Knicks’ ticking clock won’t stop for Leon Rose’s massive decision

At the end of the classic movie “The Candidate,” Bill McKay, a young politician played by Robert Redford, has just been elected to the Senate, and he is being swallowed up by supporters and media folks at his hotel when he spots his campaign manager, Marvin Lucas (the late, and always great, Peter Boyle). 

They duck into a service elevator, and then a room, momentarily shut off from the madding crowd. The two have spent much of the movie figuring out how to get elected, and spent precious little time figuring out what they’ll do if they actually get elected. 

“Marvin,” McKay says as the crowd finds the room and begins to pour in. And drowned out by the rancor the senator-elect offers one of the great closing lines in any movie ever: “What do we do now?” 

For those of us who’ve long held the opinion that the Knicks would be foolish to fire Tom Thibodeau, we’ve had similar conversations with the loud voices of rebuttal on that matter the past few months. And much like a political conversation between two dug-in members of opposing aisles, these back-and-forths never end with a settlement.