It’s old news, but it’s the first time Knicks president Leon Rose is explaining it.
There is little left to debate about the decision to fire Tom Thibodeau last year and hire Mike Brown — it resulted in a championship. Since Rose never talks to the media, though, he never spoke publicly about the move.
But he fulfilled a promise to Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart — that he’d go on their “Roommates Show” podcast if the Knicks won the championship. Rose was asked about the coaching change.
“It was tough,” Rose said on the show. “Thibs is a great coach. Did so much for the organization. We were right on the doorstep. Just felt that, just needed a change in voice, a change in philosophy. It was a tough move. Mike is a guy that really fit what we were looking for. He’s somebody that I’ve known for a long time. I represented LeBron [James] when he coached him in Cleveland. Knew him and kind of followed him through his career. Didn’t know him that well, but he always was a guy that was a good guy, that you could talk to, that you really felt good about. That was just your gut.
“Then you go through the process, and you’re looking for certain things. We had built out a criteria of certain things that were very important, we do research, and we brought in, I think it was five candidates, and really graded them in the different areas and things like that and made the decision that we made.”
One of the most important criteria was a coach who was collaborative — more so than Thibodeau.
That is something that stood out to Rose and the front office about Brown.
“First of all, just his openness and his willingness to share ideas,” Rose said. “And share ideas with the front office, his staff and the inclusion of everyone. I think you guys probably saw that. He really was open to things, open to people’s suggestions, open to ideas. I believe that’s what led to some of the changes that were made throughout the season. We started out a certain way, he may have had an idea about how something was gonna work and how he wanted it to work, but he kind of evolved throughout the season, as did our team. I think that all went into the fact that we went into another gear in the playoffs.”
It’s rare to hear from Rose, so here are some other notable quotes from him:
• When he was asked about the large amounts of hate Mikal Bridges received, given his price tag and inconsistent play, Rose said: “Believe me, it bothered the heck out of me, because it had nothing to do with Mikal. It was the price I was willing to pay or we were willing to pay in order to get that deal done because of how important we thought it was to get that piece to solidify this group.”
• On the criticism, at the time, of aggressively pursuing Brunson: “I got killed about Jalen, and now everyone thinks I’m a genius. It’s about what we did in order to get you. Clearing space, at the time people thinking that it was so much money that we were paying you. … This was the first major move and I had all the conviction in the world. I’ve known him since he was born, I know what he’s all about, I know what a winner he is, I know that I was willing to ride with him.”
• On how being eliminated by the Pacers two years in a row shaped some of their strategy: “I think going through what we went through with Indiana, the full-court pressure wearing us down, injuries, even going back two years, but last year the way we saw that, and that was something we wanted to fortify and solidify.”
• On the under-the-radar importance of acquiring Jose Alvarado midseason: “What went into getting Jose was [Guerschon] Yabusele had to give up his second year in order for us to make a deal with Chicago so we could get a player that had an expiring contract and then send that on to New Orleans in order to get him. So there were a lot of things that went into doing that. And that was huge, because we did need another ball handler, we needed another person that could put it on the floor and take some of the pressure off.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
