Tom Thibodeau, most recently the head coach of the New York Knicks
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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MAY 25: Head coach Tom Thibodeau of the New York Knicks reacts against the Indiana Pacers during the fourth quarter in Game Three of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 25, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
With the surprise announcement earlier today that the New York Knicks had fired Tom Thibodeau, focus immediately shifted onto who were the best and/or likely candidates to replace him. And one name stands out among the rest.
Adam Zagoria of NJ.com reports that a source close to Michael Malone feels that the Knicks would be a “good landing spot” for Malone – if, that is, Malone chooses to get back into that game.
“His children are grown and if he wants to coach again, it could be a good landing spot,” the person said, on condition of anonymity. Certainly, the signs all point that way.
Malone Has Established Knicks Ties
Malone’s name features regularly among the candidates for this and all coaching jobs because it is a surprise he is even available, considering his success to date.
In a double firing, Malone was removed by the Denver Nuggets – along with general manager Calvin Booth – with only three games of the regular season remaining. Having won the NBA Championship as recently as 2022-23, and with a 904-510 career regular-season win-loss record to his name, Malone immediately went to the top of many pundit’s best coaching candidates list.
Malone saw out the season doing TV work. He joined the ESPN team for their playoff coverage, including working the Nuggets’ postseason games, where he watched as his former lead assistant David Adelman impressed enough to win their head coach position permanently.
Although he was with the Nuggets for ten years, Malone has plenty of ties to the Knicks franchise. Born in New York while his father (former NBA head coach Brendan Malone) worked for multiple college programs in the city, the Knicks were also Michael’s first NBA team; Malone joined the Knicks in 2001, initially as a coaching associate and video coordinator, before a promotion in 2003 saw him spending two years as an assistant coach.
Of relevance here also is the fact that Malone is represented by Creative Artists Agency, or CAA. The head of the basketball division at CAA from 2007 to 2020, until he left to join the Knicks as the team’s President, was Leon Rose. It is Rose who fired Thibodeau; it will be Rose who hires his replacement.
From Coaching To Punditry To Coaching
The pipeline between coaching gigs and broadcasting work is not entirely one-sided. Coaches can and do make the switch between them, in both directions, with a notable recent example being that of another former Knicks head coach, Jeff Van Gundy.
After seven seasons as a Knicks assistant, Van Gundy would be promoted to the franchise’s head coaching position in advance of the 1996-97 season, a position he would retain for five years. In that time, he led the Knicks to the 1998-99 NBA Finals, and the 1999-00 Eastern Conference Finals – until Thibodeau’s team this year, that marked the most recent occasion that the Knicks ever got that far.
A two-year gap followed by a four-year stint with the Houston Rockets would follow for Van Gundy, before he began TV work that he would continue for 16 years. Only after being let go by ESPN in a 2023 round of redundancies did Van Gundy return to NBA coaching, whereupon he joined the Los Angeles Clippers as a defensive-focused assistant coach.
Thibodeau Rose The Knicks’ Standards
Thibodeau was the third domino to fall in the NBA’s annual summer head coaching carousel, after the Phoenix Suns fired Mike Budenholzer at season’s end and Gregg Popovich retired from the San Antonio Spurs. Across his five seasons with the Knicks, Thibodeau compiled a 226-174 regular season record, made the playoffs four times (including two conference semi-finals appearances and this year’s conference finals), and won the NBA’s Coach of the Year award for the 2020-21 season.
In those five years, Thibodeau raised the floor and the expectations. The Knicks fired Thibodeau anyway, as they “made the decision [they] feel is best [their] our organization moving forward”. Which is to say, they think the team cannot improve further under Thibs.
That is their right. But now they must back it up with a hire to raise the ceiling higher. It therefore follows extremely logically that for the biggest and most recent name on the coaching free agent market, who has ties to the team and the all-important established championship pedigree, the Knicks would indeed be a good landing spot.