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Tom Thibodeau Happy to Face Knicks Predecessor

The New York Knicks ran into an old friend on the sidelines when they faced the Los Angeles Clippers.

Geoff Magliocchetti

Mar 7, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau at a press conference at the Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Mar 7, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau at a press conference at the Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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For the New York Knicks, this journey is at least partly about the friends they made along the way.

Friday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers afforded the Knicks to reconnect with beloved former head coach Jeff Van Gundy, who now patrols the new sidelines of Intuit Dome as an assistant under Tyronn Lue. The interconference clash thus meant just a little more to Thibodeau, who previously served as an assistant under Van Gundy in Manhattan.

"We came up together a long time ago," Thibodeau recalled prior to Friday's game (h/t New York Basketball on X). "When I first met him, he was a graduate assistant at Providence College and doing just about everything: mopping the floor, scrimmaging, working guys out, recruiting around the clock, running the summer camp.

"He's a terrific, terrific coach, great person, extremely knowledgeable, just a great human being, so I'm real happy for him."

The master got the best of the protege this time around, as Van Gundy's Clippers stifled Thibodeau's Knicks by a 105-95 final in the latter's maiden voyage to Los Angeles' new arena.

Working under Lue is Van Gundy's first NBA coaching job since his four-year term at the helm of the Houston Rockets in 2003-07. Last year saw Van Gundy, previously one of the lead color commentators on ABC/ESPN's top broadcasting group (which also featured lasting Knicks television voice Mike Breen and Knicks veteran Mark Jackson), earn his first NBA championship ring as a consultant with the Boston Celtics.

Jeff Van Gundy
Feb 12, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; LA Clippers assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy reacts against the Memphis Grizzlies in the second half at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Facing Van Gundy on Friday carries a greater sense of metropolitan irony: Saturday marked the 29th anniversary of his first game at the New York helm after stepping in as mid-season replacement for the fired Don Nelson. It was the first of 420 contests led by Van Gundy, who currently ranks third on the Knicks' all-time coaching wins list at 248 (Thibodeau, currently fifth, is 33 behind at 215).

Van Gundy will make a return trip to Madison Square Garden later this month, as he and the Clippers are set to visit on March 28.

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Geoff Magliocchetti
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks

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