New York Knicks: Kurt Rambis is ready to lead

The New York Knicks will have a new coach on Tuesday night against the Washington Wizards as Derek Fisher has been fired.

Phil Jackson made the announcement on Monday that Fisher will no longer be the coach of the Knicks. Despite the hopes of Knicks fans that Jackson would come save the day as the new head coach, he instead named Kurt Rambis the head coach for the time being.

“I’ve been around too long to have that hope,” Rambis said of being the coach beyond this season to Justin Tasch of the New York Daily News. “I’m gonna do the best job I can to finish out this year and get into the playoffs. That’s my goal, to get this team into the playoffs and then I’ll worry about things after we get as far as we can possibly get. But until that point, I’m not worried about it.”

Rambis has been the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the results were very different. In a lockout shortened 1999 season, Rambis led the Lakers into the playoffs with a 24-13 record and a first round win in the playoffs. Rambis would have an awful record with the Minnesota as they were 15-67 in his first season, and then 17-65 in his second season before he was fired.

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“He likes to make a joke,” Jackson said of Rambis to Tasch. “He’s a little more relaxed in his approach to life and finds life humorous and fun in many ways. This is serious business but it’s not that serious. It’s a game. We say games are supposed to be fun, and I think Kurt brings that attitude a lot of times into it. Basketball business, he’s all business about that. But as far as the development of the group, I think you’ll see he’ll be making more jokes than he’ll be critical.”

Like many fans, Rambis believes that there is more talent on the roster than their record indicates.

“That’s one of the things I told the players at the meeting: We’re a much better team than we’ve been showing lately, but we’ve got to do all the things I was talking about in order to make that happen,” he said. “We’re not so talented that we can just throw our talent out there and win games. We’ve got to put a lot of effort into it.”

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The decision to move on from Fisher comes at a good time for the Knicks, who can still salvage their season with a good second half. There have been rumors swirling around about Jackson looking to bring in a new head coach, but for the time being, it will be Rambis leading the Knicks.

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