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Knicks Locker Room Continues Piling On to Fired Coach
May 5, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau watches from the sideline as they take on the Boston Celtics during game one of the second round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images David Butler II-Imagn Images

Ever since Tom Thibodeau was fired last week, reports have continued spilling out about the quiet tensions that must have been bouncing around the New York Knicks' locker room.

Those outside of the game have long critiqued Thibodeau for the obscene miles he's put on his key players and his occasionally questionable in-game coaching process.

We've already heard rumors about the Knicks owner's frustrations with the experienced head coach as well as some underlying issues with some of the other coaches on the New York bench, but now it appears as though some of Thibodeau's former players are okay with the drastic move to bag their award-winning coach of five years.

Mikal Bridges aired out some complaints to the press three months ago, and Thibodeau had a problem with his vocal frustrations at the time. We know that the Knicks also took everyone's exit meetings into account when determining what to do about their coach, providing players with past grievances, plenty of experience with Thibodeau and those who may have felt shafted by his strict rotations with an opportunity to fire away.

Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart stood firmly by Thibodeau's side through thick and thin, but that support was apparently far from unanimous among their teammates. Miles McBride gave some uniquely mercurial thoughts upon their most recent postseason dismissal, having watched his minutes get slashed after spending the last few years as the first guard off of the bench.

The coach only seemed to tap into his bench in the Knicks' final attempts at scratching for answers, turning to backup center Mitchell Robinson as a spot starter midway through the Pacers series and replacing McBride's opportunities with a mixture of Landry Shamet and Delon Wright appearances.

This drama is coming off of the Knicks' best season in a quarter-century, one in which they upset highly-capable competition to come within a round of making the NBA Finals, but the mixed player reviews and disapproval by their hands-on owner look to have sealed his fate.

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

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