More than six years after one of the most disastrous coaching tenures in New York Knicks history, David Fizdale is finally telling his side of the story. It paints a damning picture of a front office that put him in an impossible position.
Appearing on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back, Fizdale admitted the Knicks deliberately tanked the 2018-19 season under orders from team brass, hoping to land Zion Williamson or, at minimum, Ja Morant in the 2019 NBA Draft.
“Losing all those damn games, donating my record,” Fizdale said. “To get Williamson or Ja.”
It didn’t work.
A Front Office Directive He Couldn’t Escape
David Fizdale says the Knicks gave him a roster with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Enes Kanter as his best players and told him to tank for Zion or Ja, while assuring him they were guaranteed to land KD and Kyrie
(🎥 @RunItBackFDTV / h/t @NBA_NewYork )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 4, 2026
Fizdale said the plan came from above, handed down by president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry. The goal was to lose enough games to secure a top-two draft pick, then use that cornerstone plus cap space to lure Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
“That’s the hard part for coaches when you agree to tanking,” Fizdale said. “If you’re not all on board… when you tank, you’re supposed to tank to build something bigger.”
The Knicks finished with the worst record in the NBA. The Pelicans, with just a 6 percent chance, won the top pick and selected Williamson. New York dropped to third and took RJ Barrett, who also struggled to live up to expectations in the Big Apple.
The KD and Kyrie Promise That Never Came True
Fizdale says the front office assured him the summer of 2019 would make all the losing worthwhile. The Knicks were considered frontrunners to sign both Durant and Irving.
“Our people seemed to have thought KD and Kyrie for sure was coming to us,” Fizdale said. “That s*** didn’t work out.”
Durant signed with Brooklyn and Irving joined him. New York pivoted to signing Julius Randle, Bobby Portis, and Taj Gibson.Â
The tank had failed to produce the intended foundation for the future.
A Record That Still Haunts Him
Fizdale entered the 2019-20 season with a roster he felt was ill-fitting and directionless.Â
“When you look at that roster in totality, solid players throughout but when you put them on the floor together, the pieces for me just wasn’t working,” he said.
The Knicks started 4-18 and Fizdale was fired 22 games into the season. His final record in New York was 21-83, the worst winning percentage of any head coach in franchise history.
Looking back, Fizdale said the entire experience pointed to one uncomfortable truth about coaching in a tanking environment: you carry the consequences, even when the decisions aren’t yours.
“If I was doing it over again, I would have fought more to build a team early on and not cash in my record,” he said.
What the Knicks Became Without Him
New York eventually figured it out without the pieces the tank was supposed to deliver.Â
Tom Thibodeau, hired in 2020, built the team through trades, roster development, and key free agent signings. Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby form the core of the squad that reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2025.
Barrett, the consolation prize from the lottery, averaged 18.1 points per game across four-plus seasons before being traded for Anunoby in December 2023.
Fizdale has not returned to an NBA head coaching role. He later worked as an assistant with the Lakers and Suns and is currently not affiliated with any team.
The Knicks are now legitimate title contenders. The tank intended to fast-track that reality instead set the franchise back by years and cost Fizdale his reputation as an NBA head coach.
