The New York Knicks are one of the hottest teams in the NBA right now, but if one of their top executives had gotten their way a couple of months back, things could have gone very differently.
There has been no team in the league that has played better than the Knicks over the last few weeks. They recently won nine straight and scored two impressive wins over the Boston Celtics during that span. After stumbling down the NBA standings to begin the year, the team now resides just two games out of the fourth spot in a very deep Eastern Conference.
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Yet, things were not always this positive around the New York Knicks organization. After a disappointing 2021-2022 showing in which the team did not make the playoffs, they were inconsistent to begin this season. While they were among the 12 teams in the playoff hunt for much of the season, the team’s results were still underwhelming considering their very expensive contracts on the roster and big hopes coming into the season.
Things had even reached a point in February where SNY reported that top executive William Wesley was recently placing the blame for the Knicks’ disappointing play on head coach Tom Thibodeau during alleged conversations with owner James Dolan.
On Tuesday, Fox Sports NBA insider Yaron Weitzman confirmed that story on Wesley but added a very interesting nugget of new information. Apparently, Thibodeau was aware of the narrative Wesley was spinning about him to his boss for several months, and it seems that the 65-year-old saw the writing on the wall and actually thought his tenure as New York Knicks head coach was about to end.
“They’re going to fire me,” Thibodeau reportedly told a close friend in December.
New York Knicks record: 39-28
However, Dolan and team president Leon Rose did not pull the trigger on the firing and stood pat with the 23-year NBA veteran. In the end, the patience has seemingly paid off as Julius Randle has recaptured his All-Star form from two years ago, and Jalen Brunson has turned into the best free agent signing in the NBA this past summer.
Thibodeau is 117-104 as head coach of the Knicks over two-plus seasons.
The New York Knicks will return to the court on Thursday for a 10 PM ET game on TNT against the Sacramento Kings.