David Fitzdale Fired from the New York Knicks – Fair or Not?

Drama in Madison Square Garden as the New York Knicks owner James Dolan has decided to fire head coach David Fitzdale on Friday. This comes as a surprise to most Knicks fans, NBA executives, and the media, mainly because Fitzdale has not even been the coach of the Knicks for two years.

The New York Knicks lost eight straight games, including a 129-92 gut-wrenching loss to the Denver Nuggets. With 2 seasons under his belt of coaching with the Knicks, Fitzdale has led the Knicks to a combined record of 21-83. The Knicks have started the season rough with a record of 4-19 and last (15th) in the Eastern Conference. Numerous people are reporting that David Fitzdale did not have the proper pieces around him to coach a successful team. In this past free agency, the Knicks had $74 million in cap space to sign some top tier free agents. Some names that were linked to the Knicks this past free agency were the following; Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Kemba Walker, and Anthony Davis (via trade), etc. Unfortunately, the New York Knicks missed out on all of the above. Instead of signing a top tier free agent, the Knicks went out and signed Julius Randell to a 3yr, $56.7 million deal, Bobby Portis to a 2yr, $30.75 million deal, Taj Gibson to a $18.5 million deal, Wayne Elligonton to a 2yr, $16 million deal, Elfird Payton to a 2yr, $16 million deal, Marcus Morris to a $15 million deal, and Reggie Bullock to a 2yr, $8.8 million deal. Not to mention, the Knicks missed out on the 1st overall pick in this year’s draft, they landed the 3rd overall pick and selected Shooting Guard R.J Barrett out of Duke. I am more than sure that all Knicks fans had it embedded into their brains that the Knicks would end up with the 1st pick and draft Zion Williamson.

Many people believe that David Fitzdale was not the problem but instead, James Dolan is the problem. Dolan has made his fair share of mistakes as the owner of the Knicks. Dolan is still paying Phil Jackson, Jeff Hornacek, and David Fitzdale for another 2 years, some moves that James Dolan has made are very questionable. With all of this being said, do you believe that David Fitzdale had a fair chance of coaching the Knicks? Or did he get cheated out of a job?