, that would be something that I would want to do.

“It wouldn’t be a situation where I’m feeling a certain family pressure of, ‘Hey listen, can you go take some time, we’ve gone through some of these difficulties.’ They’ve never put me in that situation. I’m grateful for that. So if it would have anything to do with the family it would totally be on me.”

What Donovan also ruled out was the idea that he would survey the landscape of potential job openings and shop his services around.

He almost made it sound like if he does decide to walk away, there would be some down time – maybe taking a season off – to reassess what he wants from the profession.

“No, my commitment and loyalty is to the Bulls,” he responded when asked if he would play the wait-and-see game for another NBA gig to open.

What the Sun-Times did learn about the situation is it does sound like Donovan is committed to staying in the NBA, with or without the Bulls.

As for the Bulls, the Sun-Times reported that the one job they were concerned about enticing Donovan right away would be Orlando if the Magic move off Jamahl Mosley.

In the wake of the firings of executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley, Michael Reinsdorf made it clear that keeping Donovan was a top priority, and they want him to have more input in the decision making.

All well and good, but the most important decision Donovan will be making soon is whether he wants to be a part of what feels like a rebuild.

“Obviously, things have changed with Arturas and Marc, and you go through the season thinking we’re all kind of going to go through (an exit meeting) together,” Donovan said. “That’s changed, and I’m sure (ownership wants) to talk about what the plan is going forward, what their thoughts are, all those kinds of things. We’ve always done that after every year of how we can get better and those types of things.

“I love being in Chicago and I love the organization, everything about it, but we’re in this pivot point right now where everything has changed. So for me to sit down and have a conversation that’s really what I want to do, just to find out where we’re all at with this and how we’re going to move forward.”