Jim Boeheim explains why it's hard to out-work Tom Thibodeau, what his hiring means for Knicks

Tom Thibodeau was an assistant coach with Team USA from 2013-2016. He worked under Mike Krzyzewski and alongside Jim Boeheim and Monty Williams.

Sometimes, Thibodeau, Boeheim and the rest of the coaching staff would start watching film of their opponents with Krzyzewski at 11 PM.

The sessions lasted several hours.

“A cut up of the scouting report and another game film and another game film … and then it’s 4 in the morning,” Boeheim says.

At that point, Boeheim and the other coaches would usually retreat to their hotel rooms for the night.

“Five hours is enough for me of watching tape of a team that we’re going to beat by 50,” Boeheim, the Hall of Fame Syracuse coach, says with a laugh.

But Krzyzewski often stayed up to watch more tape. And there was always at least one coach who stayed up with him.

“Tom is right there with him,” Boeheim says. “They were always in there watching tape long after the rest of us had gone to bed.”

That’s one of the things you hear most often from people who have worked with Thibodeau: it’s hard to out-work him.

“He’s going to go over every piece of material that he can find in preparation,” Boeheim told SNY in a phone interview. “He’s great at that.”

The Knicks, obviously, hope that Thibodeau’s work ethic leads to success on the court. Thibodeau takes over a Knicks team that has lost at least 60 percent of its games in each of the past six years. So he has his work cut out for him.

But Boeheim believes the Knicks hired the right man for the job.

“I think he’s a great coach, I really do,” Boeheim said. “I’ve been around a lot of great coaches. The Olympics, all the college games I’ve coached over the years – and he’s as well-prepared and as good a coach as anybody. And I think the Knicks are lucky to have him.

“…. He’s been around a lot of great teams and he’s coached really good teams and he’s a basketball professional who understands what coaching is – Xs and Os and knowing the personnel as well. You can’t just know one or the other. You’ve got to know everything in terms your personnel – their attitude, their mental state – and obviously you’ve got to know the Xs and Os. And he knows both sides of that coin. I think the Knicks made a really good hire, a really good hire.”

Thibodeau is the franchise’s 10^th head coach since 2002. He’s expected to officially sign a five-year deal with the Knicks by the end of the week.

Will Thibodeau last longer on the MSG sideline than other big-name Knick coaches over the past two decades?

It’s impossible to know the answer to that question today, of course.

But Boeheim is optimistic.

“They hired a really good coach and he’s got a better chance to succeed than most,” Boeheim said. “There’s not a high success rate in the NBA for coaches. But the better the organization is, the stronger the organization is, the better chance the coach has to be successful.

“And I think the (Knick) organization seems stronger now and that will help Tom to be able to coach successfully…. To me, it seems that they’ve put a consistent (management) team in place and with Tom they’ve got a very, very solid basketball coach who understands the league and what it takes to win.”

During coaching stints in Chicago and Minnesota (where he was also team president), Thibodeau amassed the 11th-highest winning percentage (.589) among coaches who have been on the sidelines for at least 500 games.

If Thibodeau wants to remain on that list, the Knicks probably need to add talent to the roster. New York has the tools to rebuild; the club has seven first-round picks over the next four years, plenty of cap space and some promising young players.

It’s fair to assume that Rose & Co. will want to eventually be in play for top free agents.

How will Thibodeau factor in to the Knicks’ pursuit of free agents?

Some of the coach’s detractors (players and media) say that his intensity and approach to practices/playing time wear players out. Whether that's true or not depends on who you talk to and their perspective on the matter.

But that has led to unfounded speculation among some player managers that Thibodeau won’t help the Knicks attract free agents.

Boeheim strongly disagrees with that theory.

“Tom’s thorough, he’s going to work. But he’s not going to do something that’s over the line that’s going to keep players from wanting to play for him. He’s way too smart for that,” the coach said. “And he’s been around and coached a lot of really great players. He understands personnel. He’s not going to grind people into the dirt. That’s not going to happen. That’s a worry not worth having.

“The players who played with him on the Olympic teams and the guys who played for him like Jimmy Butler who had been with him before all had unanimous respect for him, tremendous respect for him,” Boeheim said of the stars who played on Team USA in 2014 and 2016…. “They know he’s a hard worker. Players want to know that you’re working for them and that you’ve got their backs. He’s going to have his players’ backs and he’s going to really work as hard as anyone in the game to try to help his team get better. He had absolutely universal respect from Coach K, me, and the coaches on our staff and universal respect from all the players on the team.”

Based on what he saw while coaching Team USA with Thibodeau, Boeheim believes the 62-year-old will have a strong bond with the Knick players.

“He’ll have a good relationship with them – he understands that. And he knows the NBA. He knows what you have to do to be successful in the NBA,” Boeheim said. “Some players don’t want to do that (work). They don’t want to do what it takes to win. And those players are going to have trouble with a good coach. And their agents are going to talk and their trainers are going to talk but that doesn’t mean that they’re right.

“There are certain things you need to do if you want to win and the great teams are going to do that. And they always have. Pat Riley’s teams. (Gregg) Popovich’s teams. Teams that are there, they work hard, they do things you have to do to win. It’s not easy. Winning is not easy. It’s hard work. Pat Riley really pushed the Lakers. They had really great players. And they seemed to be OK with the push, because they won. When you win, nobody complains about the hard work.”

BOEHEIM THRILLED FOR CARMELO

Boeheim coached Carmelo Anthony at Syracuse in 2003, when Anthony led the Orange to a national championship. So Boeheim is watching with pride as Anthony plays a key role for the Blazers in NBA Bubble in Orlando.

“I’m thrilled to death,” the coach said. “First of all, I hope you know that he’s a good guy. Not that he doesn’t do something wrong every once in a while – I think we all do. He’s a good guy, he gives back. He gave back to us, he gave back to our town, he gave back to Baltimore, he gave back to Denver when he was there, (New York), Puerto Rico.

“I never wanted to see him to go out not playing. I think he played well, he proved that he can still play at a pretty good level. And I was really happy for him to get that opportunity. Really happy. He’s one of the really good guys (in the game). He was here one year and he’s given back money, time and effort to us here in Syracuse for only being here one year. I love the guy.

“When he was in position to win, he won. He made winning plays for the Olympic teams and he made winning plays for our national championship team. The NBA is all about being on the right team, having the right pieces. I think at the end of the day, if you closely examine what he did, he improves his teams – whether it was Denver, New York – he helped them be better. But at the end of the day they just weren’t quite good enough.

“But I’m happy for him now. He’s a great guy who has done great things for us and for a lot of people, not just us. I’m thrilled that he’s getting this opportunity.”