Knicks' Tom Thibodeau: Kenny Payne 'a great fit' if interested in Louisville basketball
It’s too soon to know if there’s mutual interest between Louisville and New York Knicks assistant Kenny Payne for the Cardinals head coaching job.
But if the former Louisville basketball pis interested in the job, “he’d be a great fit,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said Friday.
Payne, 55, played at Louisville from 1985-89, winning the 1986 NCAA championship with the Cardinals. After a professional playing career that included four seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, he worked as a college assistant coach from 2004-2020. He spent the final 10 years of that run as an assistant and ultimately associate head coach to John Calipari at Kentucky.
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“I think (Payne) has great comfort in the college game because of the great success that they had at Kentucky,” Thibodeau said in Milwaukee prior to the Knicks’ Friday night game against the Bucks. “I think for him, the Louisville job is obviously appealing because it’s his alma mater.”
Thibodeau has experience with an assistant coach jumping back to his college alma mater. Mike Woodson, in his first season as the head coach at Indiana, is a former Knicks head coach who spent last season as an assistant on Thibodeau’s staff in New York.
Payne is in his second season with the Knicks.
“He’s come into the league; he played in the league,” Thibodeau said. “And obviously having been in college, he studies the game, great with players. But he’s fit in seamlessly.”
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Payne does not have head coaching experience. But he had a reputation as an elite recruiter at Kentucky. And Thibodeau endorsed the idea of him as a college head coach.
“He’d be ideal for (Louisville),” Thibodeau said. "He’s strong on both sides of the ball, he’s strong with individual development. And he’s been around. He brings a lot of experience to any situation that he goes to.”
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Louisville is seeking a head coach after parting ways this week with Chris Mack, who agreed with the university on a separation agreement that will pay him $4.8 million over this fiscal year and the next three.
Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kenny Payne 'ideal' Louisville basketball coach: Knicks' Tom Thibodeau
