The New York Knicks are still looking for a new head coach after the sudden firing of Tom Thibodeau. One person who turned the job down was NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce. Well, not really, but the Celtics legend did have some fun trolling his old rivals.
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It has been a tough road for New York. The team was positioned for a Finals run following their win over the Celtics as they oozed with confidence. But, after an ugly exit by the Pacers, the Knicks told Thibs to hit the road. Since then, they have attempted to interview several candidates, including Jason Kidd, Ime Udoka, Chris Finch, Billy Donovan, and Quin Snyder. They’ve all been shut down by those coaches’ respective franchises.
Pierce and his good buddy, fellow Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett, were talking about the Knicks‘ woes on the latest edition of The Ticket and The Truth. As KG was looking to get into actual analysis, Pierce instead decided to have some fun.
“I turned down the coaching job,” he joked. “They asked me. I was like, ‘Nah I’m good.'” Garnett then started sarcastically guessing why The Truth would turn down such an incredible opportunity. Despite all the offers, Pierce stuck to his guns.
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“Man that was gonna cost them. They’d have to give me ten [million dollars] just for me to have to deal with the Knick fans. I was gonna have to give away Spike’s tickets,” Pierce said, referring to acclaimed filmmaker and massive NY fan Spike Lee. “We gonna have to revamp our whole front section. Y’all bad luck.”
This took Garnett by surprise, who pointed out that other celebrities sit in the front row, including Ben Stiller and rising superstar actor Timothée Chalamet. “You had Ben Stiller right there,” barked Garnett. “And they bad luck,” fired back Pierce.
While this is a wild assumption, Pierce does have a point with Spike. The Oscar winner famously got into a tiff with Reggie Miller back in the 90s, which caused Miller to go off against New York and birth the now iconic choke image.
Though, it should be noted that the Pacers did eventually lose that series so perhaps Spike wasn’t bad luck after all. Fast forward to present day and Stiller and Chalamet’s presence on the sideline led to quite the electric atmosphere. Whether they’re bad luck or not remains to be seen as the sample size is far too less.
Garnett had been critical of Thibodeau earlier in the season
Thibs was far from a perfect coach, but he certainly helped revive basketball in the Big Apple. That said, he certainly received his fair share of criticisms, specifically regarding how rarely he went to his bench and tired out his starters.
Garnett was vocal about this as early as this past January, prior to New York making their somewhat magical postseason run. He detailed his displeasure with Thibs on The Ticket and the Truth.
“At some point, you got staff, you got assistants, you got a GM, you got presidents [that should tell Thibodeau to stop playing the starters so much],” stated KG. “And, it’s a data league, bro. Data is probably telling you, ‘Hey, the starting 5 is playing way more minutes than the average starting 5 in the league.’ So I’m sure he’s heard this.”
To be fair, Thibs’s lack of bench play wasn’t the only thing that hurt them against the Pacers. It was the level of talent. New York’s core players (Brunson, KAT, Hart, Bridges) were fantastic throughout, but they couldn’t match up against Indy’s depth.
Whoever the Knicks do bring in for the head coaching position will likely make that their number one priority. That is, of course, if they ever actually hire anybody.
