Dick Vitale Doubles Down on Knicks, Tom Thibodeau Reunion Idea

Vitale returned to the issue on Friday, taking note of the seemingly endless list of candidates up for the job. The brief head coach of the Detroit Pistons believes that none of them, however, match up to what Thibodeau brought to the unit.

"In LIFE you must stand TALL and admit when you made a bad decision," Vitale said. "Hope [the Knicks'] hoops leaders hear me - they have screwed up the process involved in getting a coach to replace TOM THIBODEAU. Call him and say we made a big mistake & want you back. They will NOT get anyone BEFTER!"

Thibodeau's firing was shocking across basketball circles due to the fact he reached heights considered unprecedented by young generations of Knicks fans: in his five years at the helm, the Knicks won four playoff series after winning just one between 2001 and 2022. Things culminated in the franchise's first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in a quarter-century, but that six-game loss to the Indiana Pacers appears to have sealed Thibodeau's fate.

Unlikely as it may be to see Thibodeau back on next year's sidelines, the Knicks have brought back prior coach heroes before: Red Holzman returned to replace Willis Reed 14 games into the 1978-79 season while former assistant Herb Williams had two separate stints as the interim boss. Thibodeau himself was a New York comeback story, as he served as an assistant on Jeff Van Gundy's staffs before following him to Houston.