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There is little left to debate about the decision to fire Tom Thibodeau last year and hire Mike Brown — it resulted in a championship. Since Rose never talks to the media, though, he never spoke publicly about the move. But he fulfilled a promise to Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart — that he’d go on their “Roommates Show” podcast if the Knicks won the championship. Rose was asked about the coaching change. “It was tough,” Rose said on the show. “Thibs is a great coach. Did so much for the organization. We were right on the doorstep. Just felt that, just needed a change in voice, a change in philosophy. It was a tough move. Mike is a guy that really fit what we were looking for. He’s somebody that I’ve known for a long time. I represented LeBron [James] when he coached him in Cleveland. Knew him and kind of followed him through his career. Didn’t know him that well, but he always was a guy that was a good guy, that you could talk to, that you really felt good about. That was just your gut.
One of the most important criteria was a coach who was collaborative — more so than Thibodeau. That is something that stood out to Rose and the front office about Brown. “First of all, just his openness and his willingness to share ideas,” Rose said. “And share ideas with the front office, his staff and the inclusion of everyone. I think you guys probably saw that. He really was open to things, open to people’s suggestions, open to ideas. I believe that’s what led to some of the changes that were made throughout the season. We started out a certain way, he may have had an idea about how something was gonna work and how he wanted it to work, but he kind of evolved throughout the season, as did our team. I think that all went into the fact that we went into another gear in the playoffs.”
Rose’s first big move was one of the organization’s great triumphs. Tom Thibodeau, a no-frills head coach, was hired after a search that included Jason Kidd and Kenny Atkinson, among others. There was some haggling over who Thibodeau had to accept on his staff — and the deal nearly fell apart at the last minute — but ultimately they agreed on a five-year contract.
Not long after the Knicks were bounced in Game 6 at Indiana, Dolan and the front office conducted exit meetings with players that reinforced what they were probably already thinking – Thibodeau needed to go. Dolan, in particular, desired a change because he felt Thibodeau lacked in three notable areas – collaborating with the staff and players (the head coach adopted the One Voice philosophy), player development (he didn’t utilize his bench enough) and flexibility (“We needed to evolve beyond the old traditional coaching formulas,” Dolan said).
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“We loved Thibs, we really did, I held him in high regard,” Dolan said. “It would not surprise me at all, by the way, if Thibs comes back and coaches a championship team because I think you could still win that way.” Sometimes you can see the “but” coming a mile away. “Thibs was kind of old style. Right? Like Red Holzman, right, everything comes through me, and I’ll guide us through. He’s very good at that, but that sort of obviated the need for all these other people. Mike Brown had a different view. He had a different approach. And you look at our team, in the Finals. Everyone was healthy.
Yaron Weitzman: So there's this idea floating around that one reason the Knicks turned things around was because James Dolan was so consumed by the Sphere that he stopped meddling with the basketball operation. Easy narrative. Also false. A few examples: 1. Dolan regularly met with Thibs and Mike Brown in his office after games — and not briefly. Ask any reporter who covered games at MSG. Postgame press conferences started late all the time because the coach was in with Dolan. 2. Did everyone forget that Dolan was in player exit meetings last year? Or that he was the driving force behind the decision to replace Thibs? That, obviously, turned out to be the correct call. But firing your head coach after the team's best season in 25 years is not the move of a hands-off owner. 3. His son Quentin doesn't just work for the team. He's the Senior Vice President of Player Performance/Science Leader. That's not a title-only role. There are plenty of other examples. These are just three public ones. None of this is a criticism of Dolan. But the idea that he faded into the background in recent years isn't accurate.
This quote couldn’t have been easy for Thibodeau to read, just as Dolan’s newly released video — a pre-playoff pep talk for the team — couldn’t have been easy to see and hear. The owner acknowledged in his speech that the Thibs firing “shocked the world” and that if the Knicks failed in the postseason, the decision-makers would be second-guessed forever. Dolan told the players the change was made because “Leon and I believe that you, the team and the rest of the organization needed to be heard more, needed to work together more, not just led or dictated to. And coach Thibs was a great coach, brilliant, etcetera, but we thought you needed a coach that would pull you together, that would have you play as a team.”
Though Thibodeau didn’t respond to The Athletic’s message seeking comment, one of his favorite players, Taj Gibson, told SiriusXM NBA Radio that he had spoken to the coach and that “he didn’t have any kind of malice in his heart. He didn’t have any kind of hatred. He was so happy for the guys. He was just really so proud of the guys and what they accomplished.”
Before the season, The Athletic reported that Thibodeau was deeply wounded and “had a sense of betrayal” after his firing and believed some people in the organization he had helped over the years didn’t return that loyalty. On Tuesday, a friend of Thibodeau’s said he is “genuinely very happy for the players and his guys” for winning a historic championship. “But Tom is still hurt that the decision-makers made it appear he needed to be replaced.”
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“I talked to Thibs (Saturday) and the first thing we talked about was that he had no malice in his heart, he didn’t have any kind of hatred,” Gibson said during a Sunday appearance on SiriusXM’s NBA Radio. “He was so happy for the guys, he was just really proud of the guys for what they accomplished.”
Let's Talk Knicks: Tom Thibodeau’s full page ad in the New York Times thanks the entire Knicks organization and the fans. “Watching you support our team, and seeing the Garden ignite with that incomparable Knicks energy, is something I will never forget.”
By that point, Rose had represented both Brunsons as an agent. When Leon left for the Knicks, son Sam Rose joined Jalen Brunson's representation team. In 2022, less than a month before Jalen Brunson was set to hit free agency, Leon Rose hired Rick Brunson as an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau's staff. "I think Jalen had a loyalty to the Mavs because they'd drafted him, but the Knicks were his actual family," said a Mavericks source. "I don't think we fully grasped that."
What compelled you to issue your NBA Finals-or-Bust proclamation in January? James Dolan: That’s why I don’t do a lot of interviews — I’m usually very frank (smile). I did not go into the interview thinking, “Oh I’m gonna say this.” But it was on my mind, and I knew that the rest of the organization knew it too — we all knew it. We knew it from the moment that we said goodbye to Thibs (Tom Thibodeau) and we hired Mike (Brown), that we were gonna be in a hot spot because we just made the conference finals. We didn’t win, but you don’t make a change unless you’re expecting to do better. We didn’t change ’cause we wanted it to be worse! To me, it was a little obvious, so I just said it because it was obvious.