Knicks hunt for new head coach to end 52-year championship drought

NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Thibodeau’s firing brought back some of the confusion and chaos the New York Knicks had seemingly left behind.

After an era of stability and more success than they had enjoyed in a quarter of a century, the Knicks opened a coaching search few could have predicted when they fired Thibodeau on Tuesday.

“When I first saw it, I thought it was one of those fake AI things. No way. There’s no way possible,” Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

Coaching searches weren’t unusual in New York for much of the 2000s, but the Knicks weren’t winning then. This time, they had just reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years before losing to Carlisle’s team, and were an early favorite to do it again next year. So changing course brought swift and strong reaction from a fan base that seemed satisfied.

Who decided Thibodeau had to go? And why?

“That seemed like an unfortunate call that the boss made, certainly for him,” tennis Hall of Famer John McEnroe, a Knicks fan, said while calling the French Open quarterfinals for TNT.

But which boss?

Direct answers may not come. Knicks leadership, from owner James Dolan to team president Leon Rose, doesn’t do interviews with the reporters who cover the team. So the only hint may have come in the team’s statement announcing the firing, in which Rose said the organization was “singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans.”

That means the view was that Thibodeau was good enough to get the Knicks close but not all the way.

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