Taj Gibson is back in the Bulls orbit, and Chicago is hoping the old edge comes with him.
On Sep. 14, 2026, Gibson became Chicago Bulls assistant coach Taj Gibson, putting a former Bulls bench mob favorite in position to help shape a roster that is still coming together under a new front office and mostly new coaching staff. The first formal, organized NBA practices with incumbent Bulls players are set to begin Sep. 28, 2026, and Gibson’s arrival adds a familiar voice to a team trying to build something sturdier.
For Bulls fans, that matters because Gibson learned the job the hard way. Under Tom Thibodeau, Chicago practices were not casual tune-ups.
They were daily tests, built around competition, confrontation and a constant demand to improve for the group. In that locker room, Thibodeau’s presence loomed large, and so did the personalities of Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and later Jimmy Butler.
That environment shaped Gibson’s NBA career early. The standard was clear: if you were in that Bulls room, practice was where you got sharpened.
Jimmy Butler’s own introduction to that culture is part of the lore, and Gibson has talked about it with the kind of bluntness that fit those teams. In a commercial with Noah from the early 2010s, Gibson laid out the tone of those practices by taking aim at Noah’s long list of trash-talking tricks against a teammate.
Those workouts were fierce enough to leave a mark. Gibson has described Bulls practices as intense battles full of trash talk, and they even included a broken jaw for Derrick Rose. That was the atmosphere: a roster defined as much by personality as by coaching intensity.
Now Gibson is being asked to help bring that same kind of competitiveness to a different Bulls group. The challenge is finding a bridge between what he lived as a player and what today’s NBA player responds to now. Gibson appears ready for it, and the Bulls are counting on him to push a 2026-27 roster toward a tougher daily standard.
That’s the hope, anyway. Over the last six seasons before 2026 training camp, the Bulls have too often looked soft and unraveled at the worst times. Chicago is betting that Gibson’s return can help restore some of the resilience that once defined Bulls basketball.
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