Tom Thibodeau deeply understood the commitment required for the job he accepted. Growing up, he`d listen to Knicks games on the radio and travel from his Connecticut home with his father to attend games. In the 1990s, he served as a young assistant under Jeff Van Gundy, arriving before dawn and ensuring he was the last to depart the building each night.
“I loved being here in the `90s,” Thibodeau shared with ESPN in 2021, during his inaugural season as the franchise`s head coach. “The atmosphere at the Garden was unparalleled. We had exceptional players and a fantastic coaching staff. There were so many pivotal games, whether against Chicago, Miami, or Indiana. But time flies. You blink, and suddenly the `90s feel like yesterday.”
“But I always recognized how fortunate I was to be with the Knicks.”
In his first season leading the team, the Knicks couldn`t capitalize on a promising regular season that saw Thibodeau earn NBA Coach of the Year honors and Julius Randle enter MVP discussions, ultimately losing their first-round playoff series to the Atlanta Hawks.
“I embrace the challenge inherent in it all,” Thibodeau stated. “When I went to Chicago, they were a .500 team, and everyone cautioned me against it. But I cherished my time there. When I came here, the sentiment was the same: `The Knicks job is difficult.` But that has never intimidated me.”
For decades, he cultivated a reputation as a tireless worker, a quality that propelled him to head coaching roles in Chicago and Minnesota but also contributed to his eventual departures from both.
Knicks president Leon Rose and executive vice president William Wesley were arguably the most familiar with Thibodeau`s strengths and weaknesses, having built a relationship with him through mutual connections at CAA. Knicks owner Jim Dolan convinced Rose and Wesley to leave their agency positions in 2020, and hiring Thibodeau was one of their first significant moves.
“We connect after nearly every game,” Thibodeau said of Rose and Wesley back in 2021. “They are committed to being truthful with me, and I with them. I feel that my perspective is heard. That`s all I require – to have a voice.”
Like Thibodeau, Rose was a lifelong Knicks fan. It was the sole franchise he would consider leaving his esteemed client roster at CAA for. He was also uniquely suited for the role, having cultivated a strong rapport with Dolan over the years.
Success in this capacity hinged first and foremost on talent acquisition, a skill Rose had demonstrated mastery of as an agent. While different from building a team roster, Dolan gambled that those relationship-building abilities would translate effectively to the front office. Equally crucial, however, was the capacity to navigate the famously demanding Dolan and the notoriously intense Thibodeau.
Rose was exceptionally positioned for this dual task, having previously worked closely with Dolan when his client Carmelo Anthony starred for the Knicks, and having maintained a relationship with Thibodeau for two decades.
For five years, this was precisely Rose`s role. Those familiar with the situation were impressed by how Rose managed to keep Thibodeau focused on the larger goals rather than getting bogged down by minor issues. While Thibodeau`s propensity to exhaust himself was accepted, Rose largely succeeded in preventing him from exhausting others.
Managing Dolan presented a distinct challenge. Rose earned Dolan`s trust through his systematic approach to team construction and his accurate judgment on when to aggressively pursue opportunities versus when to remain patient.
Dolan himself articulated this point during an appearance on Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson`s podcast in March.
“There were times,” Dolan shared, “when we might have reached for that `shiny, sparkly object,` thinking, `Maybe this is the solution,` particularly when circumstances were challenging… `Let`s bring in this individual, and perhaps they will transform everything.` This applied to both players and coaches. What I`ve learned over time is that approach simply doesn`t work. It genuinely doesn`t. You absolutely must focus on the fundamentals, the basics. You need to construct a team; you need to build an organization. There`s no magical solution that instantly makes a team great. It doesn`t happen.”
Only Rose and Dolan truly know what transpired between Dolan`s comments in March and the decision to dismiss Thibodeau on Tuesday. Yes, Thibodeau had guided the team to within two victories of its first NBA Finals appearance in a quarter-century. Yes, he was the most successful Knicks coach in a generation, leading them to back-to-back 50-win seasons, a feat not accomplished since 1994-95.
However, they had also lost a playoff series to the Indiana Pacers that many within the organization felt they were capable of winning.
Ultimately, Rose, the executive with whom Thibodeau met after every game, delivered the candid assessment that Thibodeau had previously stated he valued.
“Our organization is solely dedicated to achieving a championship for our dedicated fans,” Rose stated in the press release announcing the coaching change.
The implication was clear: he and the organization no longer believed Thibodeau was the coach who could deliver that ultimate goal.
“This pursuit led us to the difficult decision to inform Tom Thibodeau that we have decided to move in a new direction. We cannot thank Tom enough for the heart and dedication he poured into his role as the New York Knicks head coach every single day. He led us with both integrity and professionalism over the past five seasons, achieving significant on-court success with four playoff qualifications and four playoff series victories. Ultimately, we made the decision we believe is most beneficial for the future of our organization.”
In the days preceding Thibodeau`s dismissal, Rose reportedly met with several key players and members of the coaching staff.
While ostensibly resembling typical post-season exit meetings, in this instance, only a select group of top rotation players were reportedly summoned to meet with Rose and Dolan to provide their insights on the team`s current state and potential path forward.
Nevertheless, the decision to change coaches had reportedly been contemplated for months. The consensus was that the team wasn`t maximizing its potential talent, even with All-NBA players like Brunson and Towns. Following the meetings with the chosen players and coaches, it reportedly became evident to Rose that the organization needed a different leadership voice.
Sources indicated that while the players hadn`t necessarily stopped responding to Thibodeau, there was skepticism about his ability to guide them to the Finals, particularly after their performance and eventual loss to the Pacers.
“He was tactically outmatched,” a source familiar with the situation commented. “The collapse in Game 1 was unbelievable. If that breakdown hadn`t happened, who knows how the series might have unfolded.”
Throughout the series, Thibodeau`s coaching decisions faced intense questioning from the demanding New York media.
Criticisms included the prolonged absence of Karl-Anthony Towns from the game in the fourth quarter of Game 2 as the Knicks struggled offensively. There was also the delayed decision to adjust the starting lineup in Game 3, inserting Mitchell Robinson and moving Hart to the bench, after the starters had been significantly outscored in the initial two games of the series.
After the Knicks successfully rallied to win Game 3 in Indiana with the revised starting lineup, Hart confirmed he had suggested the lineup change to the coaching staff previously, late in the series against Boston.
“We must identify ways for him [Robinson] to play more,” Hart remarked about Robinson. “We are significantly better when he is on the floor. We all need to be willing to make concessions for the collective good of the team.”
Although Thibodeau did implement some crucial adjustments that helped the Knicks force the series to six games, these came too late to fundamentally alter the outcome or mitigate the public scrutiny of his choices.
This wasn`t the first instance of a player publicly critiquing the coach during the season.
Earlier in the year, forward Mikal Bridges, known for his exceptional durability, publicly voiced his concern about the high minutes starters were accumulating and suggested that bench players deserved more playing time.
“We have many capable players on this team who can handle those minutes,” Bridges told reporters before a game in March. “This benefits our defense, our offense, helps players avoid exhaustion on the court leading to points given up. It ensures we keep fresh legs available.”
Bridges mentioned he had discussed this matter with Thibodeau, indicating that the veteran coach seemed understanding.
“Yeah, he`s not really arguing about it,” Bridges explained. “Sometimes I think he just gets set in his methods and becomes focused, wanting to keep the same players out there. Occasionally, you might need to point out, `Hey, let Landry [Shamet], for example, or someone else stay in, they`re playing well.`”
This specific criticism regarding player workload and minutes has persistently followed Thibodeau throughout his career and appears to be an area he has never fully resolved.
Reports suggested that it was particularly concerning to see two of the team`s prominent players publicly express these criticisms.
Furthermore, there were broader concerns regarding Thibodeau`s significant reliance on Jalen Brunson. Initially, the offensive partnership between Brunson and Towns was highly effective; before February, their pick-and-roll action was among the league`s most efficient. However, its effectiveness declined afterward as opponents adjusted their defensive strategies, including putting a wing defender on Brunson and switching a center onto other players like Hart.
Thibodeau reportedly never developed an effective counter-strategy, often leaving Brunson to create plays and bail out the offense late in possessions.
Brunson`s exceptional performance in these high-pressure situations earned him the NBA`s Clutch Player of the Year award. However, his extremely high usage rate under Thibodeau, the highest of his career, raised significant questions about his long-term physical sustainability.
Some suggested that historical context served as a potential warning: Brunson, who missed games this season due to ankle and calf injuries, might struggle with durability over time without a more diverse or balanced offensive scheme, similar to how Derrick Rose experienced physical breakdowns while playing for Thibodeau in Chicago.
Many felt that all these underlying issues might have been forgiven or overlooked if the Knicks had managed to defeat the Indiana Pacers, a team widely viewed as having less top-tier star talent but superior depth and shooting. This disparity was painfully evident in the epic fourth-quarter collapse during Game 1, where Aaron Nesmith and Tyrese Haliburton delivered performances reminiscent of Reggie Miller`s infamous displays against the Knicks in the 1990s, as New York surrendered a 14-point lead in the final minutes.
Adding insult to injury, Reggie Miller himself was part of the broadcast team for that game.
In the span of one night, the city`s mood shifted dramatically, from celebrating the Knicks` deep playoff run—symbolized by temporary street name changes and reports highlighting the economic boost—to profound disappointment and dejection.
The hope and positive momentum that Thibodeau and the team had built, particularly after reportedly upsetting the defending champion Boston Celtics in the second round, evaporated. The harsh reality remained: the Knicks had made significant investments (“gone all-in”) for this particular season but were eliminated prematurely before reaching the championship stage.
New York reportedly committed substantial draft capital, trading multiple first-round picks to acquire Mikal Bridges, described as a strong defender with sufficient offensive capability, and in a separate transaction, reportedly sent Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and a first-round pick to obtain Karl-Anthony Towns, considered one of the league`s most offensively talented big men.
Thibodeau`s primary responsibility was to maximize the unique talents of these new acquisitions while minimizing their weaknesses. Ultimately, he did not elevate the performance of these players sufficiently, nor did he guide this seemingly talented roster to the NBA Finals. This outcome was particularly frustrating given the perceived openness of the Eastern Conference this season, a situation expected to continue next season following significant injuries to key players like Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard (as noted in the source material).
The Knicks` immediate priorities now involve identifying a coach they believe represents an upgrade and retooling the roster to address the deficiencies that became clearly exposed during the playoffs.
It remains uncertain whether Thibodeau`s successor will finally enable the Knicks to achieve championship success. The head coaching position in New York is highly coveted but also widely considered the most challenging in the NBA. Thibodeau understood this implicitly, having experienced it firsthand as a young assistant on those 1990s teams that came agonizingly close to winning it all.
The Knicks franchise has long been a powerful, almost irresistible allure, a Siren`s call in the NBA landscape for decades. Since their last championship in 1973, countless superstars and coaches have attempted and failed to lead them back to glory. Thibodeau is merely the latest to fall short against these formidable challenges.
He was fully aware of the immense stakes upon accepting the job: the intense scrutiny, the unique atmosphere, and the passionate excitement that engulfs the city when the Knicks appear to be nearing championship contention once more.
“Playing those games at the Garden, there`s nothing better,” Thibodeau recalled from his first season back. “It`s the absolute best. What the Knicks represent to New York City is truly special… Then, as life unfolds, sometimes I look back and think, `Wow, how incredibly fortunate have I been?`”