ESPN’s NBA reboot conference call was hijacked by questions about the Knicks’ search for coaches and their new employee Tom Thibodeau.
And Jeff Van Gundy took full advantage to fiercely defend his friend and former assistant in New York and Houston over accusations that he exaggerated his best players and was too demanding, calling him “great slander.”
Van Gundy also had tips for Thibodeau and Knicks fans. They must be patient because of a list that “needs a lot of work”.
When asked if an NBA coach can still be a foreman like Thibodeau, Van Gundy was furious and said it is “slander” to criticize the 62-year-old product of New Britain, Connecticut, on that front.
“I don’t think the players have changed as much as the organizations and the coaches,” said Van Gundy. “You can’t demand fewer players and then complain that sometimes they are willing to do less. I think it hurts the players. I think good players from any age want to be challenged and pushed to be their best and want to play for important teams. This idea that Tom doesn’t know how to keep up with his team is one of the great slanders that the media has perpetuated in a coach. “
The Post reported last week that Knicks’ only concern is whether Thibodeau’s tough driving style still relates to millennial players after he was fired in Minnesota in January 2019. According to a source, that is why the one that Vice President William Wesley wants Thibodeau to meet A more diverse staff with different personalities.
“I think all coaches have to learn to adapt and adapt to slights and not fight them because you can spend a lot of time fighting some slanderous things that strangers really say,” said Van Gundy. “It is not as if people have entered Tom’s practices and observed.
“Bill Parcells said this a long time ago and it’s very true: ‘One of the most important jobs for a coach is to guide his team correctly.’ That doesn’t just go to the minutes of the game. He goes to practice minutes. how much contact you make in practice. It goes into a lot. And I think that unfortunately for Tom, since they couldn’t get the results, they tried to do it in other things. “
It’s a fine line between patience and not being picky enough from a Knicks franchise that has missed the playoffs seven straight seasons. They have been part of the postseason only four times since Van Gundy resigned in 2001.
“[President] Leon Rose did a great job identifying many capable coaches and then choosing one on Tom who is absolutely elite, ” said Van Gundy. “The list needs a lot of work. You win with great players. They need to strengthen the list in the coming years. But if everyone is patient and realistic and allows Tom to work, they will reap the benefit because he is exceptional in every way. “
Van Gundy, asked if Thibodeau has the patience to work on rebuilding the Knicks, pointed to the disaster he inherited in Minnesota, and finally broke the franchise’s 13-year playoff drought before an ugly ending.
“He took over the worst basketball team in Minnesota,” said Van Gundy. “I think you want a coach who is patient and impatient. He is not afraid of challenge. You have to be patient. But if you are too patient, you don’t drive change where culture has to change.
“If you think that everything happens without patience, no, that also happens with impatience. You must demand that these things happen immediately, and I think Tom is eminently qualified. ”
Mark Jackson, who interviewed for the Knicks’ job in 2008 and 2018, but not this time, only had complementary words for the former Knicks assistant, who once coached him in New York.
“Obviously it was a great hiring,” Jackson said. Tom Thibodeau is a great basketball mind. Extremely successful. He has done it before. I am sure he will do a fantastic job changing things and I couldn’t be happier for him. ”
.
