Knicks and Tom Thibodeau has agreed on a three-year contract extension

[SelbyCobra]

Not the guy I want at the helm as the stakes increase for a contender, but he's earned it by the results and the trust he has with the players. Nothing left to do but root like hell for it to work.

[matchman]

Everyone getting the extension, expectation will become high this upcoming season.

[NYKinMIA]

Everyone getting the extension, expectation will become high this upcoming season.

as of right now we have the 5th shortest odds to win a chip.

expectations done been high already.

[3toheadmelo]

[Zenzibar]

Wait is this the Mark Bryant the former Rocket and Blazer?

That dude was a unit of a human being. Not someone I'd throw hands with

Watch on YouTube

Collected Wisdom of Thunder assistant coach Mark Bryant
Darnell Mayberry


Thunder assistant coach Mark Bryant watches the team's New Year's Eve game against Atlanta. PHOTO BY JOHN CLANTON, THE OKLAHOMAN
Thunder assistant coach

Age: 45

Hometown: South Orange, N.J.

Thunder assistant coach Mark Bryant enjoyed a 15-year NBA career. And he remembers the day a chance meeting with an unsuspecting crosstown kid changed his life. Since then, Bryant has seen his share of highs and hardships. But he can say today that he's better for having experienced it all.

I loved the journey. And I'm always going to feel like I got another destination.

The beginning of my senior year in high school, there was no way in the world I was going to Seton Hall. But I knew P.J Carlesimo.


P.J. probably knew me since my sophomore year in high school. He's just always been there. He was at my wedding. He probably knows more of my aunts and uncles and cousins than I do because I'm terrible with names.

He rode me. I thought my name was ‘What the (expletive), Double-O.' That's all I heard.


I used to live in Montclair, (N.J.). And in Montclair, it was football. We played tackle outside on the street.

Going into the seventh grade, we moved to South Orange. We had a park down the street. And I went down there just shooting around one day and this white kid came up to me and asked me to join their team. That's when I started playing.

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I loved my years as a player. But now I'm coaching, and I would not want to play again.

Playing is a grind on your body. My knees are messed up. My back hurts. My fingers are all messed up. But other than that, I'm all right.

My first coaching experience was in a meeting in Orlando. I remember listening to the way they were killing players. I thought to myself, ‘Man, they must have been killing me when I was a player.'

If players did as much as we do as coaches with watching film, it'd be an easier game for them. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have been a totally different player.

My favorite teammate was probably Cliff Robinson. Once we got on the court, it was all out. We might even go to blows. But I knew right afterward it was, ‘Let's go get something to eat.'

Buck Williams. Charles Oakley and Charles Barkley. Those three gave me the hardest time.Oakley and Barkley because you didn't know when they were going to try to do something dirty. And they were tough. And Buck was just so doggone strong. It was like you were pushing against a brick wall.

My father had to work so much to provide for the family and was never around. That was probably the roughest thing for me (as a child). So I never really got a chance to bond with him like I really wanted to.

My mother passed my second year in the league. That was a rough couple of years in my life.

She was taking my brother to go check out Penn State. They were going at night. It was her, my Godmother and my brother. And my Godmother fell asleep behind the wheel and they ran into a tree.

The only reason my brother made it through is because he was sleeping in the back.

After that happened, Ramon Ramos got into that big car accident. He was with me in Portland and we played together at Seton Hall for like three years. He almost passed.

Then after that, my cousin, her boyfriend went crazy and shot her in the head and she died. That was probably the roughest two years that I ever went through.

My mother was a beautiful, beautiful woman. She was about doing things the right way and being honest. Church every Sunday. My father was a deacon for the church. My uncle was the pastor. So I had to be in church. Got a haircut every Saturday.

I remember helping people. We would go to South Carolina, where my father lives now and we would walk from house to house to see how people were. It'd be 100 degrees and we'd be walking.

Being in a supportive role, you got to learn where you fit in and be great at that. I think being in a supportive role is one of the most important things there is. Without a supporting cast you have nothing. So I take pride in being a supportive guy.

Yeah that's him.

Decent role player back in the day.

I didn't know he was from Jersey!!!

I support this hire

Yeah, I remember him as a rookie from Seton Hall. Rugged battler down low, would snatch rebounds ala Zack Randolph regularly, making his living in the trenches.
Personal tragedies impacted his life big time but never folded. Excellent role model of preserverence for this relatively young team. Great behind the scenes presence.

Approval concurred.

[Zenzibar]

Watch on YouTube

[nedleeds]

Now he can murder our players and flame out in the second round without fear of firing. Great.

THE AGE OF THE ORC IS HERE!