Stan Van Gundy is no stranger to being brutally honest.
The former longtime NBA head coach, who’s now an analyst with TNT, gave a candid take on Knicks fans during a Q&A with The Post’s Steve Serby as part of a lengthy discussion about the team ahead of its 2025 NBA playoff run.
Van Gundy, who coached four NBA clubs and was president of basketball operations while coaching the Detroit Pistons, discussed the pending series between the Knicks and his former team, which will begin next weekend.
Asked if he has “a sense for the love affair between” the Knicks and their fans, Van Gundy seemed to question the premise.
“Well, they’re passionate … love affair?” he said. “I don’t know. Love affair when they’re playing well, and hate affair when they’re not playing well. The Knicks fans and the Philly fans, they are … they’re front-running fans. They’re in love with their team when things are going well, but they’ll boo their team off the floor when they’re not playing well. That’s not a crowd that’s focused on lifting you up.”
Knicks fans, while generally the subject of criticism nationally, aren’t often side-swiped as “fair-weather” as implied by Van Gundy, brother of former Knicks head coach Jeff Van Gundy.
Knicks fans immediately went on the attack on social media.
“Knick fans have sat through and cheered on 17 win teams. We’re the least front running fans in the NBA,” one fan wrote in response on X.
Other fans began posting photos of said 17-win team and other less-than-stellar starting lineups the organization trotted out there between 2014-19, in particular, a dark period in the team’s recent history.
“We literally watched starting lineups of this caliber for multiple seasons at a time, but sure, we’re front runners … go home Stan, you’re drunk again,” one fan wrote, posting a photo of a Knicks starting five featuring Langston Galloway, Alexey Shved, Andrea Bargnani, Lou Amundson and Lance Thomas.
During a 17-win season in 2014-15, the Knicks were fourth in average attendance in the NBA, and in their second 17-win season of the morbid five-year run in 2018-19, they were ninth.
Regarding the actual series between the Knicks and Pistons, Van Gundy insists it won’t be easy for New York, which secured back-to-back 50-win seasons for the first time since a four-year run between 1991-95.
“I know this: Tom [Thibodeau] and his coaching staff aren’t gonna overlook anybody,” Van Gundy insisted. “Tom never has. I think they’ll have great respect for Detroit and what they’ve done, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. And I think the Knicks have veteran guys who have been through battles, and they’re mature. They understand that you respect everybody. There’s no way you could look at that Detroit team — how well they’ve played, how hard they play, how hard they compete — and think anything’s gonna be easy. There’s just no chance of that.”
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