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The 2019-20 season hasn’t ended yet for 22 of the NBA’s teams, including the San Antonio Spurs, but one team that is done for the season is the New York Knicks. As a result, they are kicking off their search for a new head coach, which includes many familiar names — most notably current Spurs assistant coaches Becky Hammon and Will Hardy, according to a report from Newsday and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
A source said that Becky Hammon, who has served as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs under Gregg Popovich since 2014 — when she became the first full-time female assistant coach in the NBA — could get an interview. Hammon, 43, began her playing career with the Liberty, when the franchise was owned by Knicks owner James Dolan.
San Antonio has granted permission for assistant Will Hardy to interview for the New York Knicks coaching job, sources tell ESPN. Hardy, 32, is well-regarded within Spurs organization.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 18, 2020
Other potential candidates include former Spurs player and assistant coach Ime Udoka, Tom Thibodeau, Kenny Atkinson, current interim head coach Mike Miller, and Mike Woodson.
The Knicks fired David Fizdale after a 4-18 start to this season, and Miller was promoted to interim head coach, leading them to a 17-27 record the rest of the way. Unless he is retained, this will be the Knicks’ 7th new head coach since the start of the 2012-13 season, when they hired Woodson to take over for Mike D’Antoni.