Shame. Shame. Shame — that’s all I have to say about the New York Knick’s direction after firing Tom Thibodeau. His coaching tenure from 2020-2025 led to a revival of the troubled franchise. A successful regular season record, Four playoff appearances, an Eastern Conference Finals appearance after 25 years — a winning culture. As the law of differences became apparent — the Knicks organization felt it was best to move on. Many players and insiders cite his coaching strategy as outdated and exhausting. Theoretically speaking, there isn’t anything wrong with the Knicks’ decision, but how they reacted served as the problem.
Weirdly, reports have surfaced of the Knicks coaching process: attempting to poach coaches of already successful teams. They have tried and been denied of the following —- Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks, Billy Donovan of the Chicago Bulls, Quin Snyder of the Atlanta Hawks and Ime Udoka of the Houston Rockets. All of these attempts — rejected without a trace.
There is nothing wrong with a search but the sheer urgency to acquire a coach after 10 days and still not get a commitment is embarrassing. Some have viewed the Knick’s tactics as arrogant, and sadly — those detractors have a point. I believe that because they are the Knicks —- they think coaches could drop their jobs to play in the mecca. However, it does not work that way when the Knicks franchise has been a symbol of dysfunctional organization meddling since the start of Y2K. The Knicks need to look for either assistant or upcoming coaches who are willing to handle the stress of being a coach for the team.
Overall, the Knicks stepping this low shows that they were better off staying with Thibodeau for at least another season. The team had finally made the Eastern Conference Finals —- and one game away from making the NBA Finals. It will not shock me if the Knicks go back into dysfunction in two years. As a New York sports fan —- I’d keep a lookout on their next steps cause currently the plan ain’t panning.
