Having lost three of his first four games since taking over for the ousted Derek Fisher as head coach of the New York Knicks, Kurt Rambis is having a difficult time getting through to the team. Now he’s banking on good ol’ St. Anger to put them back on track.
“We’re all frustrated,” said Rambis on Tuesday after a 27-point loss at home to the Raptors, per Ian Begley of ESPN. “We can’t accept this. For the organization, our team, ourselves as individuals, the coaching staff. We can’t accept losing. I want players to be angry. I want players to be frustrated.”
While it might not quite have been Gregg Popovich’s “I want some nasty!” speech to the Spurs from a few years back, Rambis has the right idea here. The blowout defeat dropped the Knicks to 24-34 on the season, 6.5 games out of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. For the team to make their way back to even just respectability, they cannot allow themselves to become content within the losing culture that the last couple of years have spawned.
Granted, with Rambis’ career 57-148 head coaching record, no amount of rage in the world is likely to save the Knicks at this point. His embarrassing recent social media snafu certainly hasn’t helped matters either as Rambis unfortunately looks to be presiding over a second consecutive lost season at Madison Square Garden.
H/T NBA Reddit
