A letter to Knicks fans stressing over the team’s coaching search

Let it be

The sky is falling, the world is ending, and the New York Knicks are doomed to go back to their ways of old with James Dolan calling the shots, and wanting to make big splash moves by going after the biggest names regardless of reason. If you were to watch the coverage around the Knicks’ coaching search, and or read a lot of the Knicks fans’ reactions on social media, this is what you’d think is the case right now. But I’m here to tell you, yes you, the one taking time out of your day to read an article about the Knicks’ coaching search instead of enjoying the beautiful summer weather outside, to take a deep breath.

While I won’t tell you how to go about your fandom, and if you are right or wrong in their summation that the Knicks are destined for doom, I do at least want to put some of this into context so that they can re-evaluate and maybe, just maybe, stay hopeful.

First of all, I do understand where the fear is coming from. I, not unlike many of you, lived through the dreadful 2000s when Isaiah Thomas and his team fell in love with quick-fix, over-the-hill has-beens, leading to years and years of watching washed-up stars literally limping on their last legs while collecting a big old fat check from Mr. Dolan. And while the Knickstape team in the 2012-13 season gave a lot of us fans a short, but fun reminder of just how good being a Knicks fan could be, the 2010s were also filled with a lot of ineptitude, and questionable decisions.

Between the Andrea Bargnani trade, to the way they handled Carmelo Anthony’s exit, to the eventual Kristaps Porzingis deal, and the many failed draft picks during those years, it was a pretty scarring and traumatic time to be a fan. Season after season, we all had to endure not only losing, but embarrassment, and laughter from other fanbases. And our solution? Trying to convince ourselves that Jerian Grant, Langston Galloway, Ron Baker, Emanuel Mudiay, Frank Ntilikina, Allonzo Trier, Trey Burke, Cleanthony Early, Lance Thomas, Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Damyean Dotson, Kevin Knox were somehow going to help turn this franchise around.

So yes, I get that the thought of firing Tom Thibodeau, and not having an immediate replacement, paired with the rumors of the Knicks trying to ask everybody and anybody for an interview can be a bit terrifying. And the optics of the Knicks’ coaching search does make them look rather desperate and dare I even say, pathetic to some.

Thankfully, Leon Rose, World Wide Wes, and the rest of the front office do not care about optics or PR moves. They’ve made that very very clear through their refusal to hold press conferences for the majority of their time in New York. What they have done through their tenure, though, is have a plan and turn every rock possible, even if the odds of said rocks leading to anything are slim to none. Again, if you believe that the Knicks are acting like headless chickens, have no plan, and are losing trust in Rose, I get it, because I can’t say that you are wrong. I have no proof of that.

I have just chosen, maybe naively, and ignorantly, to believe in Rose. I believe that all of this is just him and his team doing their due diligence. Because there’s literally only one cost of asking all of these teams about interviewing their coaches, which is the PR side of it all-which again, they do not seem to care about.

They care about casting as wide a net as possible and seeing if any big fish miraculously bite. That’s not to say that they expect any coaches of Ime Udoka’s or Chris Finch’s caliber to move. But why not try? What if they hadn’t asked any teams about their current coaches, and by some divine miracle, Jason Kidd ends up wanting out in a few weeks? Then reporters and fans would’ve slammed the table wondering why the Knicks didn’t do more research.

People have been quick to assume that Rose’s plan all along was to pry away one of these coaches. But I just have a very difficult time believing that this mastermind, who has pretty quickly turned the Knicks into a serious contender, had no other plan than to find a replacement on a competitor’s bench.

I, again, have chosen to believe that the front office has a list of guys like Mike Brown, Taylor Jenkins, and many more potential candidates that they know are much more attainable than the coaches they have inquired about. I think they know who they like, and who they want, and have a plan to contact them after the asking team’s portion of the plan is over with. Now, are those options the best options? Will they be the ones to lead this team to a championship? Are they going to be better than Thibodeau? I have no idea, and we likely won’t know for months.

The worst part of it all is that there really was no winning with the media and certain sections of the fan base after the firing. I can say, with a pretty large amount of confidence, that in the alternate reality where the Knicks announce their replacement a day or two after the Thibodeau firing, a lot of the same media members and fans that are criticizing the Knicks now for taking too long, are also criticizing them for not doing their due diligence.

As for the fans who are worried about Dolan taking back control, I haven’t forgotten about you either. Much like the previous section(s), I can only go off of what we’ve heard about Dolan, and the front office in recent years. I am no reporter, and I, unlike a lot of people on social media these days, do not claim to have inside sources. What I do know though, is that many believe that Rose would quit if Dolan reverted to being the shot-caller. When Rose stepped into this role, he wanted assurance from Dolan that he’d be able to run point and do things his way—something Dolan has thus far allowed.

Dolan has a lot of money, but I can’t fathom an owner being in love with the idea of firing a coach he owed $30 million to. I also can’t picture Dolan, even after the disasters he spearheaded in the past, being foolish enough to pretend to know more than Rose and start calling the shots again after seeing just how successful the Knicks have been since Rose’s arrival.

The Knicks do have a plan. And we are in the early stages of said plan. They’ve inquired about coaches they reportedly knew they had almost no chance of prying away. Now, the real process begins.

Ultimately, I do believe that the entire divide among fans comes down to just how much trust you have in Rose, and the front office. If you, for some reason, don’t believe that Rose has a plan, or that his only plan was to go after other team’s coaches, then while I question your reasons, I understand your concerns. Likewise, if you believe that after nearly half a decade of letting Rose do his thing, Dolan started to become more involved in making decisions, I’d be curious as to why, but I would understand where your worries come from.

But I urge fans to stay calm. Knicks for clicks is back at an all-time high as much of the media has talked about the Knicks just as much, if not more than, the NBA Finals, so it can be hard to disconnect for a bit. And if you were against the Thibodeau firing, I’m sure this only furthers your discontent.

But understand that the Knicks’ coaching job is the only open one right now so New York literally has zero reason to rush their process. Even in 2020, when everybody believed Thibodeau was the clear favorite, the Knicks took a deep look at multiple coaches. Let the process play out, and then we can go from there.

Sincerely,

A Knicks fan who, just like all of you, wants nothing but the best for this team