Knicks Hire Hall of Famer to Coaching Staff

The New York Knicks are finding ways to improve coach Tom Thibodeau’s staff.

According to ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the Knicks are hiring Hall of Fame guard Maurice Cheeks as an assistant on Thibodeau’s staff.

“he New York Knicks are planning to hire Maurice Cheeks as an assistant on Tom Thibodeau’s coaching staff, sources tell ESPN. Cheeks — a Hall of Fame guard — has been a three-time head coach in the NBA and most recently on Billy Donovan’s staffs in Chicago and Oklahoma City,” Wojnarowski tweeted.

Cheeks, 67, played 15 years in the NBA, making the All-Star team four times throughout his career. He also won the 1983 NBA Finals with the Philadelphia 76ers. After retiring in 1993, Cheeks got into coaching, finding himself back in the NBA with the Sixers in 1994. Cheeks and Thibodeau were assistants together in Philadelphia from 1994-96. After helping the Sixers to the NBA Finals in 2001, the Portland Trail Blazers gave him his first head coaching opportunity.

Cheeks made the playoffs twice with the Blazers in four years before he was fired midway through the 2004-05 campaign. He re-joined the Sixers in 2005-06, once again spending four years with the team before being fired midway through the year.

Cheeks became an assistant for the Oklahoma City Thunder following his tenure as the Sixers coach, spending four seasons with the team before the Detroit Pistons hired him as a head coach. However, he only lasted 50 games with the Pistons before he was fired in the middle of his first season on the job in 2013-14 with a 21-29 record.

Since then, Cheeks has served under head coach Billy Donovan with the Thunder and Chicago Bulls since 2015. But now, he’s getting a change of scenery and coaching under Thibodeau’s bench.

The hire doesn’t exactly replace anyone on Thibodeau’s staff, even though Johnnie Bryant has interviewed for the vacant Cleveland Cavaliers position. However, the Knicks are getting one of the most experienced coaches in the NBA with this move, and it should only benefit New York and its growing team moving forward.

Make sure you bookmark All Knicks for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!