What is visible in most coaching searches is largely iceberg-ish in nature, in that we see 10 percent of the process and then, mostly out of self-aggrandizement, measure it at 90 percent from there. But let's play the game anyway and laugh the fit of our trousers off at the number of teams that have received requests from the New York Knicks to talk to their coaches about a new job and responded with an emphatic "Shove off, Guitar Boy."
To date, Dallas, Minnesota, Houston, and Atlanta have all refused Knicks chief ball guy Leon Rose and owner Jimmy Dolan permission to discuss their vacancy with, in order, Jason Kidd, Chris Finch, Ime Udoka, and Quin Snyder. Of those four, Atlanta's refusal was described as "emphatic." One presumes that is code for "shove off," but it could have been “no way,” “get bent,” or something more profane. Possibly much more profane. Again, there’s just so much about this process that is invisible to the public.
Now, the ways in which teams and agents interact on behalf of their vacancies and candidates are many and varied, although they can all largely be described as “tampering that is not prosecutable as tampering.” This is to say that they all agree to cheat and be cheated on, because cheating is the viscosity that keeps the gears moving during the offseason.
But what is interesting in this case is the steady barrage of news leaks to ESPN's backchannel wallpaper/avant-garde prose stylist Shams Charania (and some others) about the number of teams that have told the Knicks to piss off. Normally these things are either done on the down low or through some understated sixth-paragraph-level news dump, but with the Knicks as the butt of the joke, the glee of release is palpable. Sometime since getting booted from the Eastern Conference Finals, these Knicks returned to their past status as a P.R. piñata, and not just because people have a sudden affinity for the charm-lite Tom Thibodeau.
Why would this be? Is it that the Knicks are essentially detestable? Well, sure, and that's not just anti-Manhattan bias. Is it that they have been good so rarely, or because they are bully-level clumsy when on the hunt, or both? Yeah, all of that is true enough. Is it because the Knicks have rarely taken a chance on a newbie leader that has worked and prefer poaching other people's stuff for the media splash (see Derek Fisher)? Is it that Dolan hates the rest of the league and threatens to sue everyone at the owners' meetings every year, seemingly because he believes he is not paid his due deference as the son of a rich guy who fell into the biggest franchise in the nation’s biggest city? Oh, bank on that last one.
This reject-o-rama has been a Knicks-y thing for awhile, since not-yet-first-time coach Steve Kerr bolted after having accepted an offer from then-boss Phil Jackson in 2015 to take the lesser job in Golden State, at the firm now known as Stephen Curry Amalgamated. Since Kerr opted for success over whatever it is the Knicks do instead, Dolan has hired six coaches and is now looking for a seventh. The other six are Fisher, Kurt Rambis, Jeff Hornacek, David Fizdale, Mike Miller, and Thibs. Of those, Thibs is the biggest name and the owner of the most distinguished coaching resume. It was no surprise that Thibs was by acclamation the best coach the Knicks have had since Jeff Van Gundy, who had been a Knicks assistant under four other coaches before getting his shot. Trying to figure out who to rank second is an exceedingly grim task.
And while there are always assistants and freshly fired coaches ready to be wooed, the more entertaining part of the Knicks’ search this go-round is not who accepts the gig but how many more owners tell Jimmy The Pick to take a hike, and how quickly those rejections become public. The list of potential pending rejections is technically 25, although some teams and coaches are so locked in that even Dolan wouldn't bother to call. That reduces the number of realistic drop-deads to about 10. We can look forward to all of them, because the real trick is in discovering the number of owners who not only want to refuse Dolan but to make that rejection as adamantly public as possible. Think of it as church bingo for the soul, with Shams calling out the numbers. Hell has never seemed quite so AARP-y.
