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Tom Thibodeau edges Monty Williams as NBA Coach of the Year

The NBA announced on Monday that New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has been named Coach of the Year.

Thibodeau edged Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams for the honor. Williams (45) actually got more first-place votes from media members than Thibodeau (43), but Thibodeau's 351 points edged Williams' 340 to secure the award. Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder (161 points) finished a distant third.

The award is Thibodeau's second. He also won the honor in 2011 as head coach of the Chicago Bulls.

In his first season in New York, Thibodeau coached the Knicks to a 41-31 record and fourth-place finish in the East on the heels of a 21-45 Knicks campaign in 2019-20. The Knicks made their first playoff appearance since 2013, where they lost, 4-1 to the Atlanta Hawks in the first round.

New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau reacts after being assessed a technical foul during the second quarter against the Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden in New York on Wednesday, April, 28, 2021. (Vincent Carchietta/Pool Photo via AP)
Tom Thibodeau won a tight vote over Monty Williams to be named NBA Coach of the Year.(Vincent Carchietta/Pool Photo via AP)

Monty Williams was voted Coach of Year by fellow coaches

In May, Williams' NBA coaching peers voted him as the National Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year. In his second season in Phoenix, the Suns improved from a 10th-place finish (34-39) last season to secure the league's second-best record (51-21) and the No. 2 seed in the West. The Suns defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs to advance to a second-round series against the Denver Nuggets.

Both of the honors are regular-season awards that don't consider playoff performance.

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