Tom Thibodeau turned 65 in January, an age when a man can look back, if he chooses, on the vast plane of his life and, if he chooses, opt to allow whatever successes he’s already achieved serve as the pillars of his legacy.
Thibodeau could do that. He’s coached 834 games in the NBA across 11 seasons, won over 57 percent of them. Eight of those 11 teams made the playoffs. He owns an NBA Championship ring, earned in 2008 as Doc Rivers’ chief lieutenant with the Celtics. He’s been Coach of the Year twice. He probably could’ve won a ring on his own if Derrick Rose’s knee hadn’t gotten in the way.
More relevant to our fair city, he’s breathed life into a Knicks franchise that spent the better part of 20 years lying in state. At 65, a chaise lounge on a beach somewhere might be a welcome lure after a professional life that decorated.
“If you know Thibs, though, you know he wants more, much more,” a guy who’s known and worked with Thibodeau for 30 years told me Monday afternoon. “And I’ll tell you, I’ve never heard him more excited about being able to work with the group he’s got with the Knicks this year. He’s been looking forward all summer to this. It could be something to watch …”
The voice trailed here, before Thibodeau’s friend offered a kicker.
“Assuming they leave him alone to do his business his way.”
When Thibodeau and the Knicks gather at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., starting Tuesday for training camp, they will for the first time be plotting how to better their standing inside an Eastern Conference that looks an awful lot different than it did a week ago. The Bucks and Celtics were already 1A and 1B at the front of that list; Milwaukee adding Damian Lillard and Boston acquiring Jrue Holiday only reaffirmed that status.
The Knicks?
Their biggest selling point is something that isn’t terribly valued much in the modern NBA: continuity. Stability. They’re essentially running it back this year with a full season of Josh Hart and a new sharpshooter in Donte DiVincenzo, and that’s it.
“It’s funny,” RJ Barrett said Monday morning. “I was thinking about this, and I only know NBA basketball with Julius Randle as a teammate. That’s pretty cool.”
It can be. The Knicks’ learning curve as a team should be less steep than it was, say, last year, when Jalen Brunson was essentially handed the ball and told: “Mix things up for us as much as you can.” But the East is also a different beast this year. The Heat will be better. The Cavs — who finished a spot ahead of the Knicks last year — ought to be better. The Hawks, the Wizards, the Nets — even the Pistons — will be wild cards, and who knows what the Sixers will be like if James Harden decides to behave like a professional.
“They were already good before the trade stuff,” Thibodeau said, referring to the Bucks and Celtics. “It’s a great reminder that other teams in the East have gotten a lot better. We can’t ease into this. We have to come out ready to go.”
And this is where it’s important for the men who run the Knicks to remember that the man who coaches them has earned the benefit of the doubt for how this team negotiates the long season. The Knicks under Thibodeau have gotten substantially better as seasons progress.
Last year, there came a point where the whispers about Thibodeau began to grow strong and somewhat salty; as one purveyor of those whispers, I can assure you they do not just appear out of thin air. There was frustration when the Knicks cratered in December and again in January. There will be more of that, no doubt, if an early schedule loaded with top Eastern foes plus two extended road trips yields a few likely problem spots.
“What I’m proud of is, the past three years, we’ve gotten a lot better in the second half of the season,” Thibodeau said. “When we get hit with an injury we can still win.”
That speaks to a team whose strongest points, top-to-bottom of the roster, are resolve and resilience and a willingness to listen to their coach. If the external voices grew dark last year, the ones on the team remained in sync with Thibodeau. His roster is now loaded with players who buy what he’s selling.
And they all have a basketball city behind them that learned to fall back in love with its basketball team again last year, a crescendo that climaxed with five extra-loud days and nights for Garden playoff games that recalled the good times that Thibodeau was a part of as a younger man.
“There’s no place like New York,” Thibodeau said. “We know how much this team means to the city and we’re excited to have the opportunity to represent that city.”
Maybe the talent isn’t quite on the level of Milwaukee or Boston or Miami. But over the long season, across 82 games, it’s a team that should offer genuine hope, and more than a few electric nights at the Garden. Assuming they’re left alone to do they’re business their way.
