Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg walks away from podium when asked if Isaiah Thomas carried
When a reporter asked Chicago Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg if Isaiah Thomas carried the ball during the Boston Celtics’ Game 5 win on Wednesday night, Hoiberg abruptly stood up and left the podium.
“No,” was all he said before getting up and walking away.
The reporter may have been looking to needle Hoiberg over comments he made about the Celtics point guard carrying the ball during Boston’s Game 4 victory on Sunday.
“Let me say this: Isaiah Thomas is a hell of a player. An unbelievable competitor,” Hoiberg said after that game. “He’s a warrior — everything he’s going through right now, he had a hell of a game tonight. But when you’re allowed to discontinue your dribble on every possession, he is impossible to guard. He’s impossible to guard. When you’re able to put your hand underneath the ball, and take two or three steps and put it back down, it’s impossible to guard him in those situations.”
Thomas said he did not think that there was any truth to Hoiberg’s comment.
“I only know one way how to dribble,” Thomas told CSNNE after Boston’s practice on Tuesday. “I’ve been dribbling the same way my whole life. Maybe it was strategic or something. I don’t think they’ll call it on me.”
The Celtics beat the Bulls on Wednesday, 108-97, to take a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven first-round series. Thomas scored 24 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, to help Boston to its third straight win after falling into an 0-2 hole. The Celtics will now look to close the series out in Chicago in Game 6 on Friday night.
