With two NCAA titles over a three-year period, Villanova head coach Jay Wright is the hottest college coaching candidate in the business when it comes to a potential jump to the NBA. On cue, the 56-year-old head coach is reportedly garnering interest from a club and it comes in the form of the New York Knicks.
Frank Isola of the New York Daily News brings word that the Knicks “intend to contact” Wright about their opening, with the team parting ways with Jeff Hornacek immediately following the 2017-2018 season. Beyond that, the report indicates that “Knicks management believes Wright would be a perfect candidate for a rebuilding club” and, of course, James Dolan boasts the considerable resources necessary to lure a top-tier college coach from a seemingly perfect situation.
The report also references several additional candidates for the Knicks opening, highlighted by Mark Jackson, Jerry Stackhouse, David Fizdale and current Clippers head coach Doc Rivers. Still, Wright would be the biggest “splash” move that the Knicks could make by a considerable margin.
With that said, there is potential peril on both sides of the equation here. The track record of college coaches (even great ones) making the leap to the NBA is checkered with misfires and, for every Brad Stevens, there are multiple cases of flame-outs on the order of Rick Pitino and John Calipari. From Wright’s perspective, it would be unquestionably lucrative to jump to the Knicks (with his stock never higher than it is today) and, if things went well, he could own the city of New York. Still, there is a great deal of risk here and Villanova has long been considered Wright’s dream job.
One rumbling of interest isn’t enough to bring the Knicks and Wright together but it is unquestionably interesting that this report exists. The Knicks are always interesting, for better or worse, and this is a situation to closely monitor in the coming days, especially if the interest progresses into full-fledged discussions between the coach and team.
