First off, who calls in a guy to interview if they don't think he's a potential candidate for the job? He got interviewed because he was ready. Teams just made bad choices, like they always do every single season. And it's not like Boston was his only experience. He coached with the rockets when they were a top defensive team mid 2000's. So he proved himself in Houston, in Boston, and now in Chicago.
So the past three years didn't help him become a better coach? Yes, he was a good coach already. Does that mean he couldn't get better?
And I don't really understand your question. No one interviews someone that they don't expect to be a potential candidate. That's the point of the interview, to determine whether (a) the candidate is capable and qualified to your liking, and (b) the candidate is a good fit for your team/company/department, etc. That's why you interview. You're acting like interviewing someone necessarily requires that you are ready to offer them the job.
First time, the Kings just passed on him. The second time he interviewed (when have you interviewed for a job you had no intention of taking?), and the kings were leaning in another direction, he withdrew himself to go back to Boston. I can't blame him either, because if the worst team in the league doesn't want me, and has to think about it to consider a guy who was out of the league and run out of college, I would go back to coaching my championship team too.
It's not like the Kings are the only team that interviewed him. He was one of the hottest assistants in the NBA. So the idea that his only recourse was to go back to Boston is not factual. Even if they were leaning in a different direction, they had not yet decided. Him taking his hat out of the ring was his decision, not theirs.
And I know that perhaps the recent joblessness has affected perceptions on job interviews, but there was a time when people would interview for jobs that they weren't necessarily interested in taking. I've done it, and I would be that anyone who has been in the work force for more than five years has done it as well. Just because you go for a job interview doesn't mean you're committed to accepting an offer.
And considering the fact that Thibodeau didn't accept any of the other jobs that he was interviewed for, it's plausible that he was waiting for a better opportunity to coach a team that wasn't in the middle of a protracted rebuild. Potential coaches in all sports go for interviews two or three years before they actually accept a job all the time. The Vikings Leslie Frazier has been interviewing for head coaching jobs for about five years now, and finally got his shot only after the head coach was fired. Josh McDaniels and Steve Spagnuolo were turning down jobs a year before they finally accepted. And Thibodeau did the same thing. Maybe he wanted to be on the east coast (he's from Connecticut, right?) Maybe he wanted to wait for his kids to be a little older. Maybe Doc Rivers
begged him to stay. Maybe with Doc contemplating retirement, he thought he might have a chance to succeed him in Boston.
You don't know all the particulars.
Yes, let's consider that the Kings passed on him twice,
that the team recently wanted to change the stigma of the team by adding size and gritty players and improve defensively and still passed on the perfect coach for that,
that he had more recent success in the league and proven track record
that having not had a head coaching job, would probably come cheap for the opportunity
I said it when it happened: the indications were that he was the best man for the job, period. There's no 20/20 hindsight, this is the current reality reinforcing many people's past opinion.
Jesus, I know this is a fan forum, but why is it so hard to admit the kings screwed up?
I'm not defending the decision to pass on a coach that would quite obviously have been a better option than the guy we have now (or anyone we've had in the last several years). I'm just suggesting that maybe it wasn't completely up to the Kings that Thibodeau isn't their head coach. We don't know what was discussed in interviews, we don't know what his priorities were, or even whether he was seriously interested in leaving the Celtics yet. It's not a one-way street.
All I'm saying is that it's possible Thibodeau passed on the Kings, and not the other way around.