Gilbert Arenas recently revisited a bizarre NBA moment involving Tom Thibodeau’s extremely short stint with the Washington Wizards.
According to Arenas, Thibodeau lasted just one day as a coach before walking away. Arenas suggested it may have been due to his own behavior or the locker room vibe. But former teammate Brendan Haywood remembers it differently.
Tom Thibodeau’s One-Day Wizards Tenure Resurfaces in Gilbert Arenas’ Story
On a recent episode of “Gil’s Arena,” Gilbert Arenas shared one of the strangest coaching stories in NBA history: Tom Thibodeau’s one-day run with the Wizards. Arenas said the veteran coach ran a single practice before quitting on the spot.
“He was our coach for one day,” former teammate Nick Young said. “Put all of us through the practice, and he said, ‘Man, get this m*********** out of here. I can’t do this s***. I’m not dealing with this s***.’”
Gil watched one Thibs’ practice and knew he was going to get fired 😂 pic.twitter.com/nr1EPJCtzk
— Gil’s Arena (@GilsArenaShow) June 3, 2025
Arenas, who wasn’t even practicing that day, said the session was long and overly rigid.
“Five on O, five on five, five on O again, then back to five on five… you’ve been talking for 30 minutes, now you wanna go live — all these n****s about to get hurt,” he recalled.
Thibodeau’s brief run came before the 2007–08 season. The Wizards, led by Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler, had the league’s fourth-ranked offense the year prior but finished with one of the NBA’s worst defenses. To fix that, team president Ernie Grunfeld added Thibodeau to head coach Eddie Jordan’s staff as a defensive specialist.
Former Wizards center Brendan Haywood backed up Arenas’ story during a 2021 appearance on Wizards Pregame Live.
“Tom Thibodeau for a hot second was the defensive coordinator for the Washington Wizards … for one day.”
But Haywood added that Thibodeau’s exit wasn’t really about the players.
“He didn’t feel the energy was great between him and the current coaching staff, so he left.”
Knicks Part Ways With Tom Thibodeau Following Eastern Conference Finals Exit
Despite leading the New York Knicks to their best playoff run in 25 years, head coach Tom Thibodeau was let go on Tuesday, June 3, just three days after the team’s six-game loss to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals.
Thibodeau guided New York to back-to-back 50-win seasons for the first time since 1995. He passed Pat Riley earlier this season to rank fourth all-time in franchise coaching wins. He signed a three-year extension last summer and was widely seen as the Knicks’ most successful coach in more than two decades.
Thibodeau’s roots in New York go back to the 1990s when he was an assistant under Jeff Van Gundy. Assistant coach Rick Brunson, a former Knicks player, often brought his son Jalen Brunson — now the team’s star point guard — to practices.
New York was Thibodeau’s third head coaching job after playoff stints with the Chicago Bulls (2010–15) and Minnesota Timberwolves (2016–19).
