It’s easy to overlook the foundation that Tom Thibodeau set for the Knicks‘ title run, but Karl-Anthony Towns made sure to credit his former head coach, along with current coach Mike Brown, in a podcast interview with The New York Times (YouTube link, hat tip to BasketNews).
“Both coaches did an amazing job,” Towns said. “One took us to the Eastern Conference finals, where we just came up short. The other inherited the same team that Thibs built and, from afar, was able to bring his own coaching style and personality to help us find a way to win a championship. But that’s not a testament to Thibs not being the guy or not being good enough.
“He’s always been good enough, and he has a championship to show for it as well. Thibs is an amazing coach and an amazing person. Seeing his growth from when I was with him in Minnesota to my time with the Knicks has been incredible, and it’s brought us even closer. Thibs deserves a lot of credit for this.”
The Knicks’ turnaround began with the hiring of Thibodeau in 2020, and he compiled a 226-174 record in five seasons, including four playoff appearances. His firing last summer after losing to Indiana in the conference finals sent shock waves around the NBA, but New York was able to regroup quickly by hiring Brown, who proved to be perfect coach for the situation he was inheriting.
“He built off the amazing foundation that Thibs had set and added his own swag and flavor to it,” Towns said. *“I think he did a great job of finding the right combinations that worked. Landry Shamet was huge in the playoffs, and shoutout to Ariel Hukporti as well for stepping up during big moments when we needed him. Mitchell Robinson, Jose Alvarado, Mohamed Diawara, and many others also made a major impact. Tyler Kolek played some amazing basketball during the year when (Jalen Brunson) got hurt. Mike did a great job of putting the right players in the right situations at the right time. Shoutout to him — it was an amazing chess game he played.”*
Towns addresses numerous topics in the 40-minute interview, including the thrill of giving New York fans their first NBA championship in 53 years. He also reflects on the historic 29-point comeback in Game 4 and says he was ready to dunk the ball if **OG Anunoby**‘s game-winning tip hadn’t gone in.
Towns also assesses the experience advantage that the Knicks brought to the NBA Finals, explaining that it was a huge factor in why the team was able to consistently rally after San Antonio built up large early leads.
“I think sometimes when you’re a young team you look to not lose the game, and we were looking to win the game,” he said. “That’s what made us bring such aggression to the game, and I think they were just trying to protect the lead.”
Looking forward, Towns talks about the challenge of trying to defend the title against an impressive group of challengers. He emphasized that he’s only concerned about his own team, but added that it was tough losing Robinson to Boston in free agency.
“I don’t even know if I can look at Mitch with a Celtics jersey on after everything,” Towns said. “I’ll just have to start laughing at Mitch when we see each other.”