Knicks Coach Outlasting Fellow Award Winners

The New York Knicks head coach has remained in his role longer than many of his colleagues around the league.

Nov 23, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau calls a play angst the Utah Jazz during the first half at the Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images / Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images

Believe it or not, New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau is the longest-tenured Knicks coach since Jeff Van Gundy led the team from 1996 to 2001. In his fifth season with New York, Thibodeau has made incredible strides, and it started with the Knicks' breakout season in 2021.

That year, Thibodeau walked away with the NBA's Coach of the Year award. Since then, the Knicks have been a legitimate playoff team and are starting to enter title contention.

The same can't be said for fellow Coach of the Year winner Mike Brown, who won it with the Sacramento Kings in 2023. That season, the Kings went 48-34, snatching the third seed in the Western Conference and ending a U.S. sports record 17-year playoff drought. Less than two years later, Brown has been fired, first reported on Friday by ESPN's Shams Charania.

Brown's case is not out of the ordinary in the modern NBA. After Friday's firing, five of the last seven Coach of the Year winners have now been fired by the team they won it with. The only two that haven't? Thibodeau and Mark Daigneault, who won the award last season with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

In Thibodeau's reaction, he called Brown a "great coach." Former Knicks guard Doug Christie, now an assistant with the Kings, is expected to take over as interim head coach. What makes it even more painful for Sacramento fans is that the organization gave Brown a three-year, $25.5 million extension back in June.

Perhaps Thibodeau's award was the most impressive of the last seven coaches, and what he's done since then is the reason why the Knicks value him so much. The following season, New York missed the playoffs entirely, but the organization stuck with Thibodeau, and since then, the Knicks have built upon every campaign.

An unfortunate run of injuries caught them during last season's playoff run, which almost certainly would've ended with an Eastern Conference Finals appearance had the team been fully healthy against the Indiana Pacers. This year, Thibodeau is working with star center Karl-Anthony Towns, who may be having his best season yet.

The 66-year-old coach continuously praises Towns, who played for him back with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The former All-Star and All-NBA player has done some maturing since the late 2010s. All of these are reasons why the Knicks have stuck with the same head coach since 2021.

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