The head coach will be fired after the Eastern Conference Finals! New York management has committed a problem again?

Do you dare to believe it? Just a few days after the Knicks finished the Eastern Conference Finals, the fans were still immersed in the joy of "the first time entering the Eastern Conference Finals in 25 years", and the team's management suddenly threw out the king's bombing - directly smoking the meritorious coach Thibodeau who led the team. As soon as the news came out, the famous reporter Shams's phone was blown up, and even the people in the circle called him "Let's see you for a long time". Why is

this incident is surprising? You see the data: Thibodeau has been in New York for 5 years, leading the team to the playoffs 4 times and winning four rounds of the series; and before he came, the Knicks' 13 coaches had only won one round in total. This year is even more exaggerated, and it directly brought the team to the Eastern Conference Finals, which is the first time since 1999. As a result, I was fryed when I turned around? New York fans probably had to hold their cell phones and ask: "What's wrong with us?"

To talk about evil nature, we have to start with the Knicks' "ancestral disease". You may not know that the Knicks are the only old man in the NBA who has never moved since the BBA era (the predecessor of the NBA), and are tied with the Celtics. In New York, the market is large and traffic is sufficient, so it should be a place where superstars gather. But since he won the last championship in 1973, he has never touched the trophy for more than 50 years. Why? To put it bluntly, the problem lies with the management - especially after James Dolan took over in 1997.

Dolan's father is a big businessman. He spent 30 million to buy the Knicks, which was somewhat of a "find a businessman for his son". What's the result? This son took over the first two years, and the team was able to make it through the 1999 Finals and the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals, but was eliminated in the first round of the 2000-01 season, and could not even enter the playoffs in 2002 and 2003. Starting here, the Knicks' management operations are like "outrageous mode".

The first person to take the blame was General Manager Lei Deng. In the 1999 draft, he missed the "AK47" Kirilenko and Artest who later became famous, and chose French center Wes - the most famous thing about this guy was that he was "detached by Death" in the 2000 Olympics. In 2000, he sent away the team spirit Ewing, in exchange for Glenn Rice, who was declining in form. As a result, Rice averaged from 15.9 to 12 in New York, and was traded in one year. In 2001, it was even more amazing. Alan Houston, the "King of China Investment Corporation" was awarded a 6-year, 100 million contract. The key was that no other team offered Houston a price of more than 75 million. The Knicks gave it to themselves. As a result, Houston was seriously injured after two years of getting a big contract. He only played 70 games in the last two seasons. After retiring in 2005, the Knicks had to pay him 19.13 million in 2006, which ranked third in the league at the time.

Reden took over the baton by "Assassin", and this guy is even more ruthless. In 2005, he gave Jerome James, who averaged 4.3 points and 3.1 rebounds in his career, a five-year contract of 30 million. As a result, James only played 90 games in four years, averaging 2.5 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. In the same year, he also did something outrageous: he issued a five-year, 50 million contract for Larry Brown, but Brown was fired for a year, and the Knicks had to pay a penalty of 18.5 million. What's even more amazing is that the Assassin himself came to be a coach, led the team to 33 wins and 23 wins in two years, and also caused a sexual harassment scandal. He was finally sentenced to 11.6 million in compensation - this wave of operations directly defeated the Knicks' family.

Even though there was a "normal person" who became general manager Donny Walsh, who led the team to sign Anthony and scratched out Jeremy Lin, the management's "old problems" could not be changed. In 2014, Jackson was invited to be the president of "Zen Master" and forced the team to play a triangular attack. As a result, core cores such as Anthony and Porzingis were not adapted to it. They even offered a 4-year, 72 million contract for Noah after a serious injury - Noah only played 53 games in two years, and the contract turned directly into garbage. The most outrageous thing is that in 2016, the Knicks did not pick the first round, and the Zen master did not even go to the rookie training camp, missing out on high-quality second round picks such as Zubac and Brogdon.

After such a struggle, the Knicks finally invited Thibodeau to take charge of the team, relied on the defensive system to return to the playoffs, signed Brunson in 2022, and entered the Eastern Conference Finals in 2025 - he was about to turn around, but he made another "dismissal of the Eastern Conference Finals coach".

Why is Thibodeau this time? What you have summarized by fans: First, the tactics are clichés, the offense relies on Brunson's singles, and Towns and Anunobi are the spectators in the bottom corner; second, the use of people is too ruthless, the main players in the playoffs are averaged more than 35 minutes per game, and there is no chance for substitutes at all; third, internal conflicts, players do not allow the coaching staff to join in the meeting. But deeper, it is the "quick disease" of the Knicks management - last year, he spent money to exchange for Towns and Bridges, hoping to win the championship immediately, but the Pacers broke through the defensive loopholes in the Eastern Conference Finals, and the management became anxious.

But if you think about it, does this script look familiar? Marbury, Anthony, and Jeremy Lin were not "used to the management, if you don't have it, just throw it away"? The Knicks in Dolan's hands are essentially compound assets of "real estate + media + social", and the second largest alliance in the 7.5 billion market capitalization - the performance is affected by short-term fluctuations and cannot shake the underlying value at all. So you see, even if you don’t have a championship in 50 years, Dolan will not sell the team. After all, this is a "living profit machine". Who is suffering? A New York fan. From the Ewing era to the melon, from Lin Crazy to the Eastern Conference Finals, fans have been waiting for 50 years, but what they have come is the cycle of "destroying the team as soon as they see the dawn". Thibodeau is gone, and the new coach may be Malone, Budenholzer, or NCAA coaches - but if you change the soup and don't change the medicine, New York's dream of winning will probably have to wait for another 50 years.