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A league source confirmed that Jay Wright and Leon Rose are very close, have a great relationship and speak regularly. Rose knows Wright is very happy in retirement. So leave that name off the list of candidates.
Ian Begley: With regard to reports/suggestions of Jay Wright as a Knick coaching candidate, yes, team president Leon Rose & Wright have a close relationship and speak regularly. Because of that, Rose knows Wright is very happy as a retiree, per league source. So Wright is not a candidate for the job, league source said. @SbondyNBA first on it.
Josh Hart: Man Thank You. Stay retired! 😂 @CoachJayWright
Jay Wright, Johnnie Bryant candidates for Knicks head coach job?
When it comes to available coaches, longtime Villanova coach Jay Wright — who has long expressed a reluctance to make the leap to the NBA — and Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Johnnie Bryant quickly emerged as presumed likely candidates … emphasis on presumed. Wright is obviously close with the Knicks' former Villanova trio of Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges but, again, has repeatedly said that he does not have NBA coaching aspirations.
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Seth Davis: I have been working with Jay Wright on TV for three years. Based on every conversation we have had I would say there is a greater chance that I will be the next Knicks coach than him. The difference is if they call me I will say yes.
Jeff Goodman: I’ve talked to Jay Wright several times about the possibility of coming out of retirement. Each time he said he is ecstatic with his life right now and has no interest in coaching again. It’s also very different coaching guys in college and coaching the same guys in the NBA.
Dave McMenamin: Donte DiVincenzo came into the locker room pregame flashing his fingers in a V, with a huge smile on his face, talking about Pope Leo. “I’m having a great day!” he exclaimed. He said Coach Jay Wright texted their Wildcats group chat: “Did you see it guys?!?! Nova pride!”
Jalen Brunson on coach Tom Thibodeau and Jay Wright: They’re both maniacs when it comes to their profession. 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.
To get the sophomore to practice the way he played in games, Villanova and former Knicks teammate Ryan Arcidiacono told The Athletic that coaches would have to intentionally push Hart’s buttons. Wildcats assistant coach Ashley Howard said the staff “would have to talk trash” to Hart in order to get him engaged. Former Villanova head coach Jay Wright would challenge him separately in ways that “you can’t say in an interview.” Bridges started his college career on the scout team and would be matched up against Hart. He ended up being the target of Hart’s aggressive energy directed toward the coaches. “Josh use to terrorize Mikal early on,” Howard told The Athletic. “Mikal wasn’t physically where he eventually got, and Josh is Josh.”
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Bridges said durability was instilled by his mother and Villanova coach Jay Wright, but there were some dicey moments along the way. “One where I was in Phoenix, where I hyperextended my knee,” Bridges explained. “We were going to San Antonio, I was real nervous. It was painful. … Then when I was in Brooklyn, I did something to my wrist. I thought I broke my hand. I couldn’t sleep at night. It was bad. And then when I woke up, it was just my wrist.”
New York Knicks superstar point guard Jalen Brunson is a Villanova legend. Was there a chance that Brunson would have transferred after his freshman season with the Wildcats? Rick Brunson, Jalen’s father and a former NBA player and current Knicks assistant coach, joined his son in an appearance on the “Come and Talk 2 Me” podcast with former NBA player, head coach and broadcaster Mark Jackson. There, the elder Brunson spoke about how disappointed he was during Brunson’s freshman season at Villanova. “One thing Jay Wright was good at, he would talk to you and talk you off the ledge because I thought I saw more, and Jay was great, he handled it great,” Rick Brunson said. “But I was like man this ain’t gonna work, and to Jalen’s credit man, Jalen was like you got to relax man, I got this.”
“You know for him to say that to me you know it definitely comforted me but I’m still like I wanted more you know his freshman year,” Rick Brunson continued. “But I give the credit to him and Jay like talking to me because Jay could have said man, I’m tired of your father and I’m tired of you, you need to transfer.”
Jay Wright rules out coaching again
Jay Wright, the former Villanova coach who retired in 2022, reiterated in an interview with The Post that he has no interest in returning to coaching at the age of 62. He’s loving life as a CBS college basketball analyst. “No,” Wright said, when asked if he has any interest in coaching again. “It’s humbling that someone would even mention you or think about you. I’ve been around so long, all the guys who are making the decisions, I know those guys. I wasn’t talking to [Lakers general manager] Rob Pelinka at the end of that. There were no conversations. “
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