Former Villanova coach Jay Wright not interested in Knicks head coach job

Jay Wright will not be the next head coach of the New York Knicks. The former Villanova men’s basketball head coach has informed the Knicks that he’s not interested in succeeding Tom Thibodeau and will remain retired, he told Sports Illustrated.

Wright added in his comments to Sports Illustrated that he and Knicks president Leon Rose briefly discussed the position. Even though he and Rose are good friends, Wright reiterated his plans to remain retired as he never asked to interview for the vacancy.

Additionally, the Knicks reportedly plan to ask the Mavericks for permission to interview head coach Jason Kidd. However, the Mavericks are expected to turn down any request the Knicks make to interview Kidd, longtime NBA insider Marc Stein reported Saturday. Kidd spent the final season of his playing career with the Knicks in 2012-13.

In the moments after Thibodeau was fired, Wright was immediately viewed as a top candidate to replace him. He coached three of the Knicks’ top players in college, winning multiple national championships with guard Jalen Brunson and forward Mikal Bridges. He also won a national title coaching wing Josh Hart.

However, some insiders viewed the Knicks’ chances at obtaining the two-time national championship-winning head coach as a bit of a long shot.

“Jay Wright is enjoying red wine, basketball, television and his family,” FOX Sports college basketball expert John Fanta recently said on “The Herd.” “If he wanted to coach again, he’d be the Villanova coach.

“Jay Wright is not going anywhere.”

Wright, 63, announced his retirement from Villanova after leading the Wildcats to the Final Four in 2022. That marked his fourth Final Four trip as Villanova’s head coach, winning eight Big East regular-season titles and five Big East Tournament titles to go with his two national championship victories.

Jalen Brunson and Jay Wright won two national championships together at Villanova. (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)

Wright is one of multiple coaches with Big East ties who have said they don’t plan to pursue the Knicks’ head coach gig. St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, who coached the Knicks for two seasons in the late 1980s, said he was “absolutely not” interested in becoming New York’s next head coach. UConn’s Dan Hurley, meanwhile, sidestepped a question about his possible interest in the job.

In addition to Wright, Kidd, Pitino and Hurley, another rumored Knicks candidate seems unlikely to interview for the job. New York reportedly expressed interest in Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka. But after capturing the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference during the 2024-25 season, the Rockets aren’t interested in letting the Knicks potentially negotiate a deal and trade involving Udoka, per The Athletic.

As for Kidd, the Knicks reportedly planned to ask the Mavericks for permission to interview their head coach. However, the Mavericks are expected to turn down any request the Knicks make to interview Kidd, longtime NBA insider Marc Stein reported Saturday.

Beyond those five candidates, former Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone and current Cleveland Cavaliers associate head coach Johnnie Bryant have been viewed as possibilities for the Knicks’ head coach job. Bryant is the current betting favorite for the job, while Malone has the second-best odds, via DraftKings Sportsbook.

Bryant, who was the Knicks’ associate head coach from 2020-24, was one of the finalists for the Phoenix Suns‘ head coach vacancy, but they named fellow Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as their next head coach on Friday. Malone, who grew up near Madison Square Garden in Queens, was fired by the Nuggets with less than a week to go in the regular season.

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