The New York Knicks were denied permission to interview several candidates for the franchise’s head coaching vacancy, including Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch, Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, and Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd, according to sources that spoke to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The Knickerbockers have also received rejections from famous college coaches. Former Villanova Wildcats head coach and two-time NCAA Tournament champion Jay Wright said that he is not interested in the opening, according to CBS’s Seth Davis, who works with Wright. Meanwhile, UConn Huskies head coach and two-time NCAA Tournament champion Dan Hurley shut down rumors linking him to the position, saying, “Not another summer of that” when asked about his interest in the job.
The Knicks have not requested permission for Mavericks coach Jason Kidd as of Tuesday night, but sources tell ESPN that the Mavericks would reject them. https://t.co/5oSSGQb0x4
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 11, 2025
The Knicks have even been rejected by coaches whom they haven’t set up formal interviews with. The New York Post’s Stefan Bondy said in a June 3rd social media post that the team can “forget about Michael Malone as a replacement for Thibodeau.”
After leading the New York Knicks to their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 25 years, Tom Thibodeau was relieved of his duties as the team’s head coach on June 3rd, 2025. During his five-year stint with the Knicks, Thibodeau amassed a 226-174 record that included four postseason appearances and four playoff series wins.
What do the Knicks do?
Wow. The New York Knicks are in a really bad spot. Every day that passes since the Thibodeau firing makes the Knicks look worse and worse. They’re already running low on candidates, and they’re only one week into their head coaching search.
I had previously written that Michael Malone was the top candidate for this position. He’s only two years removed from an NBA championship and was seemingly fired by the Denver Nuggets for no good reason. But, with the recent report from Stefan Bondy, the Knicks will have to pivot in another direction if they still want to find a championship-caliber coach.
The problem is that New York is a team that is built to win right now. Therefore, they can’t waste time letting a new and unproven head coach establish a rapport and find his footing as a leader in the NBA. They need to hire a person who will elevate their franchise and lead them to better results than they saw this past season.
Tom Thibodeau’s brother Dennis:
“Born a Knicks fan, raised in a Knicks home, you dreamed of being a Knick.
“Critics may target success-but that never mattered to you. You demanded accountability from the top down. You made countless sacrifices to enrich others. You stood in… pic.twitter.com/pGLvi9oj43
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) June 11, 2025
Unfortunately, the list of championship-winning coaches who haven’t outright rejected the opening grows shorter by the day. Mike Budenholzer has a championship pedigree, but he was fired by the Suns because he couldn’t “coexist” with the franchise’s star players. Simultaneously, Frank Vogel has been out of coaching for a year, which can be an eternity in the modern NBA.
It’s feeling more and more likely that the Knicks will be forced to hire a head coach who failed with another franchise. Guys like Darvin Ham, James Borrego, or Taylor Jenkins all fit that mold. As tempting as it would be to hire a first-time head coach like Johnnie Bryant or Sam Cassell, I just don’t see James Dolan and Leon Rose going in that direction.
It’s unclear who the head coach of the Knickerbockers will be. One thing is clear: the Knicks might have screwed themselves by hastily firing the franchise’s most successful head coach this millennium.
