The New York Knicks have fired coach Tom Thibodeau days after their loss in the Eastern Conference finals.
“Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans,” team president Leon Rose said in a statement on Tuesday. The Knicks’ last title came in 1973. “This pursuit led us to the difficult decision to inform Tom Thibodeau that we’ve decided to move in another direction.
“We can’t thank Tom enough for pouring his heart and soul into each and every day of being the New York Knicks head coach. He led us not only with class and professionalism for the past five seasons, but also to tremendous success on the court with four playoff berths and four playoff series victories. Ultimately, we made the decision we feel is best for our organization moving forward. Tom will always be a part of our Knicks family and we truly wish him nothing but the best in the future.”
The Knicks beat the defending champions, the Boston Celtics, during their run to the Conference finals but fell short of the NBA finals after a 4-2 series loss to the Indiana Pacers. Thibodeau’s in-game decisions were questioned by some during the series, but the conference finals run was the team’s first since 2000.
The 67-year-old had previously been head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves. He had been Knicks coach since 2020, and had led them to the postseason in four of his five seasons in New York.
Many may see it as a strange decision by the Knicks, who had been one of the league’s worst franchises for most of the 2000s until Thibodeau was hired. He promptly led the Knicks to the playoffs in his first season, winning his second NBA Coach of the Year award, and they have been a solid contender in the East in recent seasons.
After they were eliminated on Saturday, captain Jalen Brunson expressed his support for Thibodeau, bristling at a question about whether he believed the coach was right for the team.
“Is that a real question right now?” Brunson said. “You just asked me if I believe that he’s the right guy. Yes. Come on.”
Three days later, Thibodeau was gone with a 226-174 record in New York. He has the fourth-most wins by a Knicks coach.
Thibodeau faced criticisms that his hard-driving style and overreliance on his starters wore down his players, the same ones that have followed him since the beginning of his head coaching career in Chicago. But his ways seemed to be working in New York.
The Knicks hadn’t won a playoff series since 2013 but now have done so in three straight seasons. They went 50-32 in 2023-24 and followed that with a 51-31 record this season.
