Tom Thibodeau, the 67-year-old former head coach of the Chicago Bulls — with whom he won NBA Coach of the year in the 2010-2011 season — and Minnesota Timberwolves, took over one of the most heavily scrutinized jobs in the league five years ago. As head coach of the New York Knicks, Thibodeau has already enjoyed more success than any Knicks coach since Jeff Van Gundy, who brought six consecutive playoff appearances to Madison Square Garden from 1996 through 2001.
But Van Gundy inherited a team that was already on a streak of eight postseason bids under three different coaches. When Thibodeau got the job before the 2020-2021 campaign, the Knicks were in the midst of a prolonged playoff drought, going seven seasons without getting there — and reaching the postseason just four times since Van Gundy shockingly resigned just 19 games into the 2001-2002 season.
In his first year as head coach, Thibodeau took the Knicks to the playoffs, though they lost to the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference first round. After a year out of the playoff picture, Thibodeau has taken the iconic New York franchise to the conference semifinals two years in a row.
Why Do Knicks Fans Want Thibodeau Gone?
And now he’s done it a third straight time. The Knicks have already clinched a playoff spot and, heading into Friday’s games, can lock down the East’s No. 3 seed by winning their final two regular season games. For that matter, a single Knicks victory coupled with one Indiana loss in the Pacers’ last two games also clinches the third seed.
So why are so many Knicks fans clamoring for Thibodeau to be fired?
Obviously, fans are dissatisfied that the team has not won a championship since 1973 and under Thibodeau the Knicks, despite four playoff bids in five years, have not really come close.
“Tom Thibodeau is to the Knicks what Mark Jackson was to the Golden State Warriors,” said Knicks Now podcast host Marshall Green in a Thursday program. “Both those guys are good coaches. Good coaches don’t win championships. Great coaches win championships, and the Warriors needed a great coach in Steve Kerr. The Knicks are now in need of their Steve Kerr.”
According to a current rumor circulating online Friday, which appears to have started with a prediction by Marissa Myers of The Wrightway Sports Network, the Knicks will find their “great coach” next season when they fire Thibodeau and hire recently fired Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.
Malone took Denver to an NBA Finals victory over the Miami Heat just two years ago — the first championship in the history of the Denver franchise which joined the league in the 1976-1977 season as part of the NBA merger with the American Basketball Association. For that matter, in nine ABA seasons, the Nuggets never won that league’s championship either.
But on Tuesday — in the latest jaw-dropping move in an NBA season that has had its share of them — Nuggets ownership suddenly fired Malone along with general manager Calvin Booth with just three games remaining in the regular season, and the Nuggets on a four-game losing streak.
Buzz Has Malone Headed to Madison Square Garden
But Malone may not be out of work for long, if the Knicks rumors have substance.
“After the recent firing of Malone, it makes the decision easier for the Knicks to move on from Thibodeau. Malone is New York through-and-through, and would bring a spark back to the team,” Myers speculated in her TWSN piece.
“Malone was born in Queens, and transferred from the University of Rhode Island to the Seton Hall Preparatory School after his father became an assistant on the Knick’s coaching staff. Down the line in 2001 after graduating college, Malone would join the Knicks’ staff as an assistant as well,” Myers wrote.
Though the Knicks have again qualified for the playoffs, and sit at 50 wins with two games to play — meaning that one more victory gives them their highest win total since 2013 and second-highest since 1997 — they have come up well short against the teams that they will need to defeat in the postseason to have any hope of capturing that elusive championship.
Against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, second-seeded Boston Celtics, and Western Conference winners the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Knicks have a record of 0-9.
