I called my mother on Sunday evening, after dinner, in Indiana. I told her: the Knicks have just hired a man whose entire job is to watch a screen and say one word, challenge or leave it. She asked whether the coach couldn’t just watch it himself. I said he does watch, but he doesn’t have time for that during a game. A job, a title, a tablet.
Over there, they call it assistant coach/special situations. Here, in 2000, in Charleroi, we called it the guy who shouted from the bench “he travelled, say something!”, and the coach answered on his own, no screen. Let me tell you, I’ve known both versions of the same thing: someone who decides in two seconds whether to challenge or let it run.
My mother asked how much you pay a man to say one word. I said I didn’t know, but that wasn’t the real question. The real question is that there’s someone whose job is to decide in two seconds, challenge or leave it. In 2000, in Charleroi, that someone was me, from the bench, no iPad, no title. The coach took my word for it. She said: see, you should have asked for a title.
Ed Flynn, for his part, has a genuine background in video work. Williams College, then graduate assistant at Miami, then Charlotte as a video intern, then New Orleans from 2023, where he became head video coordinator. His whole path comes down to one question: is there something worth saying, yes or no, within two seconds.
The Knicks’ staff barely changes: Chris Jent, Rick Brunson, Brendan O’Connor and Darren Erman are all set to return. Only one spot moves, and it’s this one. My mother had nothing more to say after that. She’d already been right before I even hung up.
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
