Valid Point, I still don't think you leave a final 4 caliber team that you built and love, for a NBA team with a very risky injury prone superstar, unless something else is a problem... but then again I'm not Fred. IMO he could have any NBA job after this year, but maybe I'm still just a little bitter he left
I don't disagree with you--risky move on Fred's part. But there are reasons...
-Jimmy Butler is legit
-they have some young pieces behind the aging stars
-the Chicago Bulls are a Top 5 franchise in terms of fortune and favor
-$25,000,000
-do it now, while he's still young/in good health/while he can
-get to coach against the best players and fellow coaches in the world... I respect that kind of professional drive and interest on Fred's part
-the NBA style of play and culture is trending Fred's way, too
-the East sucks (though Lebron is still there)
-good rapport with the Bulls' management--though, hey, if people though JP "was bad" from the now questionable Hines article, I could link you all to some stories about how they treated Thibs in Chicago for comparison...
And, regarding college coaching...
-Fred never seemed to like to play babysitter... he's one of the most level-headed human beings on the planet, but he looked about a 12/10 on the PO scale when having to answer media questions about BDJ's arrest last year
-I'm sure he's happy for no more late night calls from the Story County sheriffs or Ames PD
-didn't seem he really liked recruiting all that much, either, mostly delegating that to MA and TJ (from what I gathered)
Skipping that sort of "program-building" stuff, really being the CEO of the whole operation, and "downgrading" to the level of his comfort and true enjoyment of just being a middle-manager (the head coach of a basketball team) with his actual work responsibilities much closer to his hour-to-hour interest had to have an appeal.
I don't agree with it (but, hey, I'm biased), and the declining CHI roster and their awful record in dealing with coaches in the past would have scared me away, but I can see why he did it. I can also see those making the argument that he should have waited for another job, like, say, Minnesota, where the talent/expectations mixture is much more reasonable and the forward trajectory of the roster is much brighter, too, though.