Knicks Firing Still Shocks NBA Coach

"Should he have been fired? Hell, no!" Lue emphatically said when queried by Sharpe. "It's the first time you've been to the conference finals in 25 years. The city was one fire, the fans were fire, the players did a hell of a job, and Thibs did a hell of a job. So to take a team the furthest they've been in 25 years and then get fired, it just don't make sense."

Sharpe theorized that Thibodeau's fate was sealed upon losing to the underdog Indiana Pacers in the conference finals, claiming that he might've been if they had lost to the defending champion Boston Celtics in round two. Lue countered by giving the Pacers credit for their success and noting that the other teams they vanquished kept their own coaches.

Noting that Thibodeau had produced positive results in each of his head coaching stops (New York, Chicago, Minnesota), Lue feels like the firing after a showing in the NBA's final four sends a dire message to Thibodeau's successor Mike Brown, who now faces greater expectations in year one at the metropolitan helm.

"When you come in, looking at it like, okay, we go to the conference finals, and now what's the next coach supposed to do?" Lue rhetorically asked. "Mike Brown is a hell of a coach. So now if he doesn't make the Eastern Conference Finals ... it's just tough."

Lue could certainly sympathize with Brown, as he compared the situation with his prior head coaching experience with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The current Clipper boss was called upon to coach the LeBron James-led Cavs midway through the 2015-16 season after the firing of David Blatt, who had guided Cleveland to a six-game loss in the prior tour's NBA Finals.

That put instant pressure on Lue to succeed but he fulfilled the expectations and then some with a seven-game triumph over the Golden State Warriors and their record 73 wins in the 2016 championship set. It's safe to say that similar guidelines await Brown once he takes to Madison Square Garden's sidelines, ones that the team is well-positioned to full by retaining almost all of last year's group while adding depth stars like Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele to the fold.