Tiago Splitter has filled out his first Chicago Bulls coaching staff for 2026-27, building a bench that mixes long-tenured NBA assistants, player-development voices and a familiar former Bull in Taj Gibson. Wes Unseld Jr. is back for a third season in Chicago, while Blake Ahearn, Jamelle McMillan, Rex Kalamian, Jonah Herscu and Gibson arrive as assistant coaches.
Splitter’s bench blends experience with a Bulls connection
Unseld remains the most experienced returning assistant. Before coming to Chicago, he coached Washington from 2021 through 2024 and held assistant jobs with Denver, Orlando and Golden State. His NBA path began as a Wizards advance and pro scout in 1997, followed by a 2005-11 stretch on Washington’s coaching staff. The Baltimore native played at Johns Hopkins.
Ahearn comes in after four seasons on Memphis’ staff from 2020-24. He previously ran the Austin Spurs for three years and guided San Antonio’s affiliate to the 2018 G League title. His eight-year playing career included NBA stops with Miami, San Antonio and Utah, plus overseas work in Spain, Italy, China, Ukraine and Puerto Rico. Ahearn was the 2007-08 G League Rookie of the Year, made two G League First Teams in 2009 and 2012, and won another G League championship with Santa Cruz in 2015. Before moving into the NBA, the St. Louis native coached at De Smet Jesuit and Clayton High School. At Missouri State, he posted the NCAA career record for free-throw percentage at .946 and made .975 of his attempts as a freshman, still the single-season mark.
McMillan joins Chicago after three years with Detroit, where he worked in player development and as an assistant while also leading the Motor City Cruise from 2023-26. He had earlier assistant assignments with Atlanta and Phoenix, following six seasons with New Orleans that began as a coaching internship and progressed through player development to an assistant role. The Seattle native spent 2011-12 as Drake’s director of basketball operations after a four-year playing career at Arizona State, where he completed a business and corporate communications degree.
Kalamian brings one of the league’s deepest assistant-coaching résumés. He spent the past three seasons with Milwaukee after previous stops with Detroit, Sacramento, the Clippers, Toronto, Oklahoma City, Minnesota and Denver. His three All-Star coaching staffs came in 2012, 2014 and 2024. Kalamian began in the NBA as a Clippers scout from 1992-95, later scouting for Philadelphia in 2003-04. Raised in Los Angeles, Kalamian became head coach of Armenia’s men’s national team in January 2022. He played at East Los Angeles College and graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a business-management degree.
Herscu returns to an organization where he once worked as a video intern from 2013-15, now taking an assistant-coaching seat after 19 years spread across the NBA, G League and WNBA. Most recently, he coached Portland’s G League club, the Rip City Remix, in 2025-26 after three seasons as a Trail Blazers assistant. His NBA background also includes Sacramento, first as an advance scout and then as an assistant, plus Lakers roles in player development, advance scouting and video coordination. He started with Fort Wayne, Indiana’s former G League affiliate, in 2012 and also worked on the Chicago Sky’s scouting and video staff before becoming a Sky assistant. The Amherst, Massachusetts, native was named Romania’s men’s national-team coach in August 2026.
Gibson’s move to the bench starts immediately after a 17-season NBA playing career. The Bulls selected the Brooklyn native 26th in the 2009 draft, and he spent more than seven seasons in Chicago from 2009-17. Across 1,012 games with Chicago, Oklahoma City, Minnesota, New York, Detroit, Charlotte and Memphis, Gibson averaged 8.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.0 block. He made the All-Rookie First Team in 2009-10. In the Bulls record book, he sits fifth in blocks with 695, sixth in offensive boards with 1,336, 10th in defensive rebounds with 2,250 and games played with 562, and 12th in total rebounds at 3,586. Gibson played three seasons at USC and remains the Trojans’ career blocks leader with 295.
Development and video departments receive new structure
Martin Rancik has been promoted to senior player development coach as he enters his seventh year with the Bulls. He worked as a player development specialist from 2022-26 after two years coaching Windy City and a 2018-19 season as a Chicago basketball operations associate. Rancik played overseas from 2001-16 in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, Greece and Italy, after four seasons at Iowa State. He moved from Slovakia to the United States in 1995, attended St. Louis Park High School and has represented Slovakia’s senior national team.
Jordan Brink takes the dual title of assistant coach and director of player development. He spent 2025-26 as an assistant with the defending champion New York Knicks, following two years in their development department, including a 2024-25 role as assistant director. His first Knicks season covered video, analytics and player development. Before that, the South Holland, Illinois, native spent eight years with Detroit in player development, coaching and video positions, including head video coordinator. Brink was a Division III All-American at Calvin University, where he earned a business degree.
Pete Crawford returns for his fourth season as a Bulls player development coach, while LD Williams begins his third. Crawford came to Chicago after seven years in Dallas, including six as an assistant video coordinator following a player development internship. The Golden Valley, Minnesota, native played at Minnesota Duluth, captained the club as a senior and appeared in 104 straight games before beginning his coaching career as an Augustana graduate assistant in 2014.
Williams coached Long Island in 2023-24 after two seasons with Brooklyn as a video and player development assistant. The Yadkinville, North Carolina, native played professionally in the G League for Springfield, Grand Rapids and Fort Wayne, and also logged international stops in the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Mexico, Slovenia and the Philippines after his Wake Forest career.
Jeremiah Bonsu moves up to head video coordinator in his third Chicago season. He previously ran Houston’s video department from 2021-24, working alongside Splitter, after a graduate-assistant role at Arkansas and a Dallas player development internship. Bonsu played at Dayton from 2014-17, earning a health and sport sciences degree, and later completed a strategic communications master’s degree at Bowling Green.
Micah Burno has been elevated from video coordinator to assistant video coordinator. Before arriving in Chicago for 2025-26, he was head video coordinator and coaching associate for Windy City from 2023-25. Burno also has worked in international player development with Japan and Switzerland during FIBA World Cup qualifying. The Scottsdale, Arizona, native captained Arizona State, received Pac-12 Scholar recognition and earned a sports-business degree.
The Bulls added three video coordinators: Brandon Leftwich, Delvon Johnson and Jayden Hardaway. Leftwich spent the past three seasons with Raptors 905, serving as an assistant in 2025-26 after earlier video-coordinator and player-development assignments. He also worked with Wisconsin’s G League club in 2022-23 and began coaching as a George Washington graduate assistant. A Brooklyn native, he played at Mount St. Mary’s and George Washington and holds sport-management degrees from both schools.
Johnson arrives after a 2025-26 season as a basketball operations assistant for Greensboro, Charlotte’s G League affiliate. The Chicago native played professionally for 14 years throughout Europe, Asia and Australia, including a stint with the Illawarra Hawks. His college route ran through Western Illinois, Indian Hills Community College and Arkansas, where he received SEC All-Defensive Team honors. He attended Bloom High School.
Hardaway moves from the Capital City Go-Go, where he played in 2024-25, into Chicago’s video room. The Memphis native played at Memphis from 2019-24 and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees there in business administration and management, and sports and hospitality management, respectively.
With Unseld’s continuity, Kalamian’s veteran NBA perspective, Gibson’s franchise history and a reshaped development-video pipeline, Splitter’s 2026-27 staff now has its full working group in place.
