TO FIZ-NESS!
Grizzlies. Yet, here he is rebuilding in New York or “the Mecca,” of course. (Every new Knicks employee is contractually obligated to use that term in his introductory press conference and Fizdale didn’t disappoint.) But Fizdale genuinely seemed excited about being here and he got emotional when he addressed his mother and wife in the front row. He gets points for that. He also gets points for being a Pat Riley disciple. It worked out for Jeff Van Gundy in New York and maybe, just maybe, it works out for Fizdale.
Howard Simmons/New York Daily News
But there’s a lot of work ahead. Kristaps Porzingis may not play next season and free agents aren’t flocking to New York to play for a loser. Fizdale has to change that. He has to get the Knicks to defending and sharing the ball. nd the Knicks front office and the owner need to give him space and a chance to do that.
If not, history will repeat itself. And we’re not talking about Willis Reed limping out of the tunnel and Walt Frazier leading the Knicks to a title.
AWHILE PUSHING his plan to bring the Knicks back to prominence, David Fizdale said he won’t repeat the mistakes he made with Marc Gasol.
The new coach was contrite in his introductory press conference regarding the fallout in Memphis with Gasol, calling the circumstances “my responsibity” as he starts to navigate a relationship with a different European big man — Kristaps Porzingis.
“I really take ownership of that, where we didn’t necessarily click on things. It’s my responsibility as a coach to get players to buy in, to get them to collaborate and come together. It’s just, for whatever reason, we bumped heads,” Fizdale said. “I took that to heart. My wife will tell you better than anyone I’ve been meeting with super leaders from all industries, from all walks of life, and getting their feedback on how to manage and deal with different situations and really just try to guide them to getting better. I’m really tough on myself. I self-reflect. Which is not always easy to look in the mirror and say you were part of the problem and hopefully I really grew from that.”
Fizdale was fired by the Grizzlies just 19 games into last season largely due to a beef with Gasol. Knicks president Steve Mills said it was “an important part of the discussion” during the interview process, and Fizdale “owned that issue and could walk us through what he did as a person, as a leader, as a man, to try to rectify what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Fizdale has been accused of dismissing Gasol’s achievements in Europe, among other things. He denied that Tuesday. Regarding Porzingis, Fizdale started by setting the bar at transcendent superstardom.
“The best way to describe him is he’s the future of the NBA. You look around and see the way people are playing right now. They all got guys who are super long, super athletic, super tough-minded, incredible work ethic. And that is what he embodies,” said Fizdale, who also confirmed he plans to visit Porzingis in Latvia this offseason. “Obviously I don’t know him personally yet, but I did my background too, and he fits all of the qualities of a megastar, a guy who could really propel the franchise forward to high places.” As the Daily News reported last week, Fizdale arrived in Memphis in 2016 pushing the “Miami Heat way,” alienating the Grizzlies who’d established their own style and identity like Gasol, Zach Randolph and Tony Allen. Fizdale, an assistant in Miami for 8 years before taking the lead role in Memphis, acknowledged those mistakes while stating the obvious: the Knicks are a better fit because there’s very little in place to deconstruct.
As Fizdale described, the Knicks are “a blank slate.”
“I just felt like when I went in there I saw a team (in Memphis) that was getting to that point of age where their window was shrinking, and I probably went in there a little too much guns blazing,” Fizdale said. “And just trying to push and push and push and push, I didn’t let certain things happen organically.
“Coming into this and seeing the lay of the land and how (Mills and GM Scott Perry) have already laid down some bricks I feel like it’ll be a lot more smoother process from that standpoint and I’ll be able to collaborate with those guys, lay down the culture, rebuild. Because they already had something in Memphis and that’s a tough thing to navigate.”
Fizdale also has something else different in New York, at least theoretically: Time. Much of the emphasis at Tuesday’s press conference was about “doing things the right way,” and “not cutting corners.”
Mills, whose stint at the Garden predates Isiah Thomas, led that mission statement while adding that James Dolan has signed off on a long rebuild. The inference was that the Knicks weren’t going to chase the quick fixes (like the pipe dream of LeBron James in free agency), and were ready to take more lumps in the coming years.
With Porzingis possibly sitting out all of next season while recovering from ACL surgery, the Knicks are expected to again fall into the lottery.
“I think we’ve seen how things can go wrong. I’ve seen a lot of mistakes and maybe not the right patience in terms of trying to build the right way,” Mills said. “There’s this notion that in New York you have to win yesterday. And we’re about winning, but we’re about creating something where we can win for a sustained period of time. And I think we’ve seen a lot of short cuts and swinging for the fences and trying to hit a home run every time. And (Dolan) has given us the freedom to do it differently.”
What does “differently” mean for Fizdale? It means learning from his mistakes in Memphis, but also applying what didn’t work there to an environment he envisions as corresponding toward the same goals.
“I will roll up my sleeves and work really hard — tirelessly — to build this culture, to rebuild this culture back, to give these guys a great opportunity to build basketball success and eventually where we can all hold the trophy together,” the coach said. “Culture and accountability. I’ll be putting those words on walls in a lot of places. They’re very cliché in a lot of ways. But I’ve really learned through my experience that I’ve gotten to live a lot of these words and fail through these words and achieve great things with these words and I hope I’d be able to communicate that and share that with these group of men. It takes so much to win in this league and if one person is off in one way it crumbles. And for us to be here and all on the same page, it’s awesome.”