If the New York Knicks want their next head coach to be one who has Big East ties, they’ll have to look for someone other than two of the conference’s top current coaches. UConn’s Dan Hurley and St. John’s Rick Pitino have each turned down interest in the Knicks’ head coach vacancy.
Hurley had been viewed as a possible frontrunner for the Knicks’ head coach position after expressing interest in the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coach job last offseason. However, he ended up turning down Los Angeles after receiving an offer, with his ties to the Northeast being cited as a reason why he opted to remain at UConn.
“Not another summer of that,” Hurley told The Hartford Courant when asked if he had any interest in the Knicks’ job.
Hurley wound up agreeing to a six-year, $50 million extension with UConn after turning down the Lakers. The Huskies’ bid to become the first team to three-peat as national champions in over 50 years fell short, with UConn losing in the Round of 32 last season.
Pitino’s St. John’s squad was one of the roadblocks UConn dealt with along the way as the Johnnies won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles. It marked the first time since 1992 that St. John’s had won the regular season title and the first time since 2000 that it had won the Big East tournament title.
St. John’s runs to both titles captivated New York City and made Pitino one of the most popular figures in the city’s sports scene. But Pitino made it clear he didn’t want the Knicks job after they fired Thom Thibodeau following their run to the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday, mentioning the enormous expectations the next coach will have to deal with.
“Absolutely not,” Pitino said when asked during the YES Network’s broadcast of Wednesday’s game between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians, in which he threw the first pitch.
“I think whoever comes in, if he doesn’t get to the Finals, it’s going to be deemed an unsuccessful season,” Pitino added. “So, whoever comes in has got so much pressure on them to take this team to the next level, ’cause that’s why they’re doing it, obviously, in their minds.”
Rick Pitino helped coach St. John’s to its best season in decades in 2024-25. (Photo by Porter Binks/Getty Images).
Pitino, a 72-year-old New York native, was the head coach of the Knicks for two seasons in the late 1980s (1987-89). New York went 90-74 in Pitino’s tenure. Pitino also had a three-plus-year stint as the head coach of the Boston Celtics from 1997-2001 before resigning.
As Hurley and Pitino have taken themselves off the board, there are a handful of other notable options for the Knicks in their search to replace Thibodeau. Former Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone opened up as the betting favorite, via DraftKings Sportsbook. Cleveland Cavaliers associate head coach Johnnie Bryant has the second-best odds to become the Knicks’ next head coach. Bryant, who was the Knicks’ associate head coach from 2020-24, was one of the finalists for the Phoenix Suns’ head coach vacancy, but they agreed to a deal to hire fellow Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott on Wednesday.
Former Villanova coach Jay Wright has also been a widely speculated candidate for the job. He coached three of the team’s top players in college (Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart), lending some credence to the rumors he could be the team’s next head coach. But FOX Sports college basketball expert John Fanta doesn’t anticipate Wright unretiring to coach the Knicks.
“Jay Wright is enjoying red wine, basketball, television and his family,” Fanta said on “The Herd.” “If he wanted to coach again, he’d be the Villanova coach.
“Jay Wright is not going anywhere.”
John Fanta dives into the odds of Dan Hurley or Jay Wright becoming Knicks HC
The Knicks also have interest in Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka and Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd, longtime NBA insider Marc Stein reported. After capturing the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, Houston isn’t interested in letting New York potentially negotiate a deal and trade involving Udoka, per The Athletic.
As New York gets in the trenches in its head coach search, the decision to fire Thibodeau still felt a bit of a surprise to many. He helped turn around the Knicks in his five seasons as head coach, making the playoffs four times following an eight-year postseason drought. This past season marked their best playoff run in a quarter-century, with New York reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000. Following their second-round upset of the defending champion Celtics, the Knicks fell to the Indiana Pacers in six games.
Pitino seemed to be among those surprised by the move, too.
“I think everybody’s kind of shocked,” Pitino said. “You don’t fire people that take you to the Eastern finals and with the whole town so excited about the team. They partied on 7th Avenue and we’re not even in the Finals. So I think everybody’s in shock. But rather than pass judgement, Thibs has got three years left.
“They made the decision. They’ve got to live with it. Let’s see.”
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