Knicks’ Tom Thibodeau firing still ‘doesn’t make sense’ to Ty Lue

An esteemed member of the NBA coaching circle believes Tom Thibodeau’s dismissal was nonsensical.

“Should he have been fired? Hell no,” Ty Lue, the current Clippers coach, said on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast. “I mean, it’s the first time they’ve been to the conference finals in 25 years. Twenty-five years! And so, the city was on fire, the fans were on fire. The players did a hell of a job. And Thibs did a hell of a job. And to take a team to their first [conference finals] in 25 years and then get fired, like, it just doesn’t make sense.”

Still with three years and over $35 million remaining on his Knicks contract, Thibodeau was surprisingly fired just a few days after his team was eliminated by the Pacers in Game 6 of the East finals.

The reasons were never explained on the record by the Knicks, other than a news release statement from team president Leon Rose that began, “Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship.”

Lue, meanwhile, rejected the idea that Thibodeau should’ve been punished for losing to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, an opponent that looked inferior on paper but caught fire in the playoffs.

Ultimately, Indiana fell one win short of the championship after Tyrese Haliburton blew out his Achilles in Game 7 of the Finals against the Thunder.