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| Madison Square Garden during a Knicks game this season. Photo by Jason Schott. |
The Knicks made the shocking decision on Tuesday to fire Head Coach Tom Thibodeau just days after they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Indiana Pacers.
It was shocking because this was their first appearance in that round in 25 years, and they have been on the ascent ever since Thibodeau was hired, having made the playoffs four times in five years.
This came after 20 years of futility in which the Knicks became a national punchline, with players and coaches funneling in and out of Madison Square Garden as if it were the adjoining Penn Station.
The thing is, though, that since the Knicks have had a taste of success, the standards are getting ramped up.
This is the same thinking that influenced the shocking decision to trade fan favorite Dante D'Vincenzo for Karl Anthony Towns at the start of training camp.
That also was shocking as it broke up the Villanova group that had formed on the Knicks.
In reality, it was a continuation of giving up on the tired "fan favorite" and "he's a nice guy" narrative that began when R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley were dispatched to the Toronto Raptors for OG Anunoby on December 30, 2023.
That trade was instrumental in the Knicks winning a playoff round for the first time in ages last spring before they took Indiana to seven games in the 2024 Eastern Conference semifinals.
One could say that this team made progress reaching the Conference Finals this year, but was it really?
The Knicks had to fight harder than most thought to beat a spirited Detroit Pistons team in six games in the first round.
Then, the defending Champion Boston Celtics were on tap, and the Knicks stormed back from 20-point deficits twice to take the first two games on the road.
Boston responded by winning the third game at The Garden before they lost their best player, Jayson Tatum, in Game 4, which dashed any hopes of a comeback.
The Knicks got two incredible breaks to dispatch Boston in six games before losing to Indiana in six, a series that began with them choking away Game 1 at home and never really feeling that they were in the series.
The firing of Thibodeau shows that the Knicks management feels that they had a team worthy of winning a championship for the first time in 52 years, so why not try to switch it up as they did with the trade for Towns?
It shows a lot of guts to make a move like that, even after coming so close to a championship.
After all, the Boston Red Sox did that after they lost Game 7 to the Yankees in the 2003 League Championship Series, firing Grady Little and shocking baseball by hiring Terry Francona.
Boston broke the Curse of the Bambino (remember that?) the next year, and Terry led them to another one in 2007.
Speaking of the Yankees, the Knicks' firing of Thibodeau, which took a lot of guts, shows how timid they are when it comes to their management.
Aaron Boone is in his ninth year at the helm and has yet to bring home a ring. His predecessor, Joe Girardi won it in his first year, and of course, before that, Joe Torre had four rings in his first five years at the helm followed by a couple more World Series appearances.
The Yankees are more than accepting of winning the division or claiming they have had "winning seasons" every year since 1993, as their World Series championship drought is at 16 years.
Boone finall took the Yankees back to the Series last year, breaking a drought where they weren't in one since 2009. However, it was the easiest path ever, as they dispatched two patsies from the American League Central before the Los Angeles Dodgers dispatched them in five games.
Boone's tenure has been marked by Division Series exits, losses to the Houston Astros in the League Championship series, or just missing the playoffs, as they did in 2023.
If the Yankees had guts, they would have seen that Boone is not the man to finish the job, just as the Knicks saw with Thibs, who could not take many successful Bulls teams in the early 2010s past the second round and whose only ring came as an assistant with the 2008 Celtics.
The Knicks also have history on their side right in their own building, as Mike Keenan was in his first year at the helm when the Rangers broke a 54-year drought by winning the Stanley Cup in 1994.
There is now an excitement factor to who the Knicks will hire, with one name floated being former Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright, which would make sense given all his former players on the team. My wild card would be they lure Steve Kerr here, as his dynastic Golden State Warriors are on the brink of a necessary rebuild.
One has to think the Knicks did this with a plan, that they already know who will take over and you can't hire them without firing who's already there.
Seeing how their recent trades, doing away with sentiment and nonsense ideas like fan favorites, has worked out, this should result in a championship in the next couple of years.
Whereas, the Yankees will still be on the outside looking in as they sell Aaron Boone as the man for the job, that Aaron Judge will eventually show up in October, that Anthony Volpe is the new Derek Jeter, that some nobody in the bullpen is the final piece, and division titles as the measure of consistency.
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