The Knicks will interview Timberwolves assistant coach Micah Nori for their head coaching vacancy, a source confirmed Tuesday.
Nori will be the third person interviewed in the process after the Knicks fired former Wolves coach Tim Thibodeau following their loss in the Eastern Conference finals to Indiana.
Two former head coaches, Mike Brown and Taylor Jenkins, also interviewed with the Knicks, ESPN confirmed.
The Knicks asked for permission to interview Wolves head coach Chris Finch weeks ago, but the team denied that request, as did many teams the Knicks reached out to inquiring if their coaches were available.
Nori has been an assistant with the Nuggets, Pistons, Kings and Raptors before coming to Minnesota as part of Finch’s staff in 2021. The two previously worked on the same staff in Denver. When Finch ruptured his right patellar tendon in Game 4 in a collision with Wolves guard Mike Conley, Nori took over as the standing coach on the sideline for the team’s next two rounds.
“We’re very much on the same wavelength. We share a brain,” Finch said of Nori then. “If you know Micah, it’s not the type of brain you want to share with most people. But we are very much in sync.”
Nori, a former scout, helps handle rotations for Finch and has a knowledge of what teams like to run and when during games. Guard Anthony Edwards said Nori was a “genius” for knowing what the Warriors were going to run in an end-of-game situation during a victory in March 2024.
Nori also interviewed for multiple head coaching vacancies last season, and Wolves President Tim Connelly has previously praised Nori’s abilities and said he is a future head coach in the league.
