INDIANAPOLIS — Tom Thibodeau projects the character of a robot committed to the process of improving a basketball team, and there are reasons to believe it’s a genuine description. 

The jokes about him vacationing at the practice facility, or maintaining his bachelordom for Spalding, or consuming his thoughts with never skipping steps — they’re all rooted in truth. As one of his longtime assistants, Ed Pinckney, told me Monday, “He’s an animal. An animal.” 

But if we were somehow able to transmit regular human emotions onto Thibs — or maybe just fast-forward to his retirement, if that ever happens, when the coach finally reflects on his accomplishments — he’d circle this week as a legacy-defining point. 

Why? Tuesday’s Game 4 is the biggest moment of Thibodeau’s head coaching career. He’s 67 years old, the eldest running a sideline in the NBA, and May 27 will represent the furthest he’s ever coached on the calendar.