The New York Knicks fired coach Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday, just three days after a loss in the Eastern Conference finals ended the team’s most successful season in a quarter century.
Knicks president Leon Rose said in a statement that the move was what the team felt was “best for our organization moving forward,” but did not go into further detail.
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“Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans,” Rose said in a statement. “This pursuit led us to the difficult decision to move in another direction. We can’t thank Tom enough for pouring his heart and soul into each and every day of being the New York Knicks head coach.”
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) June 3, 2025
Thibodeau’s firing comes as a bit of a shock, given that the organization just made the Eastern Conference finals, their deepest playoff run since 2000. He signed an extension last year and has $20 million still guaranteed on his contract. New York’s star guard, Jalen Brunson, publicly backed Thibodeau’s return after the season-ending loss, saying the coach was the right person for the job. Knicks guard Josh Hart expressed his appreciation for Thibodeau on social media after Tuesday’s news.
“Forever grateful,” Hart wrote.
Thibodeau, 67, went 226-174 in the regular season and led the Knicks to the postseason four times. Under Thibodeau, New York improved every season.
But the team fell two wins short of its first NBA Finals appearance since 1999, losing to the Indiana Pacers in six games. And less than three days later, Thibodeau is out. The decision was made by Rose with the full backing of owner James Dolan, according to league sources.
Thibodeau received public criticism all season for playing his starters too many minutes. Those complaints went nowhere this year, though, as the Knicks were relatively healthy during the regular season and throughout the postseason. Guard Mikal Bridges publicly talked about the high minutes for the starters in March, after a shootaround in Portland. In discussing it, Bridges said he had talked to Thibodeau about the number of minutes the starters play. When Thibodeau was asked later that day about Bridges’ comments, he said the two never had a conversation about it.
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The Knicks were an imperfect team but found a way to get to the Eastern Conference finals behind a resilient bunch that would find ways to win in the clutch, led by Brunson, the league’s Clutch Player of the Year. Thibodeau experimented more in the playoffs than he did during the regular season, and it yielded some successful results. Still, leadership decided change was needed to take New York one step further.
The Knicks will look to hire a coach who can build on a talented but flawed core. New York’s primary starting group this season had a negative net rating from Jan. 1 to the end of the regular season, and in the playoffs, before Thibodeau’s adjustments in the conference finals.
Whoever is hired will inherit a top-10 player in Brunson running the show on the court. Though New York also has Karl-Anthony Towns, Bridges, OG Anunoby and Hart under contract for next season, given the on-court issues with this collective during the season, not all might return, unless Knicks brass believes the struggles were because of coaching.
The Knicks’ 51 wins in the 2024-25 season were their most since the 2012-13 season. Before Thibodeau, no Knicks coach had finished their fourth season with the team since Jeff Van Gundy, who resigned midway through the 2001-02 season.
Before joining the Knicks, Thibodeau had head-coaching stints with the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves, leading both franchises to the playoffs. He won an NBA title with the Boston Celtics as an assistant coach in 2008.
— The Athletic’s Sam Amick contributed to this report.
(Photo: Al Bello / Getty Images)
