Warriors icon Draymond Green disapproves of how the Knicks fired coach Tom Thibodeau after New York was eliminated by the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals.
In Thursday’s edition of the “Draymond Green Show” podcast, the four-time NBA champion explained his distaste for the Knicks’ questionable decision.
“I think what just happened to Thibs is this – and you see it quite a bit in the NBA these days – due in part to the success that we had on that run with Cleveland and the dominance that was going on in the NBA at that time, all the conversations nowadays are just ‘Championship. Championship. Championship.’ And in turn, people try to ignore the process of getting to a championship,” Green said.
“That sh–t is hard, and it takes time, and time is different for many people. If you’re firing Thibs because you ultimately think, ‘He ain’t the guy to get us there,’ that’s one thing, but if you’re blaming him for not winning a championship with this team, that’s not the right thing to do – because that’s not a championship roster.”
New York gave Thibodeau the boot after five seasons and the franchise’s first Eastern Conference finals appearance since 2000 — a 4-2 series loss to Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers. Indiana is now three games away from winning their first Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy in franchise history.
Green is confident that Thibodeau, who finished his Knicks tenure with a 226-174 record, is being blamed by the front office for the roster simply not being good enough.
The Golden State forward understands organizations want to win now, but he believes Thibodeau steadily was climbing throughout his run in the Big Apple and that the Knicks’ decision was premature.
“I don’t believe the New York Knicks, as currently constructed, can win a championship,” Green said. “I don’t give a damn how many players Thibs played all year, I don’t think that team can win a championship. I think what Tom Thibodeau did in getting that team to their first conference finals in 25 years, that’s steps in the right direction … that says, ‘Hey, front office, we may be, to get past this point, a guy or two away, in really making this thing go and really getting over that hump.’
“Me personally, I don’t think the ‘guy or two’ is some small guy, though. I think they need one of them ones.”
The Knicks probably are a key player or two away from taking the next step toward the franchise’s first NBA Finals win since 1973. However, that assumption does not lead Green to believe that Thibodeau is at fault or that he deserved to be dismissed from his position.
“I don’t agree that Thibs should’ve been fired based off this team not winning a championship, as if they were championship-or-bust and underachieved their payroll,” Green said. “But the eye test, coming from somebody (Green) who I believe knows what that looks like, nah.”
New York finished the 2024-25 NBA regular season with a 51-31 record, earning the third seed in the Eastern Conference. They finished just two wins shy of reaching the league’s biggest stage.
So, did Thibodeau deserve to be fired, or was he holding the Knicks back from achieving greater success?
Green certainly believes that the coach, who has been in the league since 1989-90, got the short end of the stick.
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