Jeff Hornacek Reportedly to Be Knicks Coach: Twitter Reacts to New York’s Hire

Phil Jackson is finally going outside the family. According to reports Wednesday, the New York Knicks president tabbed his next head coach and is set to hire former Phoenix Suns boss Jeff Hornacek.

Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck first reported the news. Hornacek, 53, went 101-112 in parts of three seasons in Phoenix. He was fired in February following an ugly 14-35 start.

Zach Lowe of ESPN analyzed the pick from a big-picture perspective:

Hornacek is a good coach — creative thinker, adaptable to roster skill set. Big questions are obviously: triangle, defense. Solid hire.

— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) May 18, 2016

Hornacek was one of four known candidates for the job, per ESPN.com’s Marc Stein. The prohibitive favorite throughout the process was interim coach Kurt Rambis, who took over for Derek Fisher 54 games into the campaign. The Knicks went 9-19 under Rambis, but that was largely seen as irrelevant.

Rambis is a longtime Jackson confidante who shares nearly identical basketball philosophies. In some ways, it was thought that if Jackson couldn’t coach the team himself, he’d install Rambis to maintain a strong influence. When the Knicks didn’t hire Rambis, the Twittersphere went all out with varying reactions—most of them bordering on glee:

“Rambis” becomes verb meaning to cleverly lower expectations by leaking worst possible outcome

— Ben Mathis-Lilley (@BenMathisLilley) May 18, 2016

I like this hire 90% because it’s not Rambis and 10% because now there’s a chance we’ll have an offense from this decade let’s get drunk

— Bruvi Shankar (@YungCostanza) May 18, 2016

Here is my analysis on the Knicks hiring Jeff Hornacek: It is not Kurt Rambis. So that’s a good thing.

— Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) May 18, 2016 …

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