With David Fizdale's firing by the Knicks last Friday, the team is now looking for the next head coach to get the franchise back on track.

SNY's Ian Begley has listed some potential candidates to replace Fizdale, and three of those names - Jeff Van Gundy, Tom Thibodeau, and Mark Jackson - have also been reported as being on the team's short list, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Van Gundy, of course, has prior experience with the Knicks, working with the team as an assistant from 1989 to 1995-96, when he became the team's head coach.

Now 57, Van Gundy had a successful run as the Knicks head coach, going 248-172 over seven seasons, leading the Knicks to an NBA Finals appearance against the Spurs in 1998-99.

Van Gundy was a guest on Mike Krzyzewski's Basketball & Beyond with Coach K SiriusXM show, where he was asked about his tenure with the team.

"Yeah, and it comes back to I think that we had the right leadership," Van Gundy told Krzyzewski. "(Former team president) Dave Checketts, who I'm sure you know. Great leader. And then we had unfortunately, at the end of my time there, we had a dilution of talent with the Knicks and it happened rapidly due to some just age, some injury. Patrick Ewing, one of the greatest all-time players, aged and got traded. Larry Johnson, a legendary UNLV player but just a terrific teammate and someone to coach who set an example every day, back injury. Then they traded for [Antonio] McDyess, he had a knee injury. Allan Houston had a knee injury. These are career-changing type of injuries.

"And so they had all this talent and Dave Checketts left, and so there was this big void. Since then they've never settled on a direction of leader from a general manager standpoint or a coach."

Van Gundy says that whatever direction the Knicks go in next, the key will be patience, as the team must give whoever is brought in the chance to grow as a leader.

"It's been constant change and unfortunately that amount of change has led to an inconsistency of philosophy, of belief, and I just think they have to settle and give whoever they pick next the opportunity to grow and evolve," Van Gundy said.

"So many of these projects where you're trying to turn a franchise around, they're submarined because of a lack of patience. Everybody says, 'We're all in to the rebuild,' and 'We're going to be patient,' and then halfway through they lose the stomach for it and think change is the answer."

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