James Dolan details why Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau: Giannis trade talks
Published by RawNews1st
There were a handful of topics discussed, including whether Rose has a long-term contract with the team — “As far as I know, Leon’s with us for the long-term” — and why Dolan refused to hang a banner for the Knicks winning the NBA Cup — “We want an NBA championship. We don’t want the consolation prize.”
However there were two topics that came up that were the most interesting to get Dolan’s thoughts on: the firing Tom Thibodeau, the first coach to get the Knicks back to the Eastern Conference finals in 25 years, and subsequent hiring of Mike Brown and the rumors of trade talks to bring in Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Dolan on firing Tom Thibodeau
“The team is really built on the shoulders of Tom Thibodeau. He built that core, we went as far as we did last year, so you really gotta take your hat off to Tom and the job that he did. But we did come to the conclusion that we had an idea of how we wanted to organize the team, and actually it goes for both teams [Knicks and Rangers], and that meant we needed to evolve beyond the old traditional coaching formulas, etc. And we tried to work that with Tom and it really wasn’t his thing ..
“That’s some of it [not using the bench, style of play], but it was much more about style of leadership. Collaboration versus sort of [lone wolf] — yeah. Because of the way, particularly basketball, is evolving, how much more complicated it is, they’re very big on development on both clubs, because you can’t — it’s not like the old days, the old Yankees where you get Reggie Jackson and this guy and you put together a team.
