Knicks Plan to Interview Spurs' Will Hardy
Leon Rose and the New York Knicks have reportedly added Will Hardy, the San Antonio Spurs assistant coach, to their list of candidates for their own head coaching vacancy - this news comes just a day after the barrage of updates on the coaching search that yesterday brought Knicks fans.
Hardy is in the midst of his tenth season with San Antonio, having spent the last four as an assistant coach and the years before those as a scout and video coordinator. He's the fourth assistant coach with no head-coaching experience to join the list of Knicks' candidates - but he's certainly proven his worth to the Spurs in his time there, so much so that head coach Gregg Popovich has said things like this about him:
“Will has a proven himself to be someone who really has a knack for the game. We started to use him on the court, take him out of the film room and get him on the court to see if he could teach, and see how he commanded respect. So at that point, once he got on the floor and was able to communicate with players you could see that they respected what he was saying. His confidence grew and it became apparent that he’s got to be somebody that we continue to groom in this program.”
This article contains a great look at how Spurs fans see Hardy - as well a multitude of quotes from people within the organization, including Hardy himself. Hardy comes off as a hard working coach who, not unlike former HC David Fizdale, worked his way up from the film room.
In other news, according to Marc Berman, an NBA source claims that Becky Hammon is not expected to interview with the Knicks - which serves as possible indication that she might be in line as Popovich's successor, potentially explaining Hardy's desire to look at other opportunities. It's rumored that Ime Udoka, another Knicks' HC candidate and former Spurs assistant, left the Spurs' bench for a lead assistant role with the 76ers when it became clear to him that he wasn't in line for Popovich's job.
Ian Begley re-affirmed today that the search would include 8-10 total candidates, with the ones we know so far including Thibodeau, Miller, Atkinson, Woodson, Udoka, Delany, Fleming, and Hardy.
