Yesterday’s rant was posted at 12:08 PM EDT. In that rant, I said that lots of folks were suggesting that the Knicks should fire Tom Thibodeau despite making it to the Eastern Conference Finals this year.
Later yesterday afternoon at about 3:00 PM, I was running an errand and turned on the car radio to see what the local sports radio folks were discussing. Turns out they were dealing with “Breaking News” that indeed the Knicks had fired Tom Thibodeau. I did not get it at 12:08 PM yesterday; I did not get it at about 3:00 PM yesterday; I still don’t get it.
The Knicks won 51 regular season games this year and won two playoff series. Somehow, that performance has been deemed sufficiently below standard(s) that it deserves separation from the organization. Really? If that is the case, there should be about 25 NBA Head Coaches looking for work this week.
Thibodeau has been criticized for his very short bench in the playoffs this year. Kenny Smith had the best line dealing with that issue when he said:
“Tom Thibodeau would not play nine players in a baseball game.”
Maybe that short bench led to fatigue which led to the losses? If so, Thibodeau deserves blame. However, that same team with his short bench proclivities did pretty well in the 82-game regular season and in the two playoff series that went before its elimination by the Pacers.
The statement by the team regarding the firing emphasized that the goal for the organization is to “win a championship for our fans”. If there is even a shred of truth in those words, the higher-ups must be convinced that the Knicks team as constituted was indeed the best team in the NBA and should be in the Finals against the Thunder where the Knicks would emerge victorious. I find that sort of thinking delusional; the Knicks are a very good team, but they are not nearly the best team in the NBA right now.
As is always the case, speculation about Thibodeau’s successor began about 10 nanoseconds after the announcement of the firing. If you cruise around the Internet commentary this morning, the two names in the lead are Mike Malone – NBA Championship with the Nuggets in 2023 – and Jeff Van Gundy – a nostalgic rehiring situation. We shall see …
As I said yesterday, the Knicks are a sub-standard defensive team not because of coaching but because of the roster construction. Moreover, in the process of amassing this defensively-challenged roster, the team traded away three players and two draft picks to acquire Karl-Anthony Towns; that represents a lot of assets for a player whose only defensive credential is his height of 7-feet. That roster needs a major tweak if in fact the idea of a “championship” is anything more than a fantasy in the minds of the Knicks’ braintrust.
Mentioning Jeff Van Gundy brings to mind a bone I want to pick with fans of the NY Knicks. During the Eastern Conference Finals, far too many Knicks’ fans bitched and moaned about having Reggie Miller doing color commentating having been a star for the Pacers in his NBA career. The assertion was that Miller was biased and intentionally derogatory in his comments about the Knicks and their performance. As H. L. Mencken would proclaim at this point:
“Buncombe!”
First, I am not the least bit surprised that Reggie Miller would be inclined to favor the Pacers in any NBA game. Having said that, I found none of his commentary to be wildly biased or derogatory in the least. Reggie Miller is not the best color analyst in the basketball business, but he pretty much played it down the middle for that series.
Second, Knicks fans need to take a deep breath and think about what they are complaining about.
- Jeff Van Gundy coached the Knicks for 5 years; then he became an excellent color commentator for NBA games for more than a decade. Van Gundy was never accused of being “biased for the Knicks” and Knicks’ fans never worried about that possibility.
- Mike Breen does NBA games with the Knicks on the court for the national telecasts and has done that for years. Mike Breen also does the Knicks’ home games that are not nationally telecast. Mike Breen is – in my opinion – the best NBA play-by-play guy on the air. Knicks’ fans never suggest that he might be biased toward their team.
Finally, I shall close today with this advice from Judith Martin a/k/a “Miss Manners”:
“If you can’t be kind, at least be vague.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
Nuttiness is rampant these days.
Al Davis always believed (and taught us Raider fans) in firing the coach. It’s not a perfect approach, but it was an easy system to understand. And trading Jon Gruden in February, 2002 worked out about as well as the Titan submersible descending down toward the Titanic in 2023.