After some early stumbles, the New York Knicks’ coaching search is starting to take shape. The team added yet another name to its list of candidates Tuesday, reportedly interviewing Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Nori has been around the game for quite some time, serving as an assistant coach since the 2009-10 NBA season. He spent his first four years in that role with the Toronto Raptors. After brief stops with the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Detroit Pistons, Nori has spent the past four seasons as the Timberwolves’ lead assistant.
Nori doesn’t have experience as a head coach, though did briefly serve in the role after Chris Finch tore his patellar tendon following a collision with Mike Conley in Game 4 of the first round of the 2024 Western Conference playoffs. Nori coached the team for the final minute and a half.
The Timberwolves led by three points when Finch was injured. The team went on to win the contest 122-116.
Finch returned to coach the team’s next game — the Western Conference semifinals vs. the Denver Nuggets — though Nori was charged with managing the “game interaction and the game flow,” Finch said at the time. Due to the injury, Finch was unable to sit courtside, and could not get up to call timeouts or interact with the players on the court. The Timberwolves won the first two games of the series before falling to the Nuggets in seven games.
Nori is the third candidate to interview with the Knicks after the team surprisingly fired Tom Thibodeau after he led the Knicks to the Eastern Conference finals. The team has also interviewed Mike Brown and Taylor Jenkins for the role, per Charania.
Of that group, Nori is the only one who does not have head-coaching experience. Brown has compiled a 454-304 record over 11 years as a head coach. Jenkins spent the past six seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies before he was fired with just nine games left in the regular season.
The interviews come after the Knicks targeted coaches currently employed by other NBA teams. The Knicks were reportedly denied permission to speak to any of those coaches, forcing the team to consider other options. Jason Kidd, Ime Udoka and Finch were among the coaches the Knicks reportedly wanted to speak with about the head-coaching job.
Read the full article here