Knicks' Jalen Brunson makes 'maniac' comparison between Tom Thibodeau, Jay Wright

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New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson plays for maybe the toughest coach in the NBA in Tom Thibodeau, but he is no stranger to tough coaching due to his experience with Jay Wright during his days with the Villanova basketball program, and in a recent interview, Brunson said that the two coach have the same goals but achieved them in different ways.

“They’re both maniacs when it comes to their profession,” Jalen Brunson said, via Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. “They want the best out of you. They want to push you to exhaustion and make you the best player you can be. They’re both very similar when it comes to that, but they both go about it differently. Thibs, obviously, is a guy who’s known for having that love for the game by staying in the gym and the way he prepares himself and the team for games, which is different from Coach Wright. With Coach Wright, I feel like he pushed us differently. It’s kind of hard to explain, but being in the middle of it and seeing both sides of it. It’s two totally different people with the same mindset and agenda.”

Brunson found a ton of success with Wright at Villanova, winning two national titles along with the National Player of the Year award in the 2017-18 season. The Knicks made one of the biggest steals in free agency a few years ago by signing Brunson, and he is now one of the best players in the NBA.

With Brunson currently sitting out with an ankle injury, and along with Mikal Bridges’ comments, Thibodeau has been under fire due to the number of minutes he is asking his top players to play. There is some skepticism regarding the Knicks’ ability to contend with top teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference, but they are having one of the best regular seasons they have had in a long time, currently sitting at 43-24 overall

The Knicks will look to at least lock up the third seed in the east down the stretch as they wait for Brunson to return from injury.

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