According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the New York Knicks have fired coach David Fizdale.
Once again, James Dolan and company’s impatience has hammered the wrong nail. I’ve spent extensive time researching and writing about the Knicks over the past few months and there is one common denominator in their problems. It’s not the coaching or the execs. It’s James Dolan.
Dolan doesn’t know the first thing about running a basketball team. He’s a spoiled rich kid who believes he can buy instant gratification. And he still believes it even though over and over again for 20 years it hasn’t worked.
Dolan keeps trying to put the cart before the horse. He thinks winning will create success. But it’s the success that creates winning. Success in hiring and keeping the right execs; in standing behind a coach instead of seeing them as expendable; in putting together a cohesive roster that actually makes sense.
But the one kind of success that the Knicks really, desperately need is the one success that is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. James Dolan needs to successfully,
Stay.
In.
His.
Lane.
It’s no wonder Dolan is interested in signing Masai Ujiri. But even Jedi Master Masai would not be able to put out this dumpster fire. Masai plays the long game. Dolan doesn’t have the patience for that. The Knicks need to spend some time being bad and building toward being good. See the Bucks, 76ers, and Raptors for examples close to home.
Not Fizdale’s Fault
I saw something in the Knicks this season that I haven’t seen in such a long time. The beginning of a team identity. They were playing hard. They were gritty. And having seen Fizdale talk about what he’s been trying to do with the team, I have no doubt that identity was coming from him.
Fiz didn’t put together this very young, very disjointed roster. But he still got behind it. He still had a vision for it. He still believed it could be built upon. Fizdale had buy-in from the players. They liked him. They were behind him. This is a young roster and losing the coach that they like is not going to be a thing that inspires better play.
The bottom line is, as long as James Dolan owns the Knicks, they’re doomed. It will just be a matter of what flavor of crap the Knicks are putting out at any given time.
If you’re a silver lining type of person. I think there is one here. Sorry, Knicks fans. It’s not a silver lining for the team. The bright spot is that Fiz has escaped from a situation that is beneath his abilities as a coach. Go on and get you a job with a front office that values you, Fizdale.
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