The New York Knicks have now been denied to speak with three coaches for their vacancy after the Dallas Mavericks rejected the team's request to speak with Jason Kidd, ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Wednesday.
As of Tuesday night, the Knicks had also been denied by the Minnesota Timberwolves for Chris Finch and the Houston Rockets for Ime Udoka. New York is still on the hunt for Tom Thibodeau's replacement after firing him last week.
The Mavericks' response didn't come as a total surprise as there were reports this week stating how much the team wanted to keep Kidd in Dallas. However, the Knicks seemed extremely interested in bringing Kidd to New York, and Kidd reportedly shared some of that interest. It won't work out this year, at least, for the 52-year-old coach to head to New York.
There's some history between the Knicks and Kidd. The former 10-time All-Star was drafted by the Mavericks in 1994, but he ended up finishing his NBA career with the Knicks in 2012-13. Coincidentally, he had to choose between the Mavericks and the Knicks that final year as Dallas had offered for him to stay during his second stint with the team.
The Knicks still have plenty of options to replace Thibodeau. A few of those potential candidates includes three recently fired coaches—Michael Malone, Mike Budenholzer and Taylor Jenkins. There hasn't been any official word of the Knicks pursuing these coaches, but don't be surprised if they do.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mavericks Respond to Knicks' Request to Interview Jason Kidd.
