April 12, 2018
"You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. - Wayne Gretzky" - Michael Scott.
The New York Knicks fired head coach Jeff Hornacek at the conclusion of the NBA regular season Wednesday. The team has missed the postseason for a fifth straight season and will be without star Kristaps Porzingis, who suffered an ACL tear in February, until likely halfway through next season.
So, they're looking for a new coach and a fresh start. The list of potential candidates is long, and while it's unlikely to happen, the Knicks will at least reach out to Villanova's Jay Wright, according to the New York Daily News:
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.
As noted above, Wright is coming off his second national championship in three years with the Wildcats. He has stated — pretty recently and pretty explicitly — that while the NBA does interest him to a degree, he's in all likelihood staying in Radnor:
As for Jay Wright, here's what he told @DanaONeilWriter this week about jumping to the NBA https://t.co/4vtlu3EGPK pic.twitter.com/JX1xDX5AlU
— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) April 12, 2018
A source close to Wright backed up that sentiment to the Daily News:
"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."
So, yes, the Knicks will reportedly try and lure Wright away. And yes, Wright said on the Pardon My Take podcast in February that in a very hypothetical scenario, if he was to coach an NBA team, it would be the Knicks.
The Knicks are rumored to be after Head Coach Jay Wright, wonder where James Dolan got that idea?🤔🤔🤔 (Plz credit) pic.twitter.com/fQwbprJtcd
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) April 12, 2018
But by Wright's own words, he's probably not going anywhere. Rest easy, Nova Nation, and look elsewhere, Knicks fans.
