According to longtime NBA insider Marc Stein, the Knicks spent some time looking into whether or not there was a way they could pry Joe Mazzulla away from the Celtics during the offseason.

The Knicks fired coach Tom Thibodeau after they beat the Celtics and made the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000. They ultimately hired two-time NBA Coach of the Year Mike Brown as his replacement.

“Yet it has also been whispered that the Knicks likely did some backchannel exploration to determine if there was any pathway to pursue Boston’s Joe Mazzulla,” Stein wrote. “There obviously was not … and then the Celtics extended Mazzulla’s contract in August.”

Mazzulla was asked about the report during a recent appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Zolak and Bertrand.”

“That never

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