Though Tom Thibodeau remains the priority in their head-coaching search, Mike Woodson will get another interview with the Knicks, an NBA source confirmed.
The team’s season officially ended Thursday afternoon when the league’s board of governors voted to restart the season with 22 teams, as expected. The Knicks, sources indicated, were always ambivalent about a return to play because of their uncertain head-coaching situation.
Woodson — who coached the Knicks to 54 wins during the 2012-13 season but was fired April 21, 2014, after a 37-45 season — interviewed for the Knicks job in 2018, losing out to David Fizdale.
Woodson, whose record as Knicks coach stands at 109-79, last was an assistant coach for the Clippers before leaving in 2018.
The Post has learned Woodson was going to be named to Fizdale’s staff in 2018, but former Knicks president Steve Mills felt it was a bad idea. The thinking was, according to a source, fans would have someone to rally behind if things went badly. Fizdale was an assistant under Woodson with the Hawks.
Mike Miller is currently the interim coach having replaced the fired Fizdale, and new president Leon Rose didn’t want to start a coaching search until there officially were no more games to play.
Thibodeau is considered the favorite, according to sources, but Rose will still keep Miller in the mix and he could be a potential assistant coach.
The larger question is whether Woodson would be interested in joining Thibodeau’s staff, too.
SNY first reported the possibility of Woodson getting an interview.
“I don’t want to hide the fact I’d love to be back,’’ Woodson told The Post in 2018. “I’d like to finish what I started. At the end of the day, you want to come to New York, based on my body of work there. I want it to be mutual. I want them to want me.”
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Former Nets coach and Knicks assistant Kenny Atkinson also is expected to get an interview. The Long Island native was fired by Brooklyn in early March.
Atkinson, Woodson and Thibodeau are all clients of Creative Artists Agency, where Rose worked as the head of the basketball department. In a recent interview with The Post, Bernie Lee, Butler’s agent, said, “If you are going to heap blame on [Thibodeau] you have to give him credit as well. So often in the NBA teams play it safe or stay on the fence and don’t want to be tied to the actual results, Tom took a big risk, that came with big results that ultimately proved to not be sustainable, but it’s what was required in that job at that time.”
The Thibodeau pursuit has played out well for the Knicks as interested parties, the Nets and Houston, are part of the restart. Thibodeau is a former Rockets assistant and would have interest, but Jeff Van Gundy might be the frontrunner there.
After Thibodeau’s grand success in Chicago, he faltered in getting in good graces with ownership in Minnesota and was fired in January 2019.
Reports were Thibodeau’s demanding style was too much for the younger players. But he still left having broken the Timberwolves’ 14-year playoff drought in 2018.
Thibodeau’s decision to bring in Jimmy Butler ultimately backfired when Butler demanded a trade because of a concern over what he considered a lack of work ethic by the team’s young nucleus.