David West went to Twitter over the weekend to express his discontent with the news that the New York Knicks were close to hiring Tom Thibodeau as the franchise’s next head coach.
Then the two-time NBA champion exposed his thoughts in a conversation with The Athletic’s Sam Amick on the “Tampering” podcast.
“My thing about renting Knicks is that I saw competing against the [Minnesota Timberwolves] (when Thibodeau was their coach), whoever is honest with you, they saw how that situation deteriorated,” he explained. West. “And the perspective of that situation, in my opinion, was like, ‘Oh yes, it’s over there. Like, they’re done.’ We went to China with that crew (during the 2017 preseason) and played two games against them, and it’s like “Yo.” The guys weren’t responding, and I’m like, “Dude, this is the preseason. We haven’t made it to the league yet, and these guys aren’t responding. “
“So from that point of view, and then looking at what the Knicks are – that is a young team, they have a lot of young (players) that I feel, (they are) young and talented guys there. I wasn’t a fan of bringing that style for them. I thought there are coaches who haven’t had this kind of opportunity.
“And the Knicks job, I think, is a great job, regardless of the state of the franchise. It’s still the Knicks. I just thought they could have gone in a … different direction and brought someone who would probably be better connected to the players. You can ask the guys. Anyone who attended that casino in Minnesota will tell you … it wasn’t about the players. That’s all I’m going to say.