By WFAN.comDavid Fizdale says he told his mom as a child that he wanted to play someday at the Mecca, Madison Square Garden. That didn't work out, but he will be coaching there.
The Knicks introduced Fizdale as the 29th head coach in franchise history at a Garden news conference Tuesday.
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"This is quite humbling to be sitting here today with you guys," the former Memphis Grizzlies coach said. "I'm so honored to be the head coach of the New York Knicks. I mean, you can't dream of this stuff.
"The thing I just couldn't get away from was the history and the city, and the interview process with these guys (team president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry) just kept sticking to me," Fizdale, 43, continued. "I just felt a real connection to them. And how many times do you get a chance to coach in the Garden? It's a once-in-a-lifetime deal, and I love challenges, and I love the history of the game and trying to make history."
After winning 43 games and leading the Grizzlies to a postseason berth in his first season as head coach in Memphis, Fizdale was fired just 19 games into his second campaign amid reports that he clashed with starting center Marc Gasol.
Fizdale accepted responsibility in that rift and said he is learning from it.
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"I really take ownership in that where we didn't necessarily click on things," Fizdale said. "It's my reponsibility as the coach to get players to buy in and really get them to collaborate and come together, and for whatever reason, we bumped heads on some things. But I took that to heart.
"I'm really tough on myself. I self-reflect, which is not always easy to look in that mirror and say you were part of the problem. And hopefully I really grew from that."
Mills said he was impressed by how Fizdale has responded to the Gasol incident.
"That was an important part of our discussion," Mills said. "When you sit in front of someone and you talk about something that was a big problem for you -- you hit this wall, you hit this adversity -- he owned that. He owned that issue. Could walk us through what he did as a person, as a leader, as a man to try to rectify -- understand what happened and try to make sure it doesn't happen again."
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Fizdale laid out the characteristics he's looking for in his players.
"Defense, tough-minded, sharing the ball, pace, culture, accountability," he said. "Those are just words. A lot of people have them on their walls. I even put some of those words on walls in places. They're very cliche in a lot of ways. But I really feel like through my experience, I've gotten to live a lot of these words and fail through these words and achieve high things with these words. I hope that I will be able to communicate that and share that with these group of men."
Fizdale said he'd visit Kristaps Porzingis soon in Latvia and called the 7-foot-3 Knicks star "the future of the NBA."
"You look around at these teams that are still playing right now, and they've all got guys who are super long, super athletic, super skilled, super tough-minded, incredible workers, and that is what he embodies," Fizdale said.
"He fits all of the qualities of a megastar who can really propel a franchise forward to high places."
