Once a Knick, always a Knick. Just ask Donte DiVincenzo.
During a recent appearance on The Ringer NBA Show with Wosny Lambre, The Athletic’s Fred Katz shared a story about DiVincenzo continuing to show his loyalty to the New York Knicks long after getting traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. More specifically, he made it clear that he will forever ride with former head coach Tom Thibodeau.
Below is the anecdote Katz dropped, which began at around the 10:30 mark:
“Every year, The Athletic does an anonymous player poll, “One of the questions is always ‘Which coach would you least like to play for?’ This year, we actually changed the question to ‘Who do you think is the worst coach?’ But when it was ‘Which coach would you least like to play for,’ Thibs would win that poll.
“So apparently this year, when Minnesota players were polled when Donte was already on Minnesota, Donte would follow around the reporters who were taking the answers. When it got to the coach question, Donte would be like, ‘You motherf*cker, you better not say Tom Thibodeau. He’s the f*cking best.”
Regardless of how you feel about Thibs, this story is objectively amazing. It’s proof of how close that team was—and of why DiVincenzo remains a Knicks fan favorite even while donning Timberwolves threads.
Donte DiVincenzo just reminded us of so many things
Nostalgia pangs don’t typically kick in fewer than two years removed from a given situation. The 2023-24 Knicks are the mother of all exceptions.
That team was close. It was gritty. Along with Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Isaiah Hartenstein, Julius Randle, Deuce McBride, and even midseason acquisition OG Anunoby, DiVincenzo embodied the blue-collar, fun-having underdog persona. Sure, the group could sometimes be difficult to watch. But it had a tight-knit, us-against-the-world identity that this past year’s squad lacked for much, if not all, of the season.
This is also a good reminder that, while Thibs isn’t for everyone, he resonates with certain people. We know Brunson would follow him to the seventh circle of hell and back. DiVincenzo is clearly one of those people, too.
Times change, though. More notably, the Knicks’ roster changed when they acquired Mikal Bridges, and then Karl-Anthony Towns. In doing so, they exited the happy-to-be-here phase of their competitive window. Expectations soared last season. With that comes increased pressure. They will face even more of it next year.
Shifting personnel and circumstances ended up being Thibs’ undoing. It has become painfully obvious that he wasn’t the right coach for guys like Bridges, and OG Anunoby. It also seems pretty apparent that he wasn’t the right coach to optimize the Knicks’ offensive process. That is why they landed on Mike Brown. He is considered way more of an offensive tactician, and someone who can unlock more chemistry between Brunson and Towns.
No matter how the Thibs era ended, though, fans will always have a special place for him, for Donte, and for that 2023-24 squad in general. And for DiVincenzo, the feeling is clearly mutual.