The Knicks are a mess right now, and with all the losing going on, there is bound to be some internal drama where players and coaches aren’t seeing eye to eye. And in New York, that means the media will dig until it finds something to air out publicly, no matter how minor or routine the event actually was.
After Monday’s blowout loss at home to the Nets, Tyson Chandler was publicly critical of head coach Mike Woodson’s defensive strategy to switch everything, which creates confusion at times and allowed Brooklyn a ton of wide-open looks.
Reportedly, this is part of a pattern of comments where Chandler is concerned, and Woodson has spoken to him about it in the past.
From Frank Isola of the New York Daily News:According to a team source, Woodson recently confronted Chandler about comments the veteran center made that could be interpreted as undermining the coach’s authority. It is unclear when that conversation took place, but it could have happened last week following a loss to the Indiana Pacers, when Chandler said “we didn’t make adjustments.”
That answer was in response to reporters asking Chandler to comment on Woodson’s claim that the Pacers simply outworked the Knicks. It was erroneously reported that Carmelo Anthony was criticizing Woodson when in fact Chandler took a subtle shot.Ironically, Woodson has had no trouble naming names when things haven’t gone well this season. Iman Shumpert and Beno Udrih have been two players he’s criticized repeatedly in his postgame remarks, although obviously neither is at the star or talent level that Chandler has achieved with the Knicks.
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It’s difficult to ascertain how serious this difference of opinion is, or even if a real rift exists at all. What we do know is that as long as the losing continues, reports of fractures within the team will continue, as well.