{"id":97592,"date":"2025-06-14T05:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T05:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/97592\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T05:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T05:04:11","slug":"i-dont-have-any-remorse-ex-new-york-knicks-star-gets-brutally-honest-in-his-tom-thibodeau-dismissal-assessment-nba-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/97592\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t have any remorse\u201d \u2013 Ex-New York Knicks star gets brutally honest in his Tom Thibodeau dismissal assessment | NBA News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/121842323.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cI don\u2019t have any remorse\u201d \u2013 Ex-New York Knicks star gets brutally honest in his Tom Thibodeau dismissal assessment\" title=\"Tom Thibodeau and Austin Rivers. Image via:  Sarah Stier\/GettyImages | Icon Sportswire\/ Getty Images\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Tom Thibodeau and Austin Rivers. Image via:  Sarah Stier\/GettyImages | Icon Sportswire\/ Getty Images The New York Knicks\u2019 decision to part ways with head coach Tom Thibodeau shortly after a long-awaited Eastern Conference Finals run raised eyebrows around the NBA. But for former Knicks guard Austin Rivers, the move was anything but shocking, and certainly not worth mourning. In fact, Rivers used the opportunity to speak candidly about his troubled stint under Thibodeau, criticizing both the coach and the franchise\u2019s front office for what he called a mishandling of his time in New York.<\/p>\n<p>Austin Rivers slams Tom Thibodeau and the New York Knicks<\/p>\n<p>During a recent episode of Off Guard with Austin Rivers on The Ringer, the NBA veteran held nothing back while recalling his brief and bitter Knicks experience. \u201cI&#8217;m not really a Thibs guy. I played for him, it wasn&#8217;t the best experience personally, didn\u2019t treat me well at all,\u201d Rivers said, revealing how he was dismissed from day one. &#8220;First day of camp, this is a true story&#8230; [this is] my first time really talking to him since signing there. Thibodeau comes up to me and says, &#8216;Hey man, excited for you to be here. I wanted Derrick [Rose], but you\u2019ll do great. You\u2019ll do great.&#8217; And he walked away.&#8221;That blunt comment foreshadowed what was coming. \u201cI remember thinking to myself, \u2018Hmm. Not gonna be here long,\u2019\u201d Rivers admitted. Sure enough, the Knicks acquired Derrick Rose from the Pistons weeks later. Rivers was soon demoted and eventually traded. It was an exit, he says was anything but respectful.\u201cThey brought me to a dark room, it was Leon [Rose], Worldwide Wes, and Thibs. They\u2019re all three sitting there in the dark, with like a little light, it\u2019s like an interrogation-type thing,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cUntil we find the right spot with you, you don\u2019t have to travel with the team anymore.\u201dFrustrated and sidelined, Rivers had to plead for permission to travel just to maintain his training routine. \u201cMy [emasculated] a*s had to call [Thibodeau] and ask him, \u2018Can I please travel with you guys?\u2019\u201d he added. The Knicks eventually shipped him to a rebuilding Thunder team that waived him shortly after.&#8221;They don\u2019t do business the right way sometimes,&#8221; Rivers said flatly. \u201cSo when you fire Thibs, I don\u2019t have any remorse.\u201dDespite helping lead the Knicks to four playoff appearances and a surprise 2025 Eastern Conference Finals run, Thibodeau\u2019s departure has cast a shadow over the organization\u2019s next move, especially with their failed attempts to interview current head coaches elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Thibodeau and Austin Rivers. Image via: Sarah Stier\/GettyImages | Icon Sportswire\/ Getty Images The New York Knicks\u2019&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[21010,21007,7,304,21011,6,7401,1136,191,21008,3810,3806,1416,21009],"class_list":{"0":"post-97592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-austin-rivers-knicks-story","9":"tag-austin-rivers-thibodeau-criticism","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-knicks","12":"tag-knicks-front-office-management","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-eastern-conference-finals","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-new-york-knicks-coaching-changes","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkknicks","20":"tag-tom-thibodeau","21":"tag-tom-thibodeau-dismissal-assessment"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114679976063815347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97592","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=97592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}