On Tuesday, it was announced that the New York Knicks had decided to part ways with head coach Tom Thibodeau. Thibodeau was the team's head coach for the past five seasons, and he even recently coached the Knicks all the way to their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000. Alas, coming up short in the ECF against the Indiana Pacers now looks like it was the last straw that pushed the Knicks front office to make a change.
It's not quite clear how deep of a playoff run is deep enough for Thibodeau to have kept his job. After all, according to Steve Popper of Newsday Sports, Thibodeau thought that his job with the Knicks was secure as long as they beat the Boston Celtics. That ended up not being the case, as even though they took advantage of their circumstances and dethroned the reigning champion Celtics, he still ended up getting the can.
In fact, according to Popper's source, even when the Knicks were up 2-1 on the Celtics, “there was still talk of a change” on the head coaching front. The NBA is a ruthless, results-driven business that cares not for what one has done in the past, but what one achieved in recent times.
Of course, in the NBA, a front office cannot operate with sentimentality. If the Golden State Warriors decided back in 2014 to keep Mark Jackson after he played a huge part in turning them around, then they may not have blossomed into the destiny we've come to know them as.
The Knicks are looking for that right head coach to take them to the next level, and as unfair as that may be to Thibodeau, New York doesn't feel like he's the man for the job.
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Tom Thibodeau brought success and a winning attitude to the Knicks
New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau reacts from the sideline against the Miami Heat during the fourth quarter at Kaseya Center.
© Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
In Thibodeau's first year of coaching the Knicks, they became one of the league's darlings. Not expected to achieve much, they went 41-31 on the season and grabbed the fourth seed. They may have ended up losing in the first round, but Thibodeau was brought in to turn around the team and he did.
The Knicks made the playoffs four times in five Thibodeau-coached years. That should make Thibodeau a beloved figure in New York even if the manner in which he was let go of was unceremonious. After all, the Knicks, for comparison, made the playoffs just four times from 2002 to 2020.