Knicks coach David Fizdale got emotional after revenge win over Grizzlies
Even though he said just one day earlier that he wouldn’t get emotional during his first game back in Tennessee since the Memphis Grizzlies fired him, New York Knicks coach David Fizdale was in tears after the Knicks nailed down a win on Sunday night.
The Knicks beat the Grizzlies 103-98, and even though he said he didn’t want it, Fizdale had his revenge on the team that fired him a year ago.
The Knicks got revenge for Fizdale
According to the New York Daily News, Fizdale didn’t want the game against his former employers to be any different than normal. He told his Knicks players not to worry about any past situation between him and the Grizzlies. But Knicks players like Emmanuel Mudiay wouldn’t hear of it. As Mudiay told the Daily News, his coach’s problems were his problems.
“I know I took it personal,” Emmanuel Mudiay said. “Actually all of us took it personal. We wanted to come out here and get a win for him.”
And they did, even though it looked like the Grizzlies might stage a late-game comeback. The Knicks had a nine-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter, which had turned into a 91-89 Grizzlies lead with 3:30 left to play. But with less than two minutes left, Mudiay slammed a one-handed dunk that came off of a turnover. It gave the Knicks a 97-93 advantage and they never looked back.
Fizdale’s past became the concern of the entire Knicks team on Sunday night. And after time ran out and the game was over, they showed their coach how much he meant to them.
“Emmanuel came up to me, him and Tim (Hardaway Jr.) both, were just hugging me and telling me it was for me. And then they all came in and I lost it (crying).”
They drenched Fizdale in an ice bath, ruining his suit, but he didn’t seem to care. Via the Daily News:
“You’re getting me emotional. I can’t put it into words,” he said. “I really didn’t want this game to be about me at all because they just started playing some good basketball and I didn’t want to take the focus off that with us chopping our tree. The effort that they put for me and what they said to me after the game was – I love these kids.”
The win comes a year after the Grizzlies fired him
Fizdale was fired as Grizzlies head coach on Nov. 27, 2017, after just over one season in the job. In the 2016-17 season, he led the Grizzlies to a 43-39 record and a playoff appearance, but things turned bad quickly. He and the Grizzlies started the 2017-18 season with a 7-12 record (which included eight consecutive losses), and he was fired amid rumors that he and Marc Gasol didn’t get along.
Fizdale was hired by the Knicks in May 2018, having sat out the rest of the 2017-18 NBA season. Judging by this game against the Grizzlies, things could not be going more differently for him than they were a year ago. Here’s what Tim Hardaway Jr. told the Daily News about his coach:
“Fiz has a father-figure-type of presence,” Hardaway said. “And he’s someone you can always talk to, and that makes it easier to go out there and play for him.”
Sunday’s win may not turn the Knicks season around, but it was a victory that that the whole team wanted — and needed.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter at @lizroscher.
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