Just because Tim Thibodeau attended a practice with the Boston Celtics, doesn’t mean gave away the secrets from his time with New York Knicks. The ousted coach finds himself uniquely placed between two Eastern Conference behemoths and Knicks’ fans are worried about his recent visit to the Celtics.
Here’s how fans are reacting to his recent Celtics visit:
“We made y’all shoot dumb*** threes, stop that and play the starters 42 minutes straight.”
“Who better to help fix the holes in your team than the guy who exploited them last year.”
“He told them what he saw in them that everyone in the world knew. They settled for too many threes when they were up. It’s not like he’s giving them our plays lmao. It’s a completely new system and we should be able to beat them without Tatum no matter what they know.”
“To be honest if you fire me while I brought ya losing franchise deep in the playoffs I’d expose everything too.”
“Bro, what intel about the Knicks could you actually use that you didn’t already know?”
“Trust me TT67 got nothing to offer. Mf’s best advice would be to shorten the rotation to seven guys and let J Brown dribble out the first 20 seconds of shot clock then create his own look.”
“Intel from Thibs sounding like my four year old nephew explaining why he should have ice cream for breakfast.”
“You mean former Celtics assistant and NBA champion Tom Thibodeau?”
“Bro out here sharing their playbook.”
Thibodeau is not just connected to the Celtics through vengeance for the Knicks. He was part of Doc Rivers’ coaching staff back in 2008-09, when the Celtics won the NBA championship. He has close ties to the franchise but the optics of his current visit don’t remind Knicks fans of that era.
The Knicks and Celtics have one of the oldest rivalries in the NBA. Since New York wasn’t much of a contender for the better part of the last three decades, the rivalry had gone completely lopsided. But with the Knicks winning a series over the injury-ridden Boston Celtics, the seriousness in the match-up is back on top. The former Knicks head coach knows and understands this.
Thibodeau is known for applying unconventional tactics and finding newer, or older but more effective, ways to solve basketball problems. So this could also be him stirring up a media storm and angering the Knicks’ fans to bring him back into the main-stream conversation.
It could also be that the 67-year-old former head coach is genuinely looking for opportunities and having beaten the Celtics just last playoffs, he’s well-suited to tell them how his Knicks prepared for the series.
Celtics star Jaylen Brown spoke about Thibodeau’s visit and found it extremely helpful as he could point to the flaws that helped the Knicks win.
“That was awesome having Thibs. Obviously, they eliminated us last year. So him being able to kind of give us some of the thoughts that he saw in that series and some of the stuff that they broke down in our personnel, or even our team, helps us grow and learn from that” Brown told the media.
That series between the Knicks and the Celtics was iconic and showed modern NBA fans what these two franchises mean to their fans. These two fanbases have lived two very different experiences but the fandom doesn’t get less loyal despite Knicks not winning anything substantial for years.
New York still owes Thibodeau $30 million reportedly, so it isn’t like he needs another job. But it would be interesting to see him team up with a Knicks’ opponent and further hamper their chances. This massive price tag attached to Thibodeau is another cause of annoyance for the fans. Not only was he fired when the team was at its peak in the recent years, but he also gets a huge chunk to exit.
That, added to his appearance at the Celtics’ practice have put a serious dent on his already depleting image in New York. His time with the Knicks was successful on paper. He was with the stories franchise for over five years, earning a win-loss record of 226-174, winning 56.5% of all regular season games coached.
Despite inheriting a fairly messy situation, he immediately turned it around for the Knicks, in his debut season as the head coach. They finished the 2020-21 season at 41-31, and Thibodeau won Coach of the Year. He also took the previously-struggling Knicks to four playoff appearances in five seasons, so the trendline of his time at the Knicks was only going upwards. It culminated in the Eastern Conference Finals loss last season, but they still made a hectic run.
In June this year, Thibodeau was shown the door due to different factors. The teams announced they were looking for a championship and required a change in leadership to get there. Some others have said that it was his strenuous coaching style that came in the way.
His reliance on starters and pushing his players to the brink might not make him the most favorable coach in the locker room as well. But still, he looks like one of the most eligible head coaches available in the open market right now.
