David Fizdale: The Right Man for the job.
So many things have been wrong with the Knicks over the years, one doesn’t know where to start, so we wont. Now my fellow New Yorkers and Knicks fans, today I join in with you drinking the preverbal kool-aid otherwise known as hope or delusion to the cynics, which I once was. For today we celebrate the arrival of Coach Fizdale, David Fizdale. He arrives to us with 13 years experience as a assistant coach, 1 with the Warriors, 4 with the Hawks, and 8 with the Heat, and 1 year as head coach of the Grizzlies. During his tenure with the heat, the team went to four straight finals series and won 2 in a row.
The Knicks are hoping Fizdale can bring some much needed change to the organization and lead them to the Playoffs. Somewhere Fizdale is feels confident about. Photo nba.com
During that time he developed the reputation as “the Bigs whisper”. See as the story goes he plays a great role in Chris Bosh’s transition from a lanky 20-10 guy who played in the paint into a 6’11 3 point specialist and a much improved perimeter defender. These things combined with other variables led to him being hired in Memphis as the new head coach of the Grizzlies (a first as a head coach for fizdale).
David Fizdale has Championship experience having been on the staff of the Championship Miami Heat teams. . (Bill Ingram/Palm Beach Post/MCT)
Things didn’t go as planned in Memphis. He made the playoffs in his 1st year as head coach, getting beat by the spurs 4-2 in a first round series, which is better know for this infamous rant. He was fired 19 games into the next season, after a 8 games losing streak and a 4th quarter benching of Marc Gasol. And it was over! Sources say he and Gasol never got along. Coach Fizdale did exactly what he was hired to do. He was hired to switch Memphis from their “grit n grind” style of basketball where 2 traditional big men patrolled the paint, into some uptempo, more effective, more like the Miami heat offense which he helped implement. The style of basketball (one could argue) that most of the league now uses, where shooting and spacing are the David (no pun intended) to height and size which are basketballs conventional Goliath (again no pun intended). Oddly enough Gasol shot 66 3pointers his first 8 season. With Fizdale he shot 268 3pointers at 39%. Despite the success the bad start to the next season, which was made worse by Michael Conley’s season long injury, coupled with the fact that Gasol didn’t want to play that way lead to his firing the day after benching Gasol in the 4th quarter of a 98-88 loss to Brooklyn. And that was that.
Fizdale has been contributing his basketball expertise to the ESPN produced show The Jump.
For the next 6 months you could catch him on Espn’s various shows where he was a basketball analyst and a sports media personality.
WARNING RECKLESS SPECULATION AHEAD!
Here’s my personal thoughts on the matter, Coach Fizdale worked for Pat Riley for 8 years. As a lifelong Heat fan with as much knowledge of the organization one can have from twitter, the internet, and reason (Lol). I believe he had to have a conversation with Riley about the Knicks organization. Although Riley hasn’t worked there in over 20 years, and the Dolan that is in charge now is James the son, not Charles, the Dolan that was boss during Riley’s tenure. I, without any evidence believe Riley gave him the go ahead with the thinking that the Knicks have seen so few
sunny days this millennium that they will let Coach Fizdale have the control to do things his way, the Riley way. And why not? Its proven to work! The heat have won 3 championships in the time since Riley’s departure… and the Knicks, well not much. So, as I sit here and drink my kool-aid, all I can see is the positive. Coach Fizdale turning Porzingis into a Death Metal Unicorn at the 5, or unleashing Tre Burke on a league that almost forgot him. I’m even interested in the Knicks resigning Michael Beasley and seeing what Coach Fizdale can get out of him. Whew!!! Let me put this kool-aid down, its too strong, Lol.
Cover artwork Photo: wfan.radio.com