NEW YORK – Tom Thibodeau is back in New York as the Knicks’ new coach.
The former NBA Coach of the Year was hired Thursday and returned to the team that helped lead the NBA Finals as an assistant.
“I know what New York is like when the Knicks are successful and there is nothing comparable,” Thibodeau said in a statement. “I hope to be a part of what we are building here and I can’t wait to go to work.”
Thibodeau, 62, is 352-246 in eight seasons as a coach for Chicago and Minnesota. He was Coach of the Year in 2011 in his first season with the Bulls, whom he led to 50 wins in three of his five seasons.
Thibodeau was an assistant to Jeff Van Gundy when the Knicks reached the 1999 NBA Finals. He made the finals twice as an assistant to Doc Rivers with the Boston Celtics, winning the 2008 championship.
The Knicks have been largely unsuccessful since Van Gundy resigned earlier in the 2001-02 season. New York has won just one playoff series since then and has just completed its seventh consecutive losing season.
The Knicks fired David Fizdale 22 games on the season and ended under interim coach Mike Miller, 21-45. New President Leon Rose did a long search before considering Thibodeau as the 13th different person to coach the Knicks since Van Gundy.
“Tom Thibodeau is a proven winner who makes the most of the players and teams he has coached,” said Rose.
Thibodeau will try to regain the defensive intensity the Knicks were known for in the 1990s. His teams led the league twice in the fewest points allowed per game in their eight seasons as head coach and ranked in the top 10. another three times.
But his last season was the rockiest. He was fired by the Timberwolves midway through the 2018-19 season that began when star Jimmy Butler sought to be traded.
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