Get to know Micah Nori—the Knicks’ latest HC interviewee

The New York Knicks are interviewing Minnesota Timberwolves lead assistant Micah Nori for the team’s head coaching job, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.

A new hat has been thrown into the ring for the Knicks’ coaching position. Strangely enough, it’s a baseball cap.

Basepath to the NBA

Micah Nori’s pathway into the inner circle of NBA coaching is a strange one, but like many things in life, it started with who he knew. Following a standout baseball career as a middle infielder at Indiana University, where he hit .305 from 1994 to 1997 and was eventually named a team captain, Nori understandably looked to pursue a career in the sport; his sport.

Just not as a player.

After his career on the diamond was over, Nori became a graduate assistant at Miami of Ohio under Tracy Smith in 1998 and became their hitting coach in 1999. Smith was also the pitching coach at Indiana during Nori’s time there.

Nori would eventually return to his Alma mater in 2005 to serve as the Hoosiers’ hitting coach. So, what went on in between then?

He was working in the NBA for the Toronto Raptors, of course.

After his short stint at Miami, Nori was on the brink of accepting a job as a high school athletic director in Ohio when his phone rang. On the other side of the call was Butch Carter, a fellow Middletown, OH native, former IU basketball player, and then-head coach of the Raptors.

Carter, who played high school football for Nori’s father, was calling to offer a job as a coach’s assistant in Toronto. Nori accepted.

Over the next six-odd years, Nori abandoned the diamond for the hardwood, working his way up the ranks and to the title of “advanced scout” for an actual, real-life NBA basketball team.

He would return to Indiana Baseball in 2005, as previously stated, before the pendulum swung back to basketball in 2009. This time as a full-time assistant coach with the Raptors. Since then, the two-sport lasagna that is Micah Nori’s coaching career has had nothing but layers of NBA experience added to it.

Career timeline

While the average fan might not be familiar with him, Nori has garnered notoriety among smaller NBA circles for making the most out of his short midgame interviews, a mandatory activity many coaches loathe, with his unique way of addressing Minnesota’s game plan coming out of the break.

Subbed for Finch in a cinch

Nori also notably served as the Timberwolves’ associate head coach for a whopping one minute and 43 seconds during the 2024 NBA Playoffs after Chris Finch ruptured his patellar tendon following a collision with Mike Conley late in the game.

After inheriting a four-point lead, he coached the Wolves to victory and a complete sweep of the Phoenix Suns, who scored only three points in that timeframe.

But it’s not all funny phrases and nepotistic victories. Nori has honed his abilities in the shadows of championship winners and Hall of Famers while building a resume potentially worthy of getting a team to call his own.

Hall of foundation

In 2015, Nori served as the Denver Nuggets’ Summer League head coach. Nobody knew it at the time, but it was the first NBA action seen from future three-time league MVP and 2023 NBA champion Nikola Jokić, whom the Nuggets drafted in the second round the year prior. Everyone’s eyes were instead on the eventual infamous Knick, Emmanuel Mudiay.

While the stats were nothing to write home about for the former, the eye test showed that the makings of an NBA-caliber player were there with the proper coaching. In the meantime, the Summer Nuggs finished with a 3-0 record under Nori, who also got the gig over the next two summers.

While Jokić achieved MVP status only after Nori left for the Motor City, the now surefire Hall of Famer still credits him with his ascent to stardom in the world’s top basketball league as a second-round pick.

“He really believed in me since Day 1,” Jokić told Mike Singer in 2023.

Dogs with KAT

Nori also had three years of experience coaching Karl-Anthony Towns on Minnesota’s bench prior to KAT’s arrival in the Big Apple, during which he was responsible for orchestrating some dynamic double-big actions with KAT at the forefront.

While Tom Thibodeau had a reputation as a “big man whisperer,” Nori might just be the new-age version of him.