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Good morning! Win your own personal national championship today.
Messes: Anyone want to coach the Knicks?
It’s like the old saying goes: Four strikes, and you’ve still got to hire a coach.
The Knicks had a wonderful energy about them as recently as a few weeks ago. That dimmed a bit with an Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Pacers. It faded more with the defensible but pretty aggressive firingof coach Tom Thibodeau on June 3. And now it’s completely gone, as the Knicks have sputtered in their search for a replacement. They have tried to talk to at least four sitting head coaches and come up empty each time. Current whiffs:
It’s all been so public. The Knicks got the search they wanted, as Sam Amick writes, but they’re in danger of winding up with a coach who was no better than their fifth choice. Or worse! Or, of course, they could manage to work something out with one of the teams above. For now, the Knicks are set to interview a couple of recent head coaches, Taylor Jenkins and Mike Brown.
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Just how big a deal is this spectacle? I asked James L. Edwards III, who covers the Knicks for The Athletic. He offered this balanced response:
💬 What New York is doing — trying to pry employed coaches away from their teams — opens the franchise up for criticism and jokes, but it’s not that uncommon. New York doesn’t care to win the headlines and tabloids. If it did, team president Leon Rose and/or owner James Dolan would come out of the shadows and explain the Thibodeau firing and hiring of the next coach. Neither will do that. They haven’t spoken to media covering the team in years.
The Knicks have and will continue to spin this as them doing their due diligence. And in their defense, New York is the home of the lone coaching vacancy in the NBA. The Knicks’ need to rush isn’t like other teams in this position. Now, to me, this all comes back to this: Will New York, without question, get a coach who can propel the team to the next level? I have a tough time seeing it. The Knicks’ biggest problem is not the process. It’s the likely end result.
All fair. We can rubberneck in the meantime. I asked Zach Harper, author of The Bounce, to rate the mess here on a scale of 1 (“chill out”) to 10 (“unmitigated disaster”):
💬 I’m going with an 8.5, which essentially works out to: “Guys, this is getting weird and maybe you should just take a walk and clear your heads. Possibly throw on a guided meditation and figure out what you want in life.” You might get one request to a team with a sitting head coach. To be throwing darts blindly at the NBA rolodex at this point has to be concerning to Knicks fans.
Perhaps someone reading this newsletter would like to throw their hat into the ring.
News to Know
Marchand, Panthers dominate Game 5
Florida is one win away from back-to-back Stanley Cup titles. As they have done consistently in this Stanley Cup Final, the Panthers jumped on the Oilers in the first period last night. Brad Marchand scored first before Sam Bennett made it 2-0 late in the period. Marchand’s second was somehow prettier than the first, a dagger early in the third period. Our NHL staff has more takeaways from Game 5 as Florida inches closer. My takeaway: Marchand was unstoppable last night. This goal literally made an Oilers fan swap allegiances:
KD narrows preferred trade destinations
Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant has narrowed his preferred trade destinations to two teams: the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs. The Athletic’s Sam Amick, Jon Krawczynski and Kelly Iko dove into the full list of potential destinations, explaining why a deal with the Rockets or Spurs looks unlikely and which other teams have reportedly shown interest. Read the latest on Durant’s suitors here.
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A first-time major champion?
Of the five golfers at or below par entering the final round of the U.S. Open today, only one has won a major championship. Scottie Scheffler is eight strokes back. Rory McIlroy is making more headlines off the coursethan on. Instead, your leader is 28-year-old Sam Burns, who has one career top 10 in a major. Right behind him: 44-year-old Adam Scott, who would be the second-oldest champion in U.S. Open history. Who will prevail? Our golf reporters made their picks ahead of today’s final round.
More news:
What to Watch
📺 Formula One: Canadian Grand Prix | 2 p.m. ET on ESPN
Montreal’s Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is one of the most fun tracks in F1, in my opinion, and this is a nice breakdown of the circuit from Madeline Coleman. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari are still searching for podiums and answers, and Max Verstappen is on the brink of suspension.
📺 CWS: Coastal Carolina vs. Oregon State | 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2
The Chanticleers and the Beavers are in the winners’ bracket in Omaha. OSU played a thrilling opener against Louisville, coughing up a two-run lead with some disastrous defense in the top of the ninth but then promptly walking it off in the bottom half. The Beavs are eternally a chaos team, no matter which sport we’re talking about.
Pulse Picks
With just over two weeks until NHL free agency opens, our staff picked one player each team should target.
Attending the U.S. Open with my dad, him working as a hole marshal and me reporting for The Pulse. A cool memory! — Alex Kirshner
Although chocolate morsels are plenty fun to use in recipes, one fun tweak can be to chop up a Baker’s chocolate bar instead. Why? Chocolate chips often contain emulsifiers that maintain their shape during baking, but chopped chocolate has a lower melting point, thus making it easier to get pockets of chocolate in every bite of, say, your favorite cookie. — James Jackson
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Daniel Taylor looked at the significance of David Beckham’s knighthood.
Season 2 of “Tires” on Netflix is a pleasant surprise. Only halfway done and it’s steadily rising in my workplace sitcom rankings. — Torrey Hart
Teaching really little kids baseball is HARD in part because of all the ouches on grounders, pop-ups, etc. This video – yes, that’s Wells! Actual Lol. – reminded me you can start with them throwing to themselves. It helped! — Chris Sprow
If you missed it Wednesday, The Athletic FC had a great primer on the 2026 World Cup with one year to go.
Diego Luna and Javier Bardem’s “Actors on Actors” interview was excellent. They fluidly switched between Spanish and English, which led to a deep, vulnerable conversation about the experience of performing, working in and living with a second language. — Patrick Iversen
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our newser on Antonio Brown facing an attempted murder charge.
Most-read on the website yesterday: It can’t be contained. Rustin Dodd’s deep dive on Roger Federer’s commencement speech is back.
Ticketing links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
(Top photo: Dustin Satloff / Getty Images)
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