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djsunyc
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Knicks' Debacle Full of Irony, Blame
Let the Bad Times Roll if Isiah Replaces Brown
By JIM ARMSTRONG, AOL Exclusive
May 15, 2006
So the wheels are in gear for the Knicks to buy out Larry Brown . Not that they need the money, but I'll bet if they went to Stephon Marbury and asked him to pitch in, he'd do it in New York minute. And you didn't think he was a team player.
Talk about your ugly situations. At least the Knicks' vice president hasn’t shot anyone on a hunting trip lately. Of course, since he works for the Knicks and all, he probably would have missed anyway.
With the Clippers having risen to the top of the NBA food chain in Los Angeles, the Knicks officially have become the laughingstock of the league - no easy feat with the highest payroll this side of the Saudi Arabian royal family.
It's one thing to be bad. It's another thing to be God awful with the highest payroll in the business and no breathing room under the salary cap. Only Isiah Thomas could have pulled that off that trifecta.
Heck of a player, Isiah. As for his management skills and personnel savvy ... did I mention he was a heck of a player? Apparently James Dolan, the Knicks owner, is the only person in New York who doesn't think Isiah should be pushing a broom instead of pushing buttons in the ivory tower.
Last July, Thomas promised everyone the answer was to bring in Brown to coach on the NBA version of the Island of Misfit Toys. Now, less than a year later, he wants to run off Brown and take over the reins as head coach? What, does he need the Marriott points?
Putting Thomas on the bench would be the Knicks' biggest mistake yet. And trust me, that's saying something given the current state of affairs in the asylum formerly known as Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks, thanks mostly to Thomas' bumbling ways, have more question marks than Matthew Lesko's sportscoat. The only thing they have going for them is Brown's coaching ability. Well, that and those spiffy $1,500 suits Thomas wears at courtside when he’s not hiding from the season-ticket holders.
OK, so Brown didn’t get the job done. All right, so that's an understatement for the ages. He was an abomination, not to mention an embarrassment. The key thing to keep in mind was why he was an abomination and an embarrassment.
It's called expectations.
In retropect, no coach could have won with the roster Thomas had assembled. The Knicks' 23-59 season should have put everyone to sleep. Instead, their fans and media were up in arms.
Why? Because with Brown on the bench, they expected a respectable season, if not a miracle. That tells you all you need to know about who should be coaching the Knicks next season.
Either way, Brown or Thomas, the Knicks' talent level is lower than Calista Flockhart's cholesterol. But with Brown around, at least they would have hope.
Brown never met a horrible team he couldn't turn around. He has overseen more amazing makeovers than Oprah's nutritionist. It’s his specialty, his M.O., his trademark, his legacy.
Yes, the Knicks players revolted against him. Yes, by the last week of the season, he was so sick to his stomach he landed in the hospital. And yes, his coaching strategy by the dog days of the season was reduced to, in his words, "begging guys to play."
Yeah, and what else is new? Brown has seen it all through the years. Dissension, turmoil, point guards who care more about points than guarding anyone. You name it, he's been there, done that. The bottom line is that, no matter how ugly things have been, he has found a way to win.
And now, after Brown failed to produce an immediate about-face for the first time in his career, Dolan apparently wants to replace him with Thomas, who couldn’t get out of the first round of the playoffs with the Pacers ' talent in the early 2000s. Hey, don't ask me. All I can figure is Dolan didn’t have the nerve to fire Thomas the GM. Maybe he's doing this so he can fire Thomas the coach.
Who would have thought it would come to this for Brown? Talk about your ironic twists. He had finally found what he called his dream job. He was in his golden years, in his hometown, coaching his beloved Knicks, with the biggest contract of any coach in any sport.
You had to think, maybe just this once, he wouldn't bolt after a year or two in pursuit of his next reclamation project. And now, from all indications, he won’t have a choice in the matter.
No doubt, Marbury and his teammates are happy to hear it's going down. But mark my words: Before you know it, Thomas, too, will be sick to his stomach. And he'll have no one to blame but himself.
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6/21/2006 12:55 AM
