Dwyane Wade knows David Fizdale from their time together in Miami and he believes the coach is changing the perception of the Knicks‘ organization.
“I think he’s already changed that perception. Players around the league want to play for Fiz,” Wade tells Stefan Bondy of the Daily News. “Now that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen right away because things happen – guys stay in certain places or they go team up with someone else. But if you ask every player around the league who is the coach they want to play for, Fiz’s name would come up.”
Wade added that a team’s coach isn’t the only factor in attracting free agents. Culture will play a role in making New York a desirable landing spot.
“It comes with what the players are doing on the court. It comes with what the organization is doing,” Wade said. “And other things as well. So he’s definitely going to try to change the culture but it’s a lot of other things that goes with it.”
Wade spoke about how Fizdale helped him shape his game. The current Knicks coach joined the Heat as an assistant in 2008 and used his tremendous communication skills to showcase his basketball mind, helping Wade become the player he is today.
“I allowed him to take my game to the place where I could still play now at 36 without having the same athleticism and everything I had when he first came here,” Wade said of Fizdale. “It’s tough. He came in and I’m a six-time All-Star already. So to sit there and show me a different way, to be able to explain it to me, to be able to give me the vision, it’s a talent he has.”
Turning the Knicks around will be a challenge and Wade feels Fizdale is ready for it. “I think he is very aware — him and his wife — they understand where they want to go. A job like the Knicks, he wanted the challenge. It’s one of those jobs that not many people have gotten right. But if you get it right, it’s a special thing. And someone like him, he doesn’t run away from a challenge,” Wade explained.
“He’s been to the mountaintop a few times here [with the Heat], so that is what he’s looking for. He’s looking for that challenge and what better place than New York?”
Not related. Blake Griffin had 50 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 assists in Detroits 133-132 ot win over Philadelphia tonight.
He’s the Knicks’ 11th head coach in 16 seasons, fifth in the last seven. Everyone knows New York is where head coaches’ careers go to die.
At first thought making it through his four-year contract, would be an accomplishment beyond my dreams, but he’s giving us Knicks’ fans this weird feeling. “hope”..
But the weird thing is he couldn’t get along with Marc Gasol in Memphis? He couldn’t fix that relationship?
Gasol was apparently salty that he was a focal point on offense, and that they were playing faster and with more space oriented approach. Then he got mad b/c he didnt come off the bench when his teammates made a run without him. I’m a big Gasol fan, but I side against him on that one. Fizdale has said that he has learned from that, and taken responsibility, although from the outside, I dont see where his faults were
Makes sense… thank you.
They seem like opposites.
Kyrie is coming to Nea York.
Knicks are finally starting to show signs that the post Jax plan is going to bring about a new era of winning basketball.
Not jumping the gun to chase Butler or multi-year FA’s, stockpiling young assets and bringing in a respected coach who will help in recruitment efforts are all smart and un-Knicks like moves. The culture still needs to be built further, but regardless of record this season, if the Knicks stick to the plan, show a much better atmosphere than in previous seasons, I would not be surprised to see a max-level FA end up in NYC this offseason and a return to the playoffs next year.
I’ve said it before, but I think Fizdale has a chance to be what the Knicks lost when Pat Riley left. I think he has already done a great job of instilling a new identity and a new culture into that organization. Heat-Knicks is so much more interesting again moving forward….that being said, anyone looking for a ticket to tonight’s game? Lol