Charles Barkley roasted the Knicks' coaching search with brutal insult to team brass
Charles Barkley roasted the Knicks' coaching search with brutal insult to team brass
The New York Knicks find themselves in a bit of a pickle after firing coach Tom Thibodeau last week.
Thibodeau had New York playing some of its best basketball in years and led the team to the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals. However, the franchise still decided it was better off without Thibodeau at the helm.
However, the succession plan isn't going well. The Knicks have been rebuffed in interview requests for four NBA head coaches so far in Minnesota's Chris Finch, Houston's Ime Udoka, Dallas' Jason Kidd and Atlanta's Quin Snyder.
7 Knicks coach options after Tom Thibodeau's firing (Michael Malone!)
All these failed requests hint to a lack of a concrete plan to replace Thibodeau in the head coaching role, something that NBA great and broadcast analyst Charles Barkley spotted from a mile away.
Barkley torched the Knicks ahead of Game 3 for this year's NBA Finals in Indianapolis on Wednesday night as, his words, "the stupidest damn people in the world."
"The Knicks gotta be the stupidest damn people in the world," Barkley said during the pregame coverage. "You don't fire no good coach like that and don't have a plan."
The Knicks still have plenty of time to find the right head coach to replace Thibodeau, but the decision to fire him was already highly questionable to begin with.
It's hard not to feel like Barkley is onto something here, as firing the guy who is responsible for some of the team's best success in the last 25 years always felt weird. If the team can't find a suitable replacement, Barkley's insult will feel all the more prescient.
If the team's real plan was to poach another team's coach, that shows a level of organizational incompetence that Barkley is right to roast them for having. However, we'll give the Knicks the benefit of the doubt until we see who their next head coach is.
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