New York Knicks Fire Head Coach David Fizdale

In a move that is unlikely to shock longtime and long-suffering New York Knicks fans, the team’s management parted ways with coach David Fizdale on Friday. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news of Fizdale’s firing late Friday afternoon.

Knicks fired coach David Fizdale, league source tells ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 6, 2019

Perhaps the best summation of reactions to this news came via the headline for John Gonzalez’s story on the firing at The Ringer: “You’re Never Going to Believe This, but the Knicks Have Fired Their Head Coach.” In his analysis of the firing, Gonzalez makes a clear case that the team’s issues extend far beyond their head coach:

The Knicks are 4-18 this season, and 21-83 in less than two years under Fizdale. He did a bad job with a bad team, but the people who put him in that position remain behind and gainfully employed.

The sense of deep, perhaps horrific, structural flaws in the organization have led to similarly-minded takes from Stefan Bondy at the New York Daily News (“The Knicks are a career-killer. Just ask [Jeff] Hornacek, Derek Fisher and Mike Woodson.”) and Mike Vaccaro at the New York Post (“The virus that infects the Knicks was never contained to Fizdale’s office; he was simply a carrier.”).

A little over a year ago, after the Knicks fired Jeff Hornacek, Malika Andrews at The New York Times wrote that “[t]he Knicks’ perpetual state of rebuilding — involving so many people making so many missteps over so many years — makes Boston’s Big Dig seem like a simple driveway repaving by comparison.” It seems as though little has changed since then.

The Knicks’ next game is set for tonight: a home game against the Indiana Pacers. Mike Miller, who earned praise for his work in the G-League, will be the team’s interim coach. Whether the organization makes larger changes remains to be seen.

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