Dear God…Knicks in 4

Maybe he was just protecting his player? No reason in admitting it to the media.

Someone should probably stop him from speaking.

Atkinson need to be drug tested if he truly believe that Harden is one of the Cavaliers best defenders.

My god

I said in the game thread.

They just traded Garland for Harden and he has a player option for this upcoming season that he could decline and become a free agent.

I feel like there’s a chance Kenny feels like he can’t bench him because he has to convince Harden to re-sign and extend this offseason.

Holy shit this series is over.

You don’t have to throw your guy under the bus of course, but come on with that shit.

Jason Kidd just became available.

Should’ve pulled him for Schröder. Hell, he probably should’ve pulled Mitchell too. Both guys contributed nothing down the stretch.

With the lead they had, they didn’t need to worry about offense. They just had to slow the Knicks down.

Yea agreed. Leave him in

Come on man

Congrats Knick fans

BBQ Chicken

Mental illness.

Harden was actually decent defensively vs the Raptors and okay vs the Pistons, but he was burnt toast tonight. Can’t just keep letting them score on him over and over

Yeah sweet Knicks in 4 then

He either couldnt or wouldnt move side to side when guarding brunson , as a coach you need to at least try to not have your worst defender guard the other teams best player

buddy what?

ON WHAT PLANET?!

Lmao fuck min what? I’m sorry Cavs fans, that is some Boylen level stupidity right there

I cannot believe this quote. If he actually believes this he needs to be fired and never coach again in the NBA - because James Harden not only is a horrible defender - he for huge stretches of games doesn’t even play it.

Edit: I re watched the game and this quote is even MORE insane than I originally thought. James Harden gambles on lazy perimeter defensive swipes like a dozen times in this game and almost every single one leads to a basket. If you really analyze this, it could be a LEGENDARY all time bad defensive game and the coach is celebrating it.

Thats it, this man is on drugs.

this guy probably thought the nets implosion was his fault for coaching too hard and now he’s a broken timid man.

welp

Great coaching

Keep him in all game for game 2

It was so inexplicable that I wondered if Kenny had something against Harden and that he wanted him to get embarrassed over and over again for 10 straight possessions.

I agree with Kenny, I truly believe Harden can lockdown Brunson. Keep doing it, it’ll click

I don’t ever think I’ve seen a single player get torched like that on every possession…

This was coaching malpractice, plain and simple. James could be a trusted defender AND clearly struggling in that moment. What you can’t do is stand there with your fucking arms crossed for that entire melt down, plus overtime. You literally did nothing to earn a paycheck for the 4th Q and overtime, and absolutely owe Dan Gilbert that money back you just stole.

First blind coach in the association

“no, I prefer to willingly give the opposing team 4-on-3 advantages with four shooters than put any of my capable wings on the bench into the game.” Thank you Kenny, please keep doing that

Not only was he not calling timeout he wasnt watching the game either apparently.

We need to fire Atkinson before he gets the front office to extend Harden

What does Harden have on Atkinson? Do they go visit strip clubs together?

There is no universe in which 2026 James Harden is even an average POA defender.

I don’t take what coaches say seriously because they protect their players or don’t want to give away any game plan, but this is straight up crazy to say.

He kinda has to defend Harden but you definitely couldve worded it a little better or by trying to help him out instead of letting him get burnt repeatedly

Kenny followed up an all time playoff collapse with an all time horrible press conference.

Someone cut his mic

media was hoping for a doc rivers answer moment, but there’s only one doc rivers

Harden was getting handled on D and couldn’t stop Brunson for shit. Cavs gift wrapped this game for whatever reason and don’t get me started on the clock management and timeouts. Absolute shit show for the money these jackoffs make.

His hands and brains weren’t the problem kenny, its that his fucking legs couldn’t keep him in front of the man he was trying to guard

Oh boy…

GGs. Cavs not winning this series. They’re playing against Kenny and the Knicks

Oh, don’t say that. Why would you say that?

Wow.

My only regret is that the Knicks will clinch in Cleveland in G4 and not in front of the MSG crowd.

It was worse scheming than play… he’s gotta get some help or double the ball out of Brunson… but if your vet PG can’t stop the bleeding what’s he doing in there?! If he actually ran some offense and scored A COUPLE buckets it WOULD have been over. It’s the total collapse on both ends and bad coaching. James does get blame too. So does Donovan and Mobley

Has this guy always been this clueless in press conferences or is he having a bit of a meltdown?

is brotha blind? Brunson cooked Har_en’s ass out there

Wait, but….. Perimeter defense, James Harden… What?

Get some duct tape on this man’s mouth

Can’t believe I’m hearing “James Harden been one of our best defenders in these playoffs”.

this guy won coach of the year last season lol

People acting like this is some crazy take when Harden does have great hands and has been perfectly fine defensively this postseason. I’m not going to knock a 36 year old for not being able to guard Brunson one on one.

“Yeah I should have taken him out, that guy sucks”

• A terrible coach

Harden is Petty. He remembers his best years like they were yesterday. You can’t talk down on him or he will sell the team. The man doesn’t care he will just request another trade lol

I still can’t believe it was a thing the past couple of months on social media to compare Harden and Dwyane Wade and for some to say that Harden was clearly superior. Nephew ass take

Totally agree man.

I don’t think publicly ripping one of his top players has any upside whatsoever, everyone already knows what happened

Atkinson did a poor job in general but he’s right that blaming a 22 pt collapse in a couple of minutes on one player is absurd

Everyone played badly down the stretch. Making this a James Harden issue ignores the deeper issues

The conspiracy that I believe is that Kenny Atkinson hates James Harden’s guts.

Fire him now.

Bring in Jason Kidd off a layaway flight would coach better.

Harden Slips the floor, shifts the score, bricks galore, Knicks in 4.

Oh no, he was a good defender 7-8 years ago Kenny

Lmaoooo

someone check Kenny Atkinsons draftkings account

Yeahhhhhh Kenny’s gotta go next year

lmao

basketball terrorist

Defies common sense.

Kenny need glasses

Translation: I can’t bad mouth one of my star players in Game 1 so I’m gonna say I’ll do the wrong thing and keep him in the game while hoping we never find ourselves within a single possession on our last defensive play at the end of the games in this series.

please don’t think about it at all!!!

Bro is a sleeper agent

ChatGPT would’ve coached this game better.

He has to get fired.

He’s clearly trying to get fired so he can collect 3 more years of pay with no work . You simply don’t coach like him or give press conferences like that if it weren’t true . Fuck him

He and Jonny bryant were former knicks assistant coaches. They might be a plant from us

Watch the video, Kenny.

When asked about benching James Harden on defense: “No… Smart… Didn’t think about that”

He should have had the balls to do it

Did they ask him about the timeouts at all too?

He’s been what?

And to think, we might resign Harden and knowing my luck, not fire Kenny….. kill me, kill me now

You are cooked if Harden is one of your best defender.

COOKED!

He does have great hands. Harden isn’t a good defender but he’s fat and hard to move and he has great hands, undeniably so.

I agree with Kenny. Harden has been a great defender. He was probably just tired from that game 7. I think they should continue to let him guard Brunson in isolation.

J Kidd

Lebron

Kyrie

it’s Happening

Probably didn’t even need to take Harden out. But you also didn’t have to leave him out there to die on an island vs brunson. Put Wade in for Merril and hide Harden on OG or Shamet who was out there.

What’s he supposed to say? James sucks at defense of course I considered it.

F A D E D

Coach protecting his group and his players

Nothing wrong with this, you aren’t going to say otherwise about a key player. Actually benching him would have been wild, you need your top dogs on the court down the stretch.

Knicks in 5 probably

Blink twice if you wish you were allowed to bench him, Kenny.

He had a similar response after Game 2 against the Pistons. Harden had high turnovers with inefficient shooting. Atkinson said Harden didn’t get the ball enough.

Up by 20, you put in your defensive line.

People piling on this coach like the Cavs weren’t significant underdogs going in.