Donte DiVincenzo surprisingly backs his former head coach

Donte DiVincenzo spent just one season with the Knicks. In that one year though, he became a fan favorite. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard set a franchise record for threes made in a season and hit an extremely memorable three-pointer in their opening round playoff matchup against the 76ers.

Apparently that one season left enough of a lasting impression with DiVincenzo, particularly with his head coach at the time, Tom Thibodeau. He tried to make sure his new Timberwolves teammates did not disrespect coach Thibs.

Donte DiVincenzo backs Tom Thibodeau

Every year, The Athletic does an anonymous player’s poll where current NBA stars answer questions provided to them. The most recent one caused a lot of controversy when Tyrese Haliburton was voted the league’s most overrated player.

Fred Katz of The Athletic went on the Ringer NBA Show and talked about one of the questions asked while providing what DiVincenzo told his Minnesota teammates regarding that question. He mentioned that The Athletic changed one of the questions from which head coach would you least want to play for to who is the worse head coach? Katz said, 

"“So apparently this year, when Minnesota players were polled, Donte would follow around the reporters who were taking the answers. When it got to the coach question, Donte would be like, ‘You (expletives), you better not say Tom Thibodeau. He’s the (expletive) best”"

Brian Keefe of the Wizards won that vote. Meanwhile, Thibodeau finished tied for fifth with 6.8% of votes. Katz is very familiar with the Knicks during DiVincenzo’s year with them. He was The Athletic’s beat writer for the team before making the transition to cover the whole league this past season.

Surprising after last season's incident

It may surprise some to hear about DiVincenzo’s fondness for his former head coach. That is because of a viral moment from last year’s preseason.

Of course, it was late last offseason that DiVincenzo (along with Julius Randle) were traded by the Knicks to the Wolves in a deal that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York. When the two teams met up in the preseason, DiVincenzo started to yell something in Thibodeau's direction. That caused Knicks assistant head coach Rick Brunson to say something to DiVincenzo after the game, and the two had a back-and-forth.

When this season’s anonymous poll is asked of the players, DiVincenzo won’t have to worry about defending Thibodeau since he is no longer the Knicks head coach.