The Knicks’ firing of coach Tom Thibodeau yesterday was “done without a concrete plan for a replacement,” leaving the front office and ownership “vulnerable to intense criticism” if the move backfires, according to Stefan Bondy of the N.Y. POST. Even after their best season in 25 years, the Knicks “felt they weren’t good enough,” so Thibodeau “became the fall guy.” The reasons of his firing “were multilayered,” but the “overarching theme was the team’s belief that Thibodeau couldn’t lead the Knicks to the next level.” Bondy wrote as it happened previously in Minnesota and Chicago for Thibodeau, “relationship and communication issues surfaced.” Sources noted that multiple Knicks “were frustrated” with the coach. According to SNY, team owner James Dolan “personally listened to meetings with top players after the season as part of an ‘evaluation period.’” That “ended with firing Thibodeau” despite three years and “roughly” $30M left on his contract. After winning 51 games last season and “carrying a roster worthy of at least repeating as a conference finalist, the hope from the Knicks is that the next coach pushes them to a championship” (N.Y. POST, 6/3).
SPARK NEEDED: The Knicks in response to Thibodeau’s firing said, “Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans.” ESPN.com’s Tim Bontemps cited sources around the league as saying that this is “why a change was made.” The Knicks “decided a new voice was needed” to “lift this franchise to the next level” (ESPN.com, 6/3). Sports writer Marc Stein wrote the Knicks have “painted this as a Leon Rose-led decision,” but “few in league circles seem to be buying it.” He noted the Knicks president and Thibodeau “were close long before” Rose became the Knicks’ lead basketball decision-maker in March 2020. He wrote Dolan, meanwhile, has “long been described by league observers well-acquainted with New York’s organizational dynamics as a non-fan” of the coach, which “some attribute to Thibodeau’s connections as a staff member to what one source described as ‘the old Knicks’” (THE STEIN LINE, 6/3).
BY ANY MEANS: In N.Y., Kristian Winfield wrote the Knicks “read the room -- and the writing was on the wall” for Thibodeau. The front office “gave Thibodeau weapons he failed to maximize.” Now, the team is searching for a coach who “can better elevate the talent at hand.” Whoever takes over next “will need a sharper vision for how this Knicks offense should function.” The organization have “made one thing clear: no move is off the table if it brings them closer to hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/3).
CONCRETE JUNGLE: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Jason Gay wrote an “optimist may choose to see Thibodeau’s ouster as a signal that New York’s front office believes the team is close to a championship,” and under this theory, firing Thibodeau “is a painful but necessary move.” While N.Y. “found hope again” under Thibodeau, the firing leads “leads to this natural but nagging worry: This Shows the Knicks are Still the Knicks.” The fear is that “maybe the Knicks maxed it out this season, shocked a Boston team that didn’t take them seriously, and might not be as close to a title as they appear.” Maybe the Knicks “are being irrational here, dismissing a coach who knew how to win basketball games,” and “will now do what irrational teams do, which is to find a shiny new replacement who will struggle to match the prior coach’s success” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/3).
THE FALL GUY: On Long Island, Barbara Barker wrote Thibodeau did not “deserve to get fired three days after the team finished their best season in a quarter century” or “deserve to have the rug yanked from underneath him, after changing the culture and direction of a franchise that had been mired in dysfunction and failure for most of this century.” Barker: “The Knicks better know what they are doing. I’m sure they have a plan. I’m not convinced it’s a good one” (NEWSDAY, 6/3). YAHOO SPORTS’ Dan Devine wrote we have seen multiple championship-winning head coaches “go on the chopping block in the last few seasons; if the guy who takes you all the way there can get got, then so can the one who gets you to the doorstep but no further.” And so, Rose “wasted no time, opting for a clean break and an immediate reset.” The speed with which Rose hit the reset button “would seem to suggest he has a plan of action” and “perhaps a preferred candidate in mind” (YAHOO SPORTS, 6/3).
ALL MISSES, NO HITS: CBSSPORTS.com’s James Herbert wrote Thibodeau “was not working with a championship roster.” He wrote given how “easy it was for opponents to find a mismatch,” the team “wildly overachieved.” The Knicks “found ways to win playoff games it seemed to have no business winning.” Thibodeau is “not a perfect coach, but he’s not as flawed as the roster is.” Herbert: “Given their payroll and all the picks they traded away to put this team together, there is pressure to win now and win big, but, uh, didn’t they just kind of do that?” (CBSSPORTS.com, 6/3).
