{"id":80126,"date":"2025-06-06T04:08:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T04:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/80126\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T04:08:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T04:08:14","slug":"stephen-a-smith-on-what-source-told-him-about-ime-udoka-to-new-york-knicks-amid-all-would-be-forgiven-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/80126\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith on what ‘source’ told him about Ime\u00a0Udoka to New York Knicks amid ‘all would be forgiven’ claim\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New York Knicks fans did not take the Tom Thibodeau era for granted. After years in the NBA wilderness, the coach brought them back to relevancy.<\/p>\n

This past season Tom Thibodeau<\/a> took the New York Knicks<\/a> to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years. But this was not enough.<\/p>\n

Thibodeau was fired<\/a> following the loss to the Pacers, and there were strong feelings about the Knicks\u2019 decision.<\/p>\n

Outspoken analyst and Knicks fan Stephen A. Smith<\/a> put the team on blast and even called for an NBA investigation<\/a>, due to the lack of communication from the ownership.<\/p>\n

But now looking forward, he has stated how the Knicks can win him around again.<\/p>\n

\"ImePhoto by Alex Slitz\/Getty ImagesIme Udoka linked to New York Knicks<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks were claimed to have an initial shortlist of candidates<\/a>, and among them was Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A move could be unlikely, as Udoka is building something special with the Rockets, who finished as the two-seed<\/a> with a young squad in the super-competitive Western Conference.<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith told his YouTube channel that Udoka would be the one appointment who could win him around.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cEverything I said about the Knicks yesterday that raked my damn nerves, even their weak ass statement by President Leon Rose, I would have forgave that if they came and said, Yo man, Ime Udoka is going to be the head coach of the New York Knicks. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll would have been forgiven. Ime Udoka is a hell of a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he concedes it might be impossible, explaining he had even checked in himself over whether Houston could let him leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called the source within an organization five minutes ago, and they said \u2018you couldn\u2019t pay us enough\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe ain\u2019t going nowhere\u2026 Ime Udoka is staying in Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith named his top choices<\/p>\n

The ESPN personality went on to name his top five list of coaching choices for the Knicks, with Ime Udoka a joint number one.<\/p>\n

He even selected Jalen Brunson\u2019s dad Rick Brunson as his fourth option, citing his coaching experience.<\/p>\n

Jay WrightRick BrunsonMichael MaloneMark JacksonIme Udoka\/Ty Lue<\/p>\n

The Knicks would have a tough job getting Ty Lue<\/a> away from the LA Clippers, while another coach they are allegedly interested in is the Dallas Mavericks\u2019 head coach Jason Kidd.<\/p>\n

A move for Kidd is claimed to be unlikely but not impossible, with ESPN insider Tim MacMahon refusing to rule it out<\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Knicks fans did not take the Tom Thibodeau era for granted. After years in the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,1409,1272,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806,2603],"class_list":{"0":"post-80126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-eastern-conference","10":"tag-ime-udoka","11":"tag-knicks","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkknicks","17":"tag-stephen-a-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114634457400659830","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80126","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=80126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}