Ex-NBA player blasts Thibodeau and Knicks front office: ‘The way they handled business was crazy’

After a season of such promise, it looks like being an offseason of great uncertainty for the New York Knicks.

Under the leadership of head coach Tom Thibodeau the Knicks returned to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since the 1999/2000 season. Within days of their eventual defeat to the Indiana Pacers, Thibodeau was fired.

His departure came as a great shock to many around the league, those who thought that he had performed well to bring the team back to championship contention. However not every was particularly sad to see him leave.

Former NBA player Austin Rivers had an 11-year career in the league, playing for a total of seven different teams. He briefly played for the Knicks in the 2020/21 and had a unique perspective of Thibodeau firing.

“If you’re a coach, first off, why the f*ck would you want to be in this situation? Dude just went to the Conference Finals and it wasn’t good enough. They fired him.”

“And I’m not really a Thibs guy. I played for him, it wasn’t the best experience personally,” Rivers added, before revealing details of one of his earliest meetings with his former coach.

“First day of camp... Thibodeau comes up to me and says, ‘Hey man, excited for you to be here. I wanted Derek [Rose], but you’ll do great’. And he walked away.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘Hmm, I’m not gonna be here long’. And within a month guess who was on the team, Derek Rose. I was on my way out."

“The way it went down and the way that they handled business way crazy. They brought me into a dark room... They were all sitting there in the dark, with a little light, it was like an interrogation thing. They go, ‘Hey man, we’re gonna move you’.”

That move, however, was not the end of this frustrating period for Rivers. He was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder who waived him three days later, putting his NBA future in serious doubt.

Rivers later signed a year-long contract with the Denver Nuggets and left to join the Minnesota Timberwolves the following year, marking the final stop in his NBA career.