NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0Tom Thibodeau just took the New York Knicks to the Eastern Conference finals, the deepest playoff march in 25 years for a franchise that re-emerged as a contender after he became their coach.<\/p>\n
For that, he was fired.<\/p>\n
The Knicks made what they called a \u201cdifficult decision\u201d to move on from Thibodeau on Tuesday, believing it was a necessary step in their chase for a championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t thank Tom enough for pouring his heart and soul into each and every day of being the New York Knicks head coach,\u201d team President Leon Rose said in a statement. \u201cHe led us not only with class and professionalism for the past five seasons, but also to tremendous success on the court with four playoff berths and four playoff series victories.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately we made the decision we feel is best for our organization moving forward. Tom will always be a part of our Knicks family and we truly wish him nothing but the best in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knicks fell two games short of their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999 when the Indiana Pacers eliminated them in Game 6<\/a> on Saturday night,. It was the fourth postseason trip in five seasons in New York for Thibodeau, who was asked what the Knicks needed to do this summer to go farther.<\/p>\n \u201cLike you would do after every season, you take a step back, I think decompress,\u201d Thibodeau said. \u201cYou do a deep dive on the team and then you analyze what you think you need to improve upon.\u201d<\/p>\n The Knicks decided it was the coach.<\/p>\n Rose made the decision with approval from owner Jim Dolan, according to a person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because that detail was not included in the announcement. ESPN first reported the firing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a strange decision by the Knicks, who were one of the league\u2019s worst franchises for most of the 2000s until hiring Thibodeau in 2020<\/a>. He promptly led them to the playoffs in his first season, winning his second NBA Coach of the Year award, and they have been a solid contender in the East in recent seasons.\u00a0They gave Thibodeau a\u00a0three-year contract extension\u00a0last summer.<\/p>\n Their big breakthrough came this season, when they knocked off the defending champion Boston Celtics in the second round to reach the conference finals for the first time since 2000 \u2014 when Thibodeau was a Knicks assistant under Jeff Van Gundy.<\/p>\n After they were eliminated Saturday, captain Jalen Brunson expressed his support for Thibodeau, bristling at a question about whether he believed the coach was right for the team.<\/p>\n \u201cIs that a real question right now?\u201d Brunson said. \u201cYou just asked me if I believe that he\u2019s the right guy? Yes. Come on.\u201d<\/p>\n Three days later, Thibodeau was gone with a 226-174 record in New York. He has the fourth-most wins by a Knicks coach.<\/p>\n Thibodeau faced criticism that his hard-driving style and overreliance on starters wore down his players, the same critiques that have followed him<\/a> since his head coaching career began with the Chicago Bulls<\/a>. But his ways seemed to be working in New York.<\/p>\n And even among the celebrities who filled Madison Square Garden, Thibodeau\u2019s gruff style was a natural fit for fans who longed for the defense-driven success of the 1990s.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a Tom Thibodeau fan. He brought this team back,\u201d\u00a0actor Ben Stiller, who watched the postseason run from his courtside seat, wrote on X. \u201cI felt he gave every bit of himself and was always looking to improve. I will always be grateful for how far he brought the Knicks. They are relevant again. They are championship contenders again. The Knicks became winners again with him.\u201d<\/p>\n The Knicks hadn\u2019t won a playoff series since 2013 but now have done it in three straight seasons. They went 50-32 in 2023-24 and followed that with a 51-31 record this season, having loaded up in the offseason by trading for All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges.<\/p>\n But the person said the organization felt there was a need for a new voice when the Knicks try again to end their lengthy championship drought. They won their second and last title in 1973.<\/p>\n Thibodeau is well aware of their history, having grown up as a Knicks fan in Connecticut before joining the organization as an assistant coach in 1996.<\/p>\n He went on to help the Celtics win the 2008 NBA title as an assistant, earning a reputation as one of the league\u2019s top defensive minds, before finally getting a chance as a head coach with the Bulls in 2010-11. He went 62-20 in his first season, earning his first Coach of the Year award.<\/p>\n Thibodeau, who spent five seasons with the Bulls and also coached the Minnesota Timberwolves, is 578-420 as a head coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0Tom Thibodeau just took the New York Knicks to the Eastern Conference finals, the deepest playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,2955,288,7093,6,11,191,1416],"class_list":{"0":"post-75132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-eastern-conference-finals","14":"tag-jalen-brunson","15":"tag-leon-rose","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-playoffs","18":"tag-new-york-knicks","19":"tag-tom-thibodeau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114622307067816367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}