CHICAGO (WGN) — Billy Donovan III, the son of Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan Jr, began his college years interning for current U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But by the time “BD3” joined his dad for three years as a preferred walk-on at Florida, the coaching bug had already become contagious.
“After high school, I ended up going to a catholic university for two years in D.C.,” the younger Donovan said. “I thought I wanted to do government service. I had a couple of internships and I quickly realized that’s not what I wanted to do.”
What the younger Donovan realized was he—the apple—didn’t fall far from the roots of what could develop into a family tree, by following in the footsteps of his father.
The younger Donovan was an assistant with the Windy City Bulls last year before receiving a promotion to be head coach of the Bulls’ G-League affiliate this season, which started in the Las Vegas Summer League.
But Billy the Kid’s climb up the coaching ladder included plenty of steps beforehand.
“I give him credit. He took a job as an assistant varsity coach, was a head JV coach and then a year later, became a head high school coach,” Donovan Jr said. “He went to the G-League with San Antonio for a couple years, went to the film room in Phoenix for a year, then came here to Chicago. He’s always had it in him. he’s wanted to do that, probably since he’s been in college.”
From the younger Donovan’s perspective, his coaching experience has very much been trial by fire with its fair share of tough moments, but the older Donovan is always there with sage advice.
“Learning on the fly and this being my first year, he’s always telling me things I could be doing better. But as a head coach, it can be such a lonely feeling sometimes,” Donovan III said. “At the end of the game, you wish you could’ve done something differently, but he’s always there to encourage me in those moments, just saying, ‘Listen, we’ve all been there as head coaches. We’ve all made a thousand mistakes.’
“The one thing he would always tell me is, ‘We all want to win. We all want things to go a certain way. But there’s so much out of our control, that it’s impossible to do that.”
However, older Donovan isn’t one to be a helicopter parent when it comes to his son’s coaching career. Younger Donovan has to sink or swim on his own, and know when to utilize the basketball minds he has around him in order to grow.
“I don’t overstep my bounds. I really let him be him. He’s got to stand on his own two feet. He’s got to build own relationships. He’s got to do everything else on his own,” the older Donovan said. “Like anything else, when I was a young coach, I was very fortunate to be around some amazing people—I utilized them a lot to ask questions.”
E.J. Liddell—a former Illinois Mr. Basketball award-winner—is among the players who have played for both Donovans, and continues to hone his game under the son with Windy City.
“I like the fact he’s gaining trust, like he’s giving people the opportunity to gain trust from him in the little things. The extra effort plays,” Liddell said. “What I asked him to help me with is to do what translates. I don’t really want to come off ball screens—be a primary ballhandler cause that’s not what I’m going to do with the big club so, just allowing me to gain trust and build on myself, keep stacking days and doing what translates.”
Older Donovan is closing in on a Top 50 spot on the NBA’s all-time wins list for head coaches, but victories will be harder to come by now that the Bulls have committed to a rebuild. Whether or not younger Donovan ever gets to the lead chair on a bench like his dad, Billy the Kid still wants to emulate his father in one specific way.
“The one thing I would say I try to embody [with] what he does, is he’s true servant. He’s a true servant coach. He cares very deeply about the effectiveness of people doing their jobs,” the younger Donovan said. “How can I help you do your job better? Just his constant communication with the players, I really feel like he gets the most out of those guys because of the relationships he’s able to build with them.”