In the aftermath of a rough stretch of basketball for the New York Knicks, Josh Hart sent a message to his teammates urging them to drop their egos for the sake of the team. In a recent chat with the media, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau gave his thoughts on the message but cautioned his players to study the film before calling anyone out.
“I don’t read what you guys write. But there are a lot of challenges throughout the course of the season, and just stay focused on the daily improvement. Sometimes there’s going to be some frustration,” said Thibs via The New York Post. “I think oftentimes the next day after you look at the film, you’re putting a mic in front of someone right after a game. And sometimes they may say things, we all may say things that we wish we had not said until you watch the film the next day. And then there’s usually a pretty good reason why something occurred. So before you say something, you probably should think.”
This comment draws comparisons to something Heat President Pat Riley said last summer after Jimmy Butler tried to trash-talk the Boston Celtics (the team that had just beaten them a few weeks prior). Riley told Butler to “keep his mouth shut” and stay away from the spotlight until he could back it up with dominant play on the court.
In this case, Thibs is telling his players (specifically Josh Hart) that they should be evaluating their own game before pointing the finger at others. Coach wants the Knicks to focus inward instead of pinning the blame on someone else but it’s going to be much easier said than done.
This year, after trading for Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks expected to take another step up in the East but they are seemingly on equal footing as last season, when they finished 2nd in the standings and made a run to the Eastern Semi-Finals.
At 27-15, the Knicks are currently 3rd in the East and already 6.5 games back from the first-seeded Cavaliers. Their defense has fallen off a cliff since the trade and they don’t have nearly enough scoring to keep up with teams like the Celtics, Cavaliers, and Thunder.
For Thibs, the most important thing is for his team to stay focused on the little things and avoid any kind of outside noise that might divide the locker room. With a ravid fanbase desperate for success, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with being a Knick and it can create a borderline toxic environment for players who are caught in the middle.
For the Knicks to succeed, they must find common ground and maximize their collective talent in a way they’ve never done before. It will be a tough assignment, to say the least, but self-accountability must come first before calling anyone out in the open.
The next game for the Knicks is on Friday, January 17th, against the Timberwolves at Madison Square Garden. They play at home again on January 20th for a game against the Atlanta Hawks at 3:00 PM EST. Finally, the Knicks hit the road to play the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on January 21st at 7:30 PM EST.
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