Ousted Knicks HC David Fizdale Had To Awkwardly Sit Silent On Live TV Because Of Weird Clause In Contract With Former Team

Fired Knicks head coach David Fizdale had an awkward segment on The Jump because of a weird clause in his contract with former team

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David Fizdale’s tenure as the head coach of the New York Knicks was, in a word, pathetic. Lasting just 1.5 years with the dysfunctional franchise, Fizdale was canned a few months ago after compiling an overall record of just 21-83, which included an embarrassing 4-18 start to this season before getting the axe. The state of Knickerbocker basketball truly is sad.

While it always sucks to be canned from a gig, the fact that the Knicks still owe David Fizdale a whopping $17 million to pay off the remaining three years of his deal, per CNBC, is even wilder. Being a head coach at a high level of sports is awesome, but being a fired head coach at a high level of sports is even better, with teams literally open to paying millions just to have a guy go away. What a time to be alive.

Considering Fizdale’s still technically on the Knicks’ payroll — even though he’s also a free agent — there are moments when he has to watch what he says. I mean, the last thing the dude wants to do is go around town and bash the entire franchise for millions to see, which could trigger a breach of contract. In short, Fizdale needs to be quiet and tread lightly when the Knicks are topic of discussion.

There’s no better example of that than on ESPN’s The Jump the other day, when David Fizdale awkwardly sat on set smiling like a puppet while hosts Rachel Nichols and Brian Windhorst discussed the Knicks. Instead of offering up insight or criticizing his former team, because he’s still being paid by the team, the former head coach was more vanilla than a Bill Belichick postgame press conference. Take a look below at the uncomfortable live TV moment.

Did David Fizdale look ridiculous during the entire segment? Sure. But it’s called making a business decision, so if someone’s going to pay me $17 million to do something similar, I’m all for it. All Fizdale really added was insight that read like a prepared statement:

“I really think they’re in a good position,” Fizdale said. “I know a lot of people don’t and a lot of people are down on them, but I actually think they’re in a good position going into the summer to make some good things happen in the organization.”

Hey, sometimes you’ve got to play the game, and for $17 million, it’s worth looking like a clueless puppet on live TV in order to get that big pay day.

(H/T Business Insider)

Nick Dimengo avatar
Nick's a Sr. Editor for BroBible, mainly relying on his Sports Encyclopedia-like mind to write about things. He's also the co-host of the BroBible podcast "We Run This," and can be seen sweating his ass off while frequently running 10+ miles around Seattle.