The New York Knicks, fresh off their first conference finals appearance and best three-year stretch in a quarter-century, fired head coach Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday.
That sentence only makes sense within the context of Thibodeau’s career and the label that he wears for better or worse.
In three career NBA head coaching opportunities, he has undeniably made his teams better than when he found them. That includes his 2½ years with the Timberwolves, a period that ended with the tumult of Jimmy Butler forcing his way out, but also featured a trip to the postseason in 2018 after 13 straight years of missing the playoffs. It took a few seasons and a spectacular 2020 draft that netted Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels, but the Wolves did find their footing post-Thibs.
The Bulls were a 41-win team the year before Thibs arrived in 2010-11 and hadn’t made a conference finals since the last of their six NBA titles in 1998. He got them that far in his first year and two more conference semifinals, reaching the playoffs all five years with the Bulls before being fired. They have made the playoffs just twice and haven’t won a series in the decade since he departed.
And now the Knicks are gambling on this being true: Thibodeau is a coach that can make you better, but he’s not going to help you win it all. While he’s become flexible enough to amend his coaching priorities on offense and defense, his style is still to play a very limited number of players the maximum minutes possible.
It’s akin to grinding a pencil down so low that it can no longer be sharpened, which Knicks President Leon Rose said in PR-speak in announcing Tuesday’s move: “Ultimately we made the decision we feel is best for our organization moving forward.”
His tenure in New York was remarkably similar to his five years in Chicago. His Wolves career might have ended in similar fashion had Butler not blown things up. While there is some outrage in New York among fans, a lot of them seem to be treating the news similar to the way superfan Ben Stiller did on social media.
Maybe that’s the best Thibs can hope for when it comes to his legacy.
