Further information about how the Knicks brass and players felt about fired coach Tom Thibodeau has been revealed.
Yahoo Sports’ Vincent Goodwill provided some intel on who was the most keen to show the head coach the door at the Knicks.
“What was clear was Thibodeau’s firing being spearheaded by Knicks owner James Dolan, sources told Yahoo Sports. Dolan and team president Leon Rose held exit meetings with key Knicks players and the complaints were clear.
“Dolan, whom sources said was never a huge Thibodeau fan through the years, asked the questions in the meeting while Rose took a secondary role.”
Goodwill’s report also reveals that the way Thibodeau gets as many minites as humanly possible from his starters could have led to his downfall:
“A couple of players felt like Thibodeau played the starters too many minutes and felt he had an inability to adjust, sources said, and another player said he didn’t feel like he could play for Thibodeau if the coach returned next season.”
He added, “Thibodeau did play his starters a lot and didn’t develop a bench the way other coaches have. Mikal Bridges openly complained about playing too many minutes and that’s when it seemed things started to go sideways.”
Back in March, things got hairy when The Athletic reported that the Knicks forward had a ‘conversation’ with his head coach about reducing the starter’s minutes, but Thibs flat out denied any such conversation took place at all.
NBA legend and Inside the NBA star Charles Barkley gave his thoughts on the firing recently.
“Everybody was shocked. They were better than last year, and they were two games away from the Finals and they got beat by a better team, so I think people were shocked. It’s a really good job… It’s the New York Knicks.”