The New York Knicks and Dawn Staley didn't see eye to eye during the franchise's head coaching search, and she didn't make the first round of candidate cuts.
NBA insider shares harsh reality of Knicks’ interview of three-time NCAA champion coach originally appeared on The Sporting News
The New York Knicks were not interested in South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley beyond her initial interview with the team. As she acknowledged, asking Leon Rose and Co. about the repercussions of hiring the first female head coach and having a set of questions for them about that specific issue cost her the job.
The Athletic’s James L. Edwards heard from his sources, Staley didn’t make it to the pool of candidates who received a second interview with the Knicks’ brain trust.
“League sources told The Athletic that while Staley impressed during her conversation with team president Leon Rose and other members of the Knicks’ front office, she was not considered a finalist to fill the vacancy left when the team fired head coach Tom Thibodeau following the franchise’s first trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 25 years. The franchise hired Mike Brown, formerly the Sacramento Kings’ head coach, to replace Thibodeau,” Edwards wrote.
“During the conversation with Parker and Boston, Staley said she went into the interview with the Knicks’ brass with a series of questions of her own, primarily centered around the potential impact of hiring the first woman head coach in NBA history.”
Staley proclaimed she wouldn’t work for just any NBA team and that the franchise that’d make such a historic hire needed to be able to handle it. She seemed to offer a double take on that by also claiming that she’d “have had to” take the Knicks job no matter what, “for women.”
“If the Knicks would have offered me the job, I would have had to do it. Not just for me, it’s for women, just to break open that [barrier]. I would have to. It’s the New York Knicks. And I’m from Philly, but it’s the freaking New York Knicks. And I did say that the interview,” Staley said.
The first female NBA coach would’ve been a better fit in a smaller market than New York. Truthfully, the Big Apple in particular is an abrasive beast because of the expectations; expectations of fans, and newspaper editors in the most competitive American market.
Thibodeau was an MSG rarity with his longevity and general lack of drama. Coaches usually crash and burn in Midtown, especially those with little to no NBA head coaching experience.
The San Antonio Spurs seemed like a natural fit to make that history instead, but Gregg Popovich and the team’s decision-makers hired Mitch Johnson, who stepped in as the interim head coach back in over Becky Hammon.
The Knicks could’ve had that history instead. But instead of hiring someone who would’ve fought tooth and nail for every decision she wanted, they went with a safe option in Mike Brown, who will have less autonomy over his roster and rotations than Tom Thibodeau did.
Category: Basketball
