After weeks of speculation, Fred Hoiberg was officially introduced Tuesday afternoon as the Chicago Bulls’ next head coach.

Gar Forman, the Bulls general manager, was an assistant at Iowa State when Hoiberg was a player.

“He’s got natural leadership ability and [he’s] a great communicator.” said Bulls General Manager Gar Forman in a press conference in Chicago.

Hoiberg has said his life long dream is to coach in the NBA.

“For us as coaches, [the pinnacle of the profession] is the NBA,” said Hoiberg.

Hoiberg has been rumored for an NBA coaching job for the last few years while at Iowa State. This year Hoiberg accepted the head coaching gig for the Chicago Bulls.

Hoiberg will still pay attention to Iowa State, even though he is with the Bulls.

“I’m looking forward to watching [Iowa State] next year,” Hoiberg said. … I am excited to see them hopefully compete for a national championship.”

Forman was complimentary of Hoiberg.

“You are getting a special coach, and a special person,” Forman said a rival general manager told him who had tried to hire Hoiberg when he called to congratulate Forman for his success in landing Hoiberg.

“[Hoiberg had] unparalleled success at Iowa State. … Year in and year out [he was] among the best in college,” said Forman. 

Hoiberg showed how special Iowa State was when he talked about how hard the decision was.

Throughout the press conference, Hoiberg used his former basketball team, Iowa State, as an example of how he will run the Bulls’ offense. Hoiberg has run an NBA style offense since the time he was hired at Iowa State and he should have no problem transitioning that offense to the Bulls.

It’s not often a first year head coach gets the opportunity to coach a championship caliber team, Hoiberg said. “You don’t walk into a roster with championship potential [often].”

Hoiberg’s health came into question. The new Bulls coach had open-heart surgery about a month and a half ago.

“If there was a danger in me [coaching the Bulls] I wouldn’t have taken the job,” Hoiberg said. “[The mechanical heart valve] sounds like a cricket chirping in my chest.”

One of the biggest upsides in Hoiberg’s eyes in making the transition from college to the NBA was not having to recruit any more. Hoiberg said, “It’s just coaching.”

The Mayor left Cyclone Nation with an endearing message.

“There’s not a better fan base in college basketball. … We had a thing in our arena called Hilton Magic, and it’s true. We won a lot of games because of the fans,” Hoiberg said. “I’m always going to be a Cyclone.”