Bondy: David Fizdale ready for season void of winning expectations as Knicks rebuild continues
By Stefan Bondy
David Fizdale had never, with a decade of experience as a head coach or an assistant, entered a season without the expectation of winning.
Until he joined the Knicks.
Now, as Fizdale explained ahead of his New York coaching debut Wednesday against the Hawks, he's reaching for a lower bar.
"The last 12 to 14 years success was determined on how far you went (in the playoffs)," Fizdale said. "I don't think that's a fair gauge for this team."
The reality of rebuilding quickly infiltrated the Knicks and their culture under Fizdale, who, unlike his predecessor Jeff Hornacek, has the job security to withstand losing. According to most projections, the Knicks will drop 50 or more games for the fourth straight season — which would represent the first full losing campaign Fizdale experienced as a head coach or assistant since he was with the Hawks over a decade ago.
(New York Daily News illustration)
Fizdale said he has braced for the storm.
"I've wrapped my mind around whatever comes to stay even through it and be something that the guys can rely on from the standpoint of experience I've seen and things that I've been through," he said. "While they're going through what they have to go through to grow I can just be a stable person for them no matter what's going on."
So what is the definition of success?
"All I want to see at the end of the day, are we getting better every day at what we talk about, at what we work at?" Fizdale said. "Is our culture getting stronger every day? Are people buying in and really committing to what we're trying to do? Are players getting better? At the end of the year hopefully we can say our player development and how we grew these guys and the way we committed to the competition and committed to each other, we can look back and say we didn't cheat that."
Regardless of what happens on the court this season, Fizdale has already proven himself a strong spokesman for the franchise. Devoid of a star player while Kristaps Porzingis rehabs his knee, the coach has become the face and voice of the Knicks. His personality is far more gregarious and engaging than his predecessors, Hornacek and Derek Fisher.
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On Wednesday, for instance, Fizdale turned a benign question about the excitement of his debut into a moving tale about his brother.
"That I'm head coach of the Knicks at the Garden and my older brother is here — that's a big deal for me," Fizdale said. "He's the one who bought me my first pair of basketball shoes. The thing that made me want to be a basketball player is my brother saying, 'Hey you some of these to do that.'
"And I told him that. Remember why you got into this. Lose all of the glamour and stuff like that. One day in your life somebody triggered it in you and my brother was that guy so that's the part I think is really special for me."
GM Scott Perry, as you'd expect, said he's happy with the hire.
"Who he presented himself to be to us during the whole interview process is who he's been out on this court. I think that's the best compliment I can give him," Perry said. "He's very engaging personality with everybody in the building, not just with this team."