New York Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek has a lot of people waving pitchforks at his doorstep right now. All of them want him fired from his post. That group, however, does not include Knicks guard Courtney Lee, who clearly stated which side he is on when he gave a passionate defense of New York’s mentor, via Marc Berman of The New York Post.
“Yeah, man, 100 percent,’’ Lee said of Hornacek stepping up this season. “You got to realize, we were on a run early on, we hit adversity and you can’t blame anybody for that. Injuries happen. That’s the world we live in today. We have to blame somebody, right? You can’t control that.”
Calls for Jeff Hornacek to step down as the mentor of Gotham’s basketball team have grown even louder of late with the Knicks going 1-6 in their last seven games. The team is also riding a four-game losing skid heading into Friday’s matchup at home against the playoff-bound Miami Heat. Unlike the Heat, the Knicks are not going to be part of the playoff party, as they currently brandish an ugly 27-51 record. Last season, the Knicks went 31-51 in Hornacek’s first season as the team’s head coach. Two more losses and the Knicks would somehow manage to finish this season with a worse record than their slate a year ago.
For Courtney Lee, though, it’s just unfair for fans to pin most of the blame on Hornacek for the simple reason that the coach does not have a hand on who gets hurt or not among his players. The Knicks are badly missing Kristaps Porzingis, who went down with an ACL injury while Tim Hardaway also missed plenty of games with a lower-body injury.
“For what, injuries?’’ Lee said. “For Tim having a stress fracture? For KP going down? How you blame coach for that? That’s a question for you. Can you answer that on the record?”
In any case, the Knicks sure look like a team that needs significant changes to turn its fortunes around.
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