Posted by kam77:
Posted by Marv:
Posted by GKFv2:
I forgot who brought him here to lead the team. Someone remind me.
let's just say it was that idiot layden and leave it at that.
Kinda funny but a little true. From what I know, (maybe nysportsfan11 can correct me if i'm wrong) Layden had laid the groundwork but wouldn't pull the trigger. Mills got wind of this and convinced Dolan to axe Layden and bring in someone who would be willing to give up the "assets" we had.
Layden did all the work around that deal. The problem was he didn't want to take on Penny's contract.
That's not why he got the axe though. Attendance was stagnant and Layden ran things without the corporate mentality of the Garden. He made it known that he thought the media policy was b.s. He let Anucha, Dan, Jeff Nix and pretty much all other staff shoot around after practice. He wore flip flops, shorts and a sweatshirt everywhere and spent most of his time in Westchester at the practice facility. He was a gym rat. He moved the way every other GM in the league (except NY) moves. He didn't want to address the media too often and hated that part of the job especially since he could never really be honest and relaxed with them the way he could in Utah. He didn't want to be the star. He wasn't polished enough for Dolan and Mills.
The players and staff liked him because he was a cool dude and sheltered them from a lot of the corporate stuff, but they didn't like how he disagreed with a lot of stuff that was mandated by Mills and Dolan but didn't stand up to them. Layden was cool on the low and treated everyone well. He didn't make any enemies in the organization and actually genuinely respected the fans' opinions. He was just incompetent as hell as far as having a long term plan that was taking too damn long and taking Dolan's mandate for "character guys" as "fill the whole team with a bunch of boring old guys."
