The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Source: Knicks intend to reach out to Villanova’s Wright
NEW YORK - The Knicks intend to contact Villanova’s Jay Wright about their head coaching vacancy, the Daily News has learned.
According to a source close to the club, Knicks management believes Wright would be a perfect candidate for a rebuilding club.
Wright, who has won two national championships over the last three years, has been linked to NBA jobs in the past but has never given any indication he wants to leave Villanova.
“He told me years ago that he wanted to make Villanova into the Duke of the Northeast,” says a person close to Wright. “It would take a lot for him to leave.”
Wright is 420-165 as a head coach at both Hofstra and Villanova.
“The NBA does intrigue me,” Wright told The Athletic. “That challenge is appealing, but it’s not worth giving up working with these guys. The whole thing is, to take a new challenge you have to give up what you have. I don’t want to give up what I have. Would I like to coach in the NBA? Yes. But I have to give this up in order to do that, and I don’t see that happening.”
Wright, Mark Jackson, Doc Rivers, Jerry Stackhouse, Craig Robinson, Jeff Van Gundy, David Blatt and David Fizdale are all considered candidates to replace Jeff Hornacek, who was fired early Thursday morning after two years on the bench.
The Knicks also fired associate head coach Kurt Rambis.
Stackhouse, who currently coaches in the GLeague for Toronto’s minor-league team, is regarded as a strong candidate for the Orlando Magic head coaching job.