Though he may no longer have any affiliation with the New York Knicks, Tom Thibodeau still has the ability to rile up this fanbase to exponential levels.
During the early hours of Tuesday morning, the former head coach reshared a post on X that denigrated the Knicks' lackluster play on the less glamorous side of the ball this season while pointing out the fact that they're slumping in this area despite rostering elite individual defenders like OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Mitchell Robinson.
Thibs has entered the chat 👀 pic.twitter.com/zXtaCdAHXr
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) January 6, 2026
Though the repost was undone within a few hours, the effects that it had on the franchise's faithful followers certainly were not, with some referring to the act as "spicy" while others labeled Thibs as a troll.
Tom Thibodeau repost on Knicks comes at a rather convenient time
In all likelihood, this repost by Thibodeau was probably nothing more than an accident -- after all, the man is literally 67 years old and is relatively inactive on the social media platform.
However, the timing of this couldn't have been more coincidental, as it comes not only amid a four-game losing skid for the Knicks but also a day after owner James Dolan publicly suggested on WFAN's The Carton Show that the former headman may be incapable of expanding his coaching philosophy.
"We needed to evolve... actually beyond the old traditional coaching formulas," Dolan said. "I won't say you can't win a title with Tom Thibodeau, I don't necessarily know [if] that's true. It's just that if you want to build a long-term [competitor]... you need someone who's much more of a collaborator than Tom was."
Early on in the season, the decision to move on from Thibodeau in favor of Mike Brown seemed to have been a no-brainer.
Through their first 32 games of the year, the Knicks found themselves sporting a stellar 23-9 record, residing in the top-two seeds in the Eastern Conference standings, and became the 2025 NBA Cup Champions along the way.
However, since claiming their in-season tournament title, they've gone just 5-6 and have slipped to the third seed in the standings behind the surging Boston Celtics and top-ranked Detroit Pistons.
Throughout this stretch, their defense has ranked as the fourth-worst in the association while allowing the seventh-most points per game to opposing teams (121.7).
Regardless of whether Thibodeau actually intended to share the post or not, with these aforementioned statistics in mind, the facts only strengthen the sentiment behind the original message lambasting New York's defensive efforts.
Considering he's universally known as a defense-first basketball mind, it's fair to assume that Thibs, like the majority of Knicks fans, has been utterly repulsed by this team's play as of late.