Knicks and Tom Thibodeau agree to three-year contract extension, source says
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau during Game 1 of an NBA Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the 76ers at Madison Square Garden. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The Knicks' front office has worked through a summer of securing their own pieces in place — contracts for Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby — and adding what they hope is the last piece to the puzzle by trading for Mikal Bridges.
On Wednesday, a league source confirmed that the Knicks took care of the coach who has guided the franchise turnaround — agreeing to a three-year contract extension with Tom Thibodeau.
Thibodeau joined the organization at the same time as team president Leon Rose and together they have led the team from a franchise that had missed the playoffs for seven straight seasons, with just one playoff series win in 20 years, to a squad now considered a title contender.
The Knicks made the playoffs in Thibodeau’s first season, earning him his second Coach of the Year award, and after the team struggled and missed the playoffs in his second season, Thibodeau led the team to back-to-back trips to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“I love the group,” Thibodeau said after the season ended with a loss in Game 7 to the Indiana Pacers with an injury-depleted squad. “As a coach you couldn’t ask for a better group. [The extension is] something that my agent will take care of. The Knicks have been great to me. So this is where I want to be.”
His five-year contract was entering the final year and with both sides hoping to avoid working on a lame-duck contract, the belief all along was that the contract extension would come this summer. At the Las Vegas Summer League, when asked about his looming extension, Thibodeau joked that, “I’m last in line.” The new deal will take him through the 2027-28 season.
But while solidifying the roster may have been a priority with the Knicks competing with 29 other teams for talent, there was little doubt that Thibodeau was going to remain in place in New York long-term.
Thibodeau has compiled a 175-143 record in four seasons with the Knicks — 14-15 in the postseason — and a career record of 527-389 over 13 seasons as head coach of the Chicago Bulls, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Knicks.
The 66-year-old Thibodeau originally served as an assistant coach in his first tenure with the Knicks, joining Jeff Van Gundy’s staff in 1996 and remaining for seven seasons. Returning in 2020 as head coach, he has quickly ascended the all-time leaders in victories for the franchise, trailing only Red Holzman’s 613 wins, Joe Lapchick’s 326, Van Gundy’s 248 and Pat Riley’s 223.
While Thibodeau has had critics over his hard-driving style, his players in New York have been aligned with him — insisting that he has adapted his style, easing up on the workload in practices while striving for victories without taking their foot off the pedal during the season.
“I think Thibs has the same mindset we do as a team,” Brunson said at season’s end. “Thibs is the reason why we have that mindset, Thibs is the reason why night in and night out, we fight to the best of our abilities. even though things may not be in our favor, result-wise. He makes sure that we have that mindset night in and night out.
“So I think he's evolved by just, he sees everything that everyone says. I think when it comes to us, we don't really care what the people on the outside think of us. We don't care what people say, positive or negative. We go forward with what we believe is the best course of action inside this building, inside the organization and so on. I think the way that he has evolved is that his players in that locker room have his back no matter what.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
