NEW YORK — The New York Knicks fired coach Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday just days after their first trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 25 years.
The Knicks were eliminated by the Indiana Pacers with a loss in Game 6 on Saturday night. They then decided to move on from Thibodeau, who led them to the postseason in four of his five seasons in New York.
The firing was first reported by ESPN, after which the Knicks confirmed it on social media, with team president Leon Rose calling it “a difficult decision.”
It’s a strange decision by the Knicks, who had been one of the league’s worst franchises for most of the 2000s until Thibodeau was hired in 2020. He promptly led the Knicks to the playoffs in his first season, winning his second NBA Coach of the Year award, and they have been a solid contender in the East in recent seasons.
Their big breakthrough came in 2024-25, when they knocked off defending champion Boston in the second round to reach the conference finals for the first time since 2000 — when Thibodeau was an assistant under Jeff Van Gundy.
After they were eliminated Saturday, captain Jalen Brunson expressed his support for Thibodeau, bristling at a question about whether he believed the coach was right for the team.
Three days later, Thibodeau was gone with a 226-174 record in New York. He has the fourth-most wins by a Knicks coach.
Thibodeau faced criticisms that his hard-driving style and overreliance on his starters wore down his players, the same ones that have followed him since the beginning of his head coaching career in Chicago. But his ways seemed to be working in New York.
The Knicks hadn’t won a playoff series since 2013 but now have done it in three straight seasons. They went 50-32 in 2023-24 and followed that with a 51-31 record this season.
But the person said the organization felt there was a need for a new voice when the Knicks try again to end their lengthy championship drought. They won their second and last title in 1973.