Apr 6, 2017; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) inspects the ball before a game against the Washington Wizards at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Carmelo Anthony Gets Candid On Knicks' Coaching Change

Originally posted on New York Knicks on SI
By Henry Brown | Last updated Jun 18, 2025 9:00 AM ET

It's been two weeks since the New York Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau, giving way to one of the crazier coaching searches we've seen in the 2020s that's since started to die down and return to normalcy, despite the team still needing to fill the post.

The team's willingness to go where no one else would and ask nearly a half-dozen other NBA teams if they could interview their current coaches resulted in a lot of rejection, making the Knicks front office look like they didn't have a succession plan in place when they let go of their coach of five years, yet many prominent voices can still see the merit in trying to find a new voice to fill the locker room.

Carmelo Anthony may have never played directly under Thibodeau during his Hall of Fame-worthy 19-year career, but he knows the Knicks, having spent the back half of his prime in New York, and he's paid avid attention to the league since calling it quits in 2022. When asked on his podcast, "7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony," about whether or not the Knicks overreacted in firing Thibodeau, he answered with several firm "no"s.

"Everybody else thinks that [the firing] just happened overnight," he said. "That's been the part of the conversation behind the scenes going on…he was under a microscope for a period of time."

Anthony paid his respects to the 2x Coach of the Year winner, referring to him as "one of the greatest basketball minds that this game has ever seen," but then went in on his rigid principles that got him in trouble in big games and, eventually, with the Knicks management.

"What adjustments are you going to get us over the hump?" he posed. "Your bench is a major issue but everybody knows that," Carmelo added. "It ain't like this just happened. His bench has always been a major issue. He'd only play six, seven guys. He's a loyal guy. He's playing with who he's loyal to… Let's be frank, the Knicks need a bench…I'm not saying that he don't have guys on the bench that can play. Should guys play more? Yes. Cool."

"It's a fine line of adjustments that you have to make, and he just don't make those adjustments."

This article first appeared on New York Knicks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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