00:00Let's go over to the other side as the Eastern Conference champions sit back and wait.
00:05Is that good or bad for the New York Knicks to have all this time off?
00:09Young team, you know, not a lot of experience.
00:12What do you think?
00:13Well, first shout out to the Knicks for an unbelievable run.
00:17First time since 1999 that the New York Knicks have made the NBA Finals.
00:21And a credit goes out to that entire organization.
00:23And I want to quickly say this.
00:25The first person that every Knicks fan needs to thank, ready for this, folks?
00:30Is James Dolan.
00:31Because James Dolan finally decided to stay out of the way.
00:36You hire basketball guys, let them do their job.
00:39Woody Johnson, are you paying attention with the Jets?
00:43Please stay out of the GM's business.
00:46Now back to the Knicks.
00:47I do think rust is going to be a factor, particularly in first game number one.
00:55If you look at it, Big Stills, out of all the games the Knicks have played in this entire playoffs,
01:02their worst half of basketball game won Cleveland because of the extended layoff after sweeping the 76ers.
01:13So, to me, that's something to watch out for, for the Knicks.
01:17But if they can play the way they've played, the way they connect offensively and defensively, the bench production out
01:26of McBride and out of, obviously, Landry Shamit.
01:30But Mitchell Robson playing with the busted pinky.
01:35I'm going to say this right now.
01:37Maybe this is the Knicks fan of me.
01:39I think they find a way to get it done.
01:42And if they get it done, Lord have mercy, do not be anywhere near Madison Square Garden if that game
01:50ends, particularly if they do it at home.
01:52So, no doubt, MSG is going to go nuts there if that ends up happening.
01:56But, Coach, let's throw this out there.
01:58You know, you and I have kind of broached this, you know, earlier in the week.
02:02And I want to bring it back here a little bit.
02:04You know, when James Dolan blew out Thibodeau last year, that was so reported that, you know, there he is.
02:12He's getting in the way again.
02:13How do you fire a guy that takes a team all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals?
02:18You fire a guy, he brings in Mike Brown, and Mike Brown puts him in the finals with a shot
02:23to win the NBA championship.
02:25This is James Dolan.
02:27And we're not talking about one of the best owners in all of sports.
02:30We're talking about a guy who's been criticized as being maybe one of the worst owners in sports.
02:35Reflecting back on that move now, what do you take away with that now, you know, in hindsight, where we
02:39are today, where the Knicks are today?
02:42It's one of the best moves that James Dolan has made.
02:46And I'll be honest with you, Big Sills, when it happened, I loved it.
02:49I thought it was the right move.
02:51And I thought Mike Brown was the perfect coach for this team, a little bit more of a player's coach,
02:57a player that is going to be a little bit more diverse in his offensive philosophy.
03:05And a guy that was going to be playing his bench, you talked about Thibs when they played Indiana last
03:11year.
03:12Those guys were going 40 minutes a night.
03:14Big Sills, they were on fumes by the end of last year.
03:18And I love Thibs.
03:19I'm a Thibs guy.
03:20But at some point, you've got to change who is the captain of the ship.
03:24And if you remember, when I came on your show in Tampa earlier this week, I used Buck Showalter as
03:31my analogy.
03:33Thibs is the Buck Showalter of the NBA.
03:36When teams are not good, and they need structure and discipline and getting the team to start to play the
03:43right way, he is the guy.
03:46He did it in Chicago when they were terrible for a long time.
03:49He did it with Minnesota.
03:51And he did it with the Knicks.
03:52But here's what happens.
03:54At some point, it kind of plateaus.
03:57And you've got to move on.
03:59Think about this.
04:001995.
04:01Yankees are in the playoffs for the first time, and I do believe since 1981.
04:06What happens?
04:07They fire him after losing the Mariners.
04:09They bring in Joe Torre.
04:10What happens?
04:11They go to the champ.
04:12They win the World Series.
04:13And then he goes to Arizona.
04:17Buck Showalter turns around an expansion team, gets him to play well.
04:21They can't go over to Hump.
04:22What do they do?
04:23Fire and hire Bob Brindley.
04:25Big Sills.
04:26What happened year after that?
04:27They went and won the World Series.
04:30Sometimes you've got to make that shrewd move to get him over the top.
04:35And right now, the Knicks are four games away from the smartest move that James Dolan may have ever made.
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