Opening Night Game Thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: New York Knicks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers 10/22/25 7:00pm

[TheGreenArrow]

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Wowwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Kat folkksssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What happened to him?

I think it’s his quad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JayTWill]

Between this and the KAT quote about not knowing the offense, I think we’re already in red flag territory with coach Brown.

I’ve been a Knick fan long enough to spot a catastrophic coaching season looming in the preseason (Larry Brown, Isaiah Thomas, David Fizdale etc.)

the quote was completely out of context...the reporter replied that mikal was being very complimentary saying its tough for someone to connect to players but Brown does it.

Full Bridges quote:

ALL-IN, BOUGHT-IN
Mikal Bridges’ first impressions of his new head coach? Genuine admiration — and respect for how quickly Brown has earned the room.

“I think it’s tough to get 15 to 17 guys to all follow one voice, and especially nowadays where a lot of guys are getting paid a lot of money and they can tend to act like they don’t need a coach or anything like that,” Bridges said after practice in Tarrytown on Tuesday. “We can be prima donnas and divas a little bit, but for him to be able to get a whole group to follow him. He’s done a great job.”

Bridges knows what strong leadership looks like. He played under Hall of Famer Jay Wright at Villanova and later under Monty Williams in Phoenix — both coaches known for demanding structure and accountability.

He sees those same qualities in Brown.

“He has that voice and it makes you not wanna mess up. It makes you wanna play as hard as you can, and he gets on you, but in a respectful way,” Bridges continued. “He’s gonna get on you as he should, that’s how I look at it. I had some tough coaches growing up… some guys that’ll let you know what you’re doing where you fear of not doing the right thing. So I think he’s doing a great job and every time he talks and every time he’s explaining something, he does it to the highest level and for our understanding and making sure we know what we’re doing.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/10/21/knicks-enter-season-banged-up-but-bought-in-under-mike-brown/

Thank you

[3toheadmelo]

Read on Twitter

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Wooowww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol so we have more confirmation that Dolan ran Thibs out. Yikes.

Was there any doubt? I thought it was pretty obvious from the beginning and then the way the whole coaching search circus played out just confirmed they had no idea what they were doing at that point

Yeah it was super obvious that this was all of Dolan.

[Gravy]

Dolan and Thibs didn't really get along well before this year (because Thibs runs his own ship and doesn't like to be bothered) just old school coaching. But the article clearly states that it was the FO growing apart and a clear Rose decision supported by Dolan. Dolan did not run Thibs out and the article doesn't stat that.

Thibs did believe he wouldn't have been fired if certain close members of the FO, coaching staff, and players fought for him to stay...which didn't happen. That is where he thought he was betrayed.

"And yet the owner did a deep dive on the coach's imperfections, invited himself to player and staff exit interviews, and decided the Knicks had crashed into their ceiling."
"What some of those people said in some of those meetings was likely influenced by Dolan's presence. When you walk into a room to find your employer asking pointed questions about your manager, well, self-preservation"

These quotes sounds like Thibs would still be here if it wasnt for Dolan leading the charge. Rose and some other Thibs supporters then decided it wasnt worth it to save Thibs anymore because of all the pressure.

[mpharris36]

the quote was completely out of context...the reporter replied that mikal was being very complimentary saying its tough for someone to connect to players but Brown does it.

Full Bridges quote:

ALL-IN, BOUGHT-IN
Mikal Bridges’ first impressions of his new head coach? Genuine admiration — and respect for how quickly Brown has earned the room.

“I think it’s tough to get 15 to 17 guys to all follow one voice, and especially nowadays where a lot of guys are getting paid a lot of money and they can tend to act like they don’t need a coach or anything like that,” Bridges said after practice in Tarrytown on Tuesday. “We can be prima donnas and divas a little bit, but for him to be able to get a whole group to follow him. He’s done a great job.”

Bridges knows what strong leadership looks like. He played under Hall of Famer Jay Wright at Villanova and later under Monty Williams in Phoenix — both coaches known for demanding structure and accountability.

He sees those same qualities in Brown.

“He has that voice and it makes you not wanna mess up. It makes you wanna play as hard as you can, and he gets on you, but in a respectful way,” Bridges continued. “He’s gonna get on you as he should, that’s how I look at it. I had some tough coaches growing up… some guys that’ll let you know what you’re doing where you fear of not doing the right thing. So I think he’s doing a great job and every time he talks and every time he’s explaining something, he does it to the highest level and for our understanding and making sure we know what we’re doing.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/10/21/knicks-enter-season-banged-up-but-bought-in-under-mike-brown/

Thank you

The fact the original quote didn't have the last 5 words is wildly bad reporting in my eyes. He's done a great job should have been included...

[Iron Mantis]

Let's get this W.

Big game from Mikal tonight.

[NiceLikeChrist]

This is crazy, Mike Brown has three starters from last season injured on opening night?

This is like when one president been slowly ruining the economy for four years then it fully collapses once the new president is elected

Brown was set up! We gotta undo years and years of suffering built up by thibs

[3toheadmelo]

Dolan and Thibs didn't really get along well before this year (because Thibs runs his own ship and doesn't like to be bothered) just old school coaching. But the article clearly states that it was the FO growing apart and a clear Rose decision supported by Dolan. Dolan did not run Thibs out and the article doesn't stat that.

Thibs did believe he wouldn't have been fired if certain close members of the FO, coaching staff, and players fought for him to stay...which didn't happen. That is where he thought he was betrayed.

"And yet the owner did a deep dive on the coach's imperfections, invited himself to player and staff exit interviews, and decided the Knicks had crashed into their ceiling."
"What some of those people said in some of those meetings was likely influenced by Dolan's presence. When you walk into a room to find your employer asking pointed questions about your manager, well, self-preservation"

These quotes sounds like Thibs would still be here if it wasnt for Dolan leading the charge. Rose and some other Thibs supporters then decided it wasnt worth it to save Thibs anymore because of all the pressure.

3 other credible reporters said the same thing as well.

It was owner James Dolan who made the final call to move on from a coach who led the team to the conference finals for the first time in 25 years. According to The Athletic's Fred Katz, Dolan played a larger role than most owners with an abrupt coaching decision.

"The day that the Knicks got eliminated, James Edwards and I came out with that story that we had alignment that (Thibodeau) has support from Jalen Brunson and has the backing of Leon Rose, however, James Dolan is the final decision maker on these sorts of decisions," Katz said on Friday's episode of the Katz and Shoot podcast. "And there were some people who aggregated that and said we were reporting that Thibs was safe. No, we weren't. We were reporting if it were up to Rose and Brunson, Thibs was safe, but it's not up to Rose and Brunson. There was a final decision-maker, who was leaving it linger. We had an inkling that James Dolan would want (Thibodeau) out. We didn't know for sure, so we couldn't report that James Dolan wants to fire Thibs, but we had an inkling.

"Then, Vinnie Goodwill (Yahoo Sports) comes out with an accurate report about what happens during end-of-season meetings. James Dolan sat in on exit interviews, I can tell you, I have spoken to a number of people from a number of different organizations around the league — an owner sitting in on exit interviews is ... it raised eyebrows. It's not a normal, regular thing. That's not a routine thing. It wasn't something that happened with the Knicks until this time around."

So I’m not sure how anyone can say this wasn’t forced by Dolan. Someone is feeding mpharris bad info lol.

[HEZI]

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=W09F6FrMDfp5_y1gKYgF1g

Wowwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Kat folkksssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What happened to him?

I think it’s his quad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probably good idea to keep resting then. Did he get kneed there or what even happened? Strain?

[mpharris36]

Dolan and Thibs didn't really get along well before this year (because Thibs runs his own ship and doesn't like to be bothered) just old school coaching. But the article clearly states that it was the FO growing apart and a clear Rose decision supported by Dolan. Dolan did not run Thibs out and the article doesn't stat that.

Thibs did believe he wouldn't have been fired if certain close members of the FO, coaching staff, and players fought for him to stay...which didn't happen. That is where he thought he was betrayed.

"And yet the owner did a deep dive on the coach's imperfections, invited himself to player and staff exit interviews, and decided the Knicks had crashed into their ceiling."
"What some of those people said in some of those meetings was likely influenced by Dolan's presence. When you walk into a room to find your employer asking pointed questions about your manager, well, self-preservation"

These quotes sounds like Thibs would still be here if it wasnt for Dolan leading the charge. Rose and some other Thibs supporters then decided it wasnt worth it to save Thibs anymore because of all the pressure.

The owner did a deep dive and wanted to be in exit interviews because apparently the decision was already made basically prior to the playoffs and only a magical run winning it all would have saved him.

Its a lot of money since he just signed an extension so he just wanted to hear the players out but its incorrectly being characterized as a Dolan lead decision. Dolan leaves Leon Rose to make his own decisions that was told to me.

The FO growing apart and being disconnected...and the article does clearly state that if certain players went to bat for him things may have been different and I know that as well. But it incorrectly inferred (because no where in the article says Dolan pushed for it) just he he wanted to know why the relationship deteriated between Leon/Thibs and get a sense of what the players were feeling. It was Leon/WWW led decision

[Iron Mantis]

Read on Twitter

[3toheadmelo]

What happened to him?

I think it’s his quad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probably good idea to keep resting then. Did he get kneed there or what even happened? Strain?

Mike brown ran him to the ground in practice

[mpharris36]

Dolan and Thibs didn't really get along well before this year (because Thibs runs his own ship and doesn't like to be bothered) just old school coaching. But the article clearly states that it was the FO growing apart and a clear Rose decision supported by Dolan. Dolan did not run Thibs out and the article doesn't stat that.

Thibs did believe he wouldn't have been fired if certain close members of the FO, coaching staff, and players fought for him to stay...which didn't happen. That is where he thought he was betrayed.

"And yet the owner did a deep dive on the coach's imperfections, invited himself to player and staff exit interviews, and decided the Knicks had crashed into their ceiling."
"What some of those people said in some of those meetings was likely influenced by Dolan's presence. When you walk into a room to find your employer asking pointed questions about your manager, well, self-preservation"

These quotes sounds like Thibs would still be here if it wasnt for Dolan leading the charge. Rose and some other Thibs supporters then decided it wasnt worth it to save Thibs anymore because of all the pressure.

3 other credible reporters said the same thing as well.

It was owner James Dolan who made the final call to move on from a coach who led the team to the conference finals for the first time in 25 years. According to The Athletic's Fred Katz, Dolan played a larger role than most owners with an abrupt coaching decision.

"The day that the Knicks got eliminated, James Edwards and I came out with that story that we had alignment that (Thibodeau) has support from Jalen Brunson and has the backing of Leon Rose, however, James Dolan is the final decision maker on these sorts of decisions," Katz said on Friday's episode of the Katz and Shoot podcast. "And there were some people who aggregated that and said we were reporting that Thibs was safe. No, we weren't. We were reporting if it were up to Rose and Brunson, Thibs was safe, but it's not up to Rose and Brunson. There was a final decision-maker, who was leaving it linger. We had an inkling that James Dolan would want (Thibodeau) out. We didn't know for sure, so we couldn't report that James Dolan wants to fire Thibs, but we had an inkling.

"Then, Vinnie Goodwill (Yahoo Sports) comes out with an accurate report about what happens during end-of-season meetings. James Dolan sat in on exit interviews, I can tell you, I have spoken to a number of people from a number of different organizations around the league — an owner sitting in on exit interviews is ... it raised eyebrows. It's not a normal, regular thing. That's not a routine thing. It wasn't something that happened with the Knicks until this time around."

So I’m not sure how anyone can say this wasn’t forced by Dolan. Someone is feeding mpharris bad info lol.

your going to believe what you want to believe regardless of what facts are provided to you.

The article you quoted from Katz directly contradicts the current reporting.

Leon Rose and the FO was growing apart but Katz said they had complete alignment. The current report is that the players especially Brunson did not step in and fight for Thibs to stay and have his back...but Katz said Brunson had thibs back.

Why would Thibs feel betrayed if he had the backing of his closest friends in the organization? He wasn't friends with Dolan

[Gravy]

This is crazy, Mike Brown has three starters from last season injured on opening night?

This is like when one president been slowly ruining the economy for four years then it fully collapses once the new president is elected

Brown was set up! We gotta undo years and years of suffering built up by thibs

You mean like how everyone was healthy going into training camp and then 3 starters are injured in game1. Thibs aint here to blame anymore. get a new escape goat!

[Enzo954]

I think it’s his quad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probably good idea to keep resting then. Did he get kneed there or what even happened? Strain?

Mike brown ran him to the ground in practice

Source? Or is this just your regular every day "I don't like a player or coach nonsense so I'm going to keep pushing my negative narrative crap"?

[Gravy]

Dolan and Thibs didn't really get along well before this year (because Thibs runs his own ship and doesn't like to be bothered) just old school coaching. But the article clearly states that it was the FO growing apart and a clear Rose decision supported by Dolan. Dolan did not run Thibs out and the article doesn't stat that.

Thibs did believe he wouldn't have been fired if certain close members of the FO, coaching staff, and players fought for him to stay...which didn't happen. That is where he thought he was betrayed.

"And yet the owner did a deep dive on the coach's imperfections, invited himself to player and staff exit interviews, and decided the Knicks had crashed into their ceiling."
"What some of those people said in some of those meetings was likely influenced by Dolan's presence. When you walk into a room to find your employer asking pointed questions about your manager, well, self-preservation"

These quotes sounds like Thibs would still be here if it wasnt for Dolan leading the charge. Rose and some other Thibs supporters then decided it wasnt worth it to save Thibs anymore because of all the pressure.

The owner did a deep dive and wanted to be in exit interviews because apparently the decision was already made basically prior to the playoffs and only a magical run winning it all would have saved him.

Its a lot of money since he just signed an extension so he just wanted to hear the players out but its incorrectly being characterized as a Dolan lead decision. Dolan leaves Leon Rose to make his own decisions that was told to me.

The FO growing apart and being disconnected...and the article does clearly state that if certain players went to bat for him things may have been different and I know that as well. But it incorrectly inferred (because no where in the article says Dolan pushed for it) just he he wanted to know why the relationship deteriated between Leon/Thibs and get a sense of what the players were feeling. It was Leon/WWW led decision

The decision was already made before the playoffs to fire Thibs, by who?

[HEZI]

I think it’s his quad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probably good idea to keep resting then. Did he get kneed there or what even happened? Strain?

Mike brown ran him to the ground in practice

Maniac

[3toheadmelo]

"And yet the owner did a deep dive on the coach's imperfections, invited himself to player and staff exit interviews, and decided the Knicks had crashed into their ceiling."
"What some of those people said in some of those meetings was likely influenced by Dolan's presence. When you walk into a room to find your employer asking pointed questions about your manager, well, self-preservation"

These quotes sounds like Thibs would still be here if it wasnt for Dolan leading the charge. Rose and some other Thibs supporters then decided it wasnt worth it to save Thibs anymore because of all the pressure.

3 other credible reporters said the same thing as well.

It was owner James Dolan who made the final call to move on from a coach who led the team to the conference finals for the first time in 25 years. According to The Athletic's Fred Katz, Dolan played a larger role than most owners with an abrupt coaching decision.

"The day that the Knicks got eliminated, James Edwards and I came out with that story that we had alignment that (Thibodeau) has support from Jalen Brunson and has the backing of Leon Rose, however, James Dolan is the final decision maker on these sorts of decisions," Katz said on Friday's episode of the Katz and Shoot podcast. "And there were some people who aggregated that and said we were reporting that Thibs was safe. No, we weren't. We were reporting if it were up to Rose and Brunson, Thibs was safe, but it's not up to Rose and Brunson. There was a final decision-maker, who was leaving it linger. We had an inkling that James Dolan would want (Thibodeau) out. We didn't know for sure, so we couldn't report that James Dolan wants to fire Thibs, but we had an inkling.

"Then, Vinnie Goodwill (Yahoo Sports) comes out with an accurate report about what happens during end-of-season meetings. James Dolan sat in on exit interviews, I can tell you, I have spoken to a number of people from a number of different organizations around the league — an owner sitting in on exit interviews is ... it raised eyebrows. It's not a normal, regular thing. That's not a routine thing. It wasn't something that happened with the Knicks until this time around."

So I’m not sure how anyone can say this wasn’t forced by Dolan. Someone is feeding mpharris bad info lol.

your going to believe what you want to believe regardless of what facts are provided to you.

The article you quoted from Katz directly contradicts the current reporting.

Leon Rose and the FO was growing apart but Katz said they had complete alignment. The current report is that the players especially Brunson did not step in and fight for Thibs to stay and have his back...but Katz said Brunson had thibs back.

Why would Thibs feel betrayed if he had the backing of his closest friends in the organization? He wasn't friends with Dolan

Did you even read the article the quote that Gravy provided to you clearly says that they gave up on defending Thibs because Dolan was going to get rid of him regardless.

In terms of betrayal, it’s pretty obvious that it’s about the players talking bad about Thibs to Dolan, because once again they were pressured and influenced by Dolan.

So there’s really no contraindications at all. In fact, it was just more confirmation that this was all Dolan’s doing. The title of the article is literally “ Is James Dolan having fun yet? The Knicks owner had better be after latest coaching change”

You can choose to believe what you want. We have at least 4 credible reporters saying this was Dolan. The facts are there.

[mpharris36]

"And yet the owner did a deep dive on the coach's imperfections, invited himself to player and staff exit interviews, and decided the Knicks had crashed into their ceiling."
"What some of those people said in some of those meetings was likely influenced by Dolan's presence. When you walk into a room to find your employer asking pointed questions about your manager, well, self-preservation"

These quotes sounds like Thibs would still be here if it wasnt for Dolan leading the charge. Rose and some other Thibs supporters then decided it wasnt worth it to save Thibs anymore because of all the pressure.

The owner did a deep dive and wanted to be in exit interviews because apparently the decision was already made basically prior to the playoffs and only a magical run winning it all would have saved him.

Its a lot of money since he just signed an extension so he just wanted to hear the players out but its incorrectly being characterized as a Dolan lead decision. Dolan leaves Leon Rose to make his own decisions that was told to me.

The FO growing apart and being disconnected...and the article does clearly state that if certain players went to bat for him things may have been different and I know that as well. But it incorrectly inferred (because no where in the article says Dolan pushed for it) just he he wanted to know why the relationship deteriated between Leon/Thibs and get a sense of what the players were feeling. It was Leon/WWW led decision

The decision was already made before the playoffs to fire Thibs, by who?

I think you can infer. The FO and Thibs relationship was strained beyond repair, outside a magical run to the point they couldn't justify it to the fan base the ground was being layed.

The FO saw what many also saw. Throughout the entire 2nd half out offense went from a top 5 unit to a bottom half unit in the NBA with the way teams were defending us and no thought or adjustments were made. Thibs is thibs he has his strengths as a coach but he is also of the belief that he is the coach and he makes the decisions. There isn't collaborative effort with him regarding coaching his team. They suggested lineup changes or different ways to change but Thibs refused to change. It basically took Hart (with a **** up hand) and other members of the FO and down 0-2 in the pacers series to make a change which was obviously too late.

[G_K_F]

KAT already hurt, huh?

Not like he also isn’t Mr. Glass himself in a way. More healthy than Mitch but still injury prone.