If Chauncey Billups had been more like “Dr. Jack” Ramsay and less like Tony “The Ant” Spilotro, we wouldn’t even be talking about Tiago Splitter. That much is certain. But Billups blew up his life, Splitter took over as interim coach of the Trail Blazers just one game into the 2025-26 season, the team then rode out a series of storms and outperformed every expectation, and here we are. Splitter, 41, is now the Bulls’ coach, having reached a level of employment he wasn’t anywhere near just a couple of years ago.
“I think we have a great future in front of us,” he said Wednesday at his introductory press conference at the Advocate Center.
The Brazilian Splitter, a former championship center with the Spurs, spent the 2023-24 season as a Rockets assistant under Ime Udoka. If there was an A-team among Udoka’s six assistants, Splitter didn’t appear to be on it. In case anyone couldn’t spot him, he was the 6-11 guy sitting behind the bench — meaning not on it.
An NBA head coaching job didn’t really seem to be in the picture at that point. That helped push Splitter to accept a head coaching role in France’s top league after one season in Houston. It didn’t hurt that his Paris team won the championship.
“There’s a label that people put on you, right? Foreign, big guy, 6-11 — you don’t see many of those [among NBA coaches]. So I was behind the bench in…
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