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islesfan
Posts: 9999
Alba Posts: 37
Joined: 7/19/2004
Member: #712
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Posted by PresIke:
Posted by islesfan:
Posted by PresIke:
Posted by islesfan:
Even without the added media attention, I don't remember those other guys getting into the kind of things that Isiah has, be it inciting the brawl, Anuchagate, telling his players to break another player's foot, saying that he would "murder" another player if they tried certain tactics with him, getting into pissing contests with several media people (Simmons and Anthony for starters) and I'm sure I'm leaving more out.
Isiah has brought even more negative attention on himself but let's ignore that.
Those incidents certainly play a role in some fans negative view of Isiah. However, that has not been the main criticism of him for the past 3 years. That issue came up only this year as coach, so those who have been very critical of him since day one or during/after last season did not have that as part of the ammunition for attacks on Isiah. If that is the primary difference, then this could be seen as suggesting that maybe the past years of criticism as he being "the worst GM/Prez" have been overly stated due to lack of perspective in terms of comparing him to other GMs/Presidents. Secondly, Isiah's behavior, while seemingly depolorable from one vantage point, can also be seen as a strategic move to both reverse the negative chemistry residue left from Brown's rule and, in fairness, work to please Dolan in terms of not criticizing players/the team in public. As for the media attacks, based on the fact that Isiah has been de-constructed far more than the likes of Ainge and Mchale, and based on his background it is little wonder that he would be defensive about it. I'm not necessarily defending his behavior with them, but I'm not so sure that it implies he's crazy.
[Edited by - PresIke on 02-09-2007 1:06 PM]
Isiah's classless behavior to have Chaney escorted from the building was 3 years ago.
Isiah's classless behavior towards Wilkens was 2 years ago.
Isiah pandering to Marbury over his coaches has happened every year before, surprise!, this one.
The first is a fair example of someone who wants to criticze Isiah's charcater, but I still argue that these are not the major reasons that most critics had a beef with him. It was mostly the handling of the salary cap, roster moves & poor record. The coaching carosel certainly falls into this as well, but I'm not sure if people were up in arms about Cheney's firing or Lenny's after the teams performance under their control. Cheney's firing was not the same as Lenny either. Maybe I'm not clear as to how Lenny going was "classless." In fact, this is a direct quote from Frank Isola's article from the Daily News on who was behind the decision to pressure Wilkins to step down:
According to a team source, Garden chairman James Dolan - and not Isiah Thomas - made the final decision on Wilkens' tenure in New York. Dolan, who attended Friday's game, was upset following the Knicks' ninth loss in 10games. Dolan and Thomas met for 15 minutes in a room near the Knicks' locker room, and it was there that Dolan told Thomas to make the team's second coaching change in 13months.
from:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/story/274043p-234689c.html
As for the last point, "pandering" to a teams' star player is not exactly something new in the world of professional sports. It may be that to those who felt that Marbury was not worthy of such acclaim this was a problem, but the behavior itself, protection of star players over coaches, especially in a players league such as the NBA, is not exactly something that necessarily causes one to see this as a flaw in the character of a GM/President.
In fact, as it stands, all of the coaches on the Knicks who worked under Marbury clearly did not work together with him as well as Isiah this season, which could lead one to say that Isiah was right, in some sense. The question really is about the actual aquisition of Marbury, not Isiah's protection of him, because clearly Marbury's contract and association with "losing" made it hard to move him, so it was then up to Isiah do commit all of his energy into making the Knicks work with Steph. Obviously, it has ended with Isiah himself having to coach the team, but the results, while not exactly something to go crazy about, have been an improvement over his play under former Knick coaches.
[Edited by - PresIke on 02-09-2007 3:49 PM]
[Edited by - PresIke on 02-09-2007 3:51 PM]
Nobody said that those were the major reasons that most critics had a beef with Isiah, just pointing out that Isiah had all these other issues that the old Celtics didn't. That, along with his track record as GM, are probably why some people think Isiah gets criticized more frequently than other below average GM's.
Dolan has, to his detriment, allowed his sports teams GM's great leeway when it comes to running their teams. I don't think there has been a personnel move that Dolan has made unilaterally without the blessing or guidance of his GM's.
Allowing a player to continue to be a cancer and a coach killer by coddling him and never backing up his coaches, until he's the one coaching him, is a HUGE flaw. It goes back to always kissing his best players asses to keep them on his side. Stoudemire, O'Neal, Marbury and now Curry. Marbury tried to do his defiant routine early in the season but realized that it was a dead end with Isiah being both coach and GM plus he had zero credibility since he had the one coach that he said he could work with. He caved and is finally doing what every coach wanted him to do. That has more to do with what a complete jackass Marbury is than anything else.
If it didn’t work in Phoenix with Nash and Stoutamire... it’s just not a winning formula. It’s an entertaining formula, but not a winning one. - Derek Harper talking about D'Antoni's System
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2/9/2007 3:48 PM