Patrick Ewing Reflects on His Experience to Shut Down Criticism Against Knicks Head Coach Tom Thibodeau

The New York Knicks’ run during this year’s NBA playoffs brought relevancy back to the Big Apple’s basketball scene. At the helm of the Knicks turnaround this season has been the trio of Jaylen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Dante DiVincenzo, who Knicks Head Coach Tom Thibodeau has tactically guided. But unlike the superstar trio, Coach Thibodeau has received criticism, mainly because of his penchant for giving his stars heavy minutes, reportedly making them more prone to injury. In a surprising turn of events, Knicks legend, Patrick Ewing recently came out and defended his former coach calling bulls**t on claims calling into question Tom Thibodeau’s ethics.

While appearing on the “Roommates Show” hosted by Knicks stars, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, the former Knicks big man defended his former coach, Tom Thibodeau. Patrick Ewing confessed that Thibs, an assistant Coach for the Knicks back in the 90s, never gave him any trouble. Ewing backed Thibodeau’s philosophy of making his players lock in heavy minutes, claiming that as a player he always wanted to be playing, and wanted the same level of commitment from his teammates. The former Knick further said,

“I am watching TV and I see all the negative criticism that he has been getting. And as a player who wanted to be on the floor at all times, there was no way in heck that he was taking me off the floor…it’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback but as a player, as a person who wanted to be on the floor, or wanted my guys to be on the floor with me, I think they are wrong, I think the criticism are wrong.”

But Ewing did see how analysts and players may think that Tom Thibodeau’s approach can be extreme, even calling his former coach a “workaholic”. Furthering his coach’s reputation, Ewing recalled how, during their time together in Houston, he had to drag coach Thibs out of his room for him to get a break from watching game film. If nothing else, this all serves as a testament to Tom Thibodeau’s love for the game.

Patrick Beverly backs up Coach Thibs after recent allegations from Chandler Parsons

The New York Knicks’ playoff hopes flamed out in the second round at the hands of the Indiana Pacers, partly because of injuries that severely limited the team’s rotation. The media and fans alike crucified Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau for playing his star’s extended minutes leading up to the playoffs and in the early rounds of the postseason.

Even former NBA player Chandler Parsons laid heavy criticism against Thibodeau, an allegation that didn’t sit well with Patrick Beverly. Responding to his former Houston teammate, Beverly took to his show, The Pat Bev Podcast, on which he said,

“I don’t think injury is based on the minutes you play. But that’s how Thibs is. You play for some minutes, you recover, and maybe you don’t practice as much. So you can’t put injury on a coaching staff at all.”

The Bucks guard further explained that injuries have a lot of complexity to them, and pinpointing it as being a singular coach’s mistake is extremely misleading. Beverly also added that injuries happen because of mistakes in planting and landing, and per se, playing more minutes doesn’t necessarily translate into a higher rate of injury, emphasizing the importance of safe play over a lesser quota of playing time.