Tom Thibodeau will be back with Bulls — Stacey King

Few in the media get as close to Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau as Stacey King. In fact, the Bulls analyst often has to look around or through him as he’s describing the game from the sideline.

King appeared on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Monday and made some pretty strong remarks about the relationship between Thibs and the Bulls’ front office.

Patrick asked King if it was a foregone conclusion that Thibodeau and the Bulls would part ways at the end of the season. [3:20 mark]

“No, I don’t think he’s going,” King said. “That’s just my personal opinion. You hear guys in the media say that this is irreparable between him and the front office. Listen, there are not a lot of jobs out there. There are not a lot of jobs out there that are this quality. If there’s a rift between him and management, I haven’t seen it.

“Maybe they have a difference in philosophy as to the way he’s playing certain players. Tom coaches every game like it’s Game 7. Doesn’t matter if it’s the first game of the season or game 95. He’s going to coach the same way.”

Patrick also asked King about LeBron James changing the final play of Sunday’s game, a play that originally drawn up with James inbounding the ball.

Patrick wondered what Michael Jordan’s reaction would have been if Phil Jackson had asked him to throw the ball in:

“Mike probably would have slapped him. [laughter] MJ would have given him that death stare, like, ‘really? You really think I’m going to take the ball out?’ ”