Tom Thibodeau is the kind of coach that everyone either loves or hates, with very little middle ground. You know a Thibs team when you see one — tough defensively, extremely intense, often with what some might call an over-reliance on his starters. Thibs’ top guys are always at or near the top of the NBA in minutes.
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Whether you love or hate his coaching style, there’s no denying that Thibs can coach his behind off and that he cares deeply about his players and his team. Right now though, he’s without either since the Knicks made the shocking decision to fire him after he led the team to its first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000.
Many of Thibs’ former players have come out in support of him since his firing, including Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart. As The Athletic’s Fred Katz said on the most recent episode of the Ringer NBA Show though, there may be nobody who loves Thibs more than Donte DiVincenzo.
“Donte DiVincenzo loves Thibs more than either of us love our own mothers,” Katz told Wosny Lambre. “It is crazy how much Donte DiVincenzo loves Thibs,” he reiterated.
DiVincenzo was traded from the Knicks to Thibs’ old team, the Timberwolves, before last season as part of the Karl-Anthony Towns-Julius Randle deal, but he still kept a candle burning for his former coach.
“Every year The Athletic does an anonymous player poll and one of the questions is always ‘Which coach would you least like to play for?'”, Katz said. “This year we actually changed the question to ‘Who do you think is the worst coach?'” When it was ‘Which coach would you least like to play for?’ Thibs would always win that poll.”
“So apparently this year, when Minnesota players were polled, Donte would follow around the reporters who were taking the answers. When it got to the coach question, Donte would be like, ‘You m***********, you better not say Tom Thibodeau. He’s the f****** best.'”
DiVincenzo only played one year for Thibs, but a quick look at his career stats shows why he loves the man so much. Thibs believed in him enough that the Knicks gave him a four-year, $50 million contract to leave the Warriors and come to Madison Square Garden. Under Thibs, DiVincenzo hit a career high in minutes (29.1), points (15.5) and 3-pointers, both attempted and made.
In the 2024 playoffs, DiVincenzo put the team on his back as nearly everyone around him went down with an injury, and Thibs trusted him to do it. He averaged 22.7 points per game against the Pacers in the Eastern Conference semis, including a heroic 39 points on 9-15 shooting from 3-point range in a losing effort in Game 7.
DiVincenzo’s badgering definitely worked to some degree, as Thibs finished tied for fifth in the worst coaches poll, far behind Brian Keefe of the Wizards, the since-fired Mike Budenholzer of the Suns and Doc Rivers of the Bucks.
