What I want to say and what I've been saying is Bill Simmons dosen't respect black people.

My point on the whole Isiah overkill is that this guy inherited one of the worst put togehter rosters in league history. How does anyone think he was going to bring back youing talented players without taking back some bad contracts. I havent' liked all the moves he's made and I think there's been some stinkers but the guy had to turnover that roster. He had no choice. And when you turn over a roster of 12 people, guess what, you are going to make mistakes. I'm not sold on Marbury, I'm not sold on Zeke but as a partially educated fan that understands rebuilding I know I have to give it time.

I keep hearing all this negative stuff about Marbury. The truth is that he has shortcomings. The truth is he has been a pain in the ass in the past. But it is also obvious by his play this year that he is listening to LB. So some sportswriter please give me examples of clashes not brought to you by unnamed sources. Just one example. Instead these sportswriters read into and interpret every little sound bite that is made like a girl returning from her first date. It's outplayed.

Look at the body of work, or the team composition.

Its younger more athletic. In NY, you can afford to buy your way out.

A few bad moves, but it gave the luxury to take some chances.

Misterearl: You are correct. And the funny thing is that the newspaper that survives will be the one that goes back to just stating the facts. Oh sweet irony.

There could very well someday be a clash between LB and Zeke. But right now they both seem to understand where they are right now and that changes need to be made. But everytime LB criticizes a player for the rest of the year we are going to have to hear about how some unnamed source caught LB and Isiah in a bathroom strangling each other.

This is the last two articles I want to show the people so they can see what really happened to Isiah when he had plans that never came to fruition. Isiah was trying to make the NBDL before exisited with his purchase of the CBA but David Stern stole his idea and ran with it. This firs article explains what he planned to do with the CBA and the last one is when he had to sell it

Isiah Thomas Buys Continental Basketball Association

Move could create a minor league system for NBA, hurt colleges


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Detroit, August 3, 1999 -- Former NBA star Isiah Thomas agreed to buy the Continental Basketball Association, a second-tier professional league for $10 million. The CBA operates in the shadows of the NBA, with franchises in smaller cities and players, while pros, have not made it to the big league.

Don't underestimate the potential of this deal just because Thomas paid a relatively small price for the league. His NBA pedigree and stellar connections, give him the opportunity to revolutionize the basketball system as we now know it.

The acquisition will change the CBA structure to a single entity structure, such as the now-defunct ABL or Major League Soccer, where the league controls every aspect of governance. According to the New York Times, Thomas plans to expand the number of teams in the league, and give it a greater profile. What is more important is that the stage is now set for the creation of a minor league system in basketball -- a first -- causing premature gray hairs in scalps of many college sports administrators, University presidents and NCAA bureaucrats.

The NCAA Training Ground

Until now, men's college basketball has been the breeding grounds for talent in the NBA. There is no realistic alternative for young men to get their experience except in the top collegiate programs. But that system, under the jurisdiction of the NCAA, has its faults.

First, the role of the so-called "student-athlete" has received a great deal of debate and criticism. Are these young men primarily college students or college athletes? The NCAA believes they are students first, and has enacted a slew of regulations regarding their conduct, from acceptance of money to playing schedules. The rules are equal for all NCAA sanctioned colleges and in many cases, they make a good deal of sense. Just ask any collegiate tennis player or swimmer.

But because men's college basketball is so high-profile (with an annual orgy of hype every March) it generates considerable money for the colleges and the NCAA due to lucrative television contracts. Some colleges have an interest in keeping players, even those with academic deficiencies and will sometimes go to unethical and outrageous lengths to do so as seen in the recent case involving the University of Minnesota (click here).

A minor league can solve some of the problems and end much of the hypocrisy. If a high school kid is talented enough, and wishes to become a professional basketball player, he could bypass college and sign with a CBA team once he becomes a legal adult. He can hone his skills there and ultimately be "called up" by an NBA club if the time is right. He will be modestly paid for his services and could take college classes during the off-season (maybe the CBA can nurture co-operative educational programs). As Thomas said: "I don't recommend that anyone not go to school. This league would hopefully use a lot of programs with kids to continue their education."

More and more youngsters are bypassing the colleges to try their luck with the NBA. An NBA-affiliated CBA would undoubtedly increase that number. Those who do not make it to the NBA could have productive careers at the CBA. With a minor league system, more young people will have the opportunity to play professional basketball.

But this change will produce losers, first among them the colleges and their staffs. Alumni contributions -- often affected by the performance of an athletic team -- would decline if some of the best players would not attend school. The ratings and prestige of television broadcasts such as the NCAA tournament would also suffer. They could go the way of the NIT tournament -- a respected event, but without the quasi-religious air of its never rival.

If the sun sets on the era of de facto professional college basketball, the CBA purchase and revitalization could be a good thing.

and this article will rap it up

In the red

Financial difficulties force CBA to suspend play


Isiah Thomas and the CBA suffered a setback when the NBA decided to operate its own developmental league. AP

PHOENIX (AP) -- The Continental Basketball Association temporarily suspended play Thursday with league owner Isiah Thomas attempting to sell the teams back to local groups.

"After a long and exhaustive process, the trustee for the Isiah Thomas' blind trust has determined it is in the best interest of all parties concerned to return all CBA teams back to local ownership," the Phoenix-based league said.

The CBA said Thomas personally advanced funds to pay the players through their last games. The league said payments to non-player personnel and the resumption of the season will be determined by the local owners.

Eight of the league's 10 teams failed to met their player payrolls Friday, and it was questionable whether they had money to travel for road games.

Thomas, the former NBA star who is now the head coach of the Indiana Pacers, bought the CBA in October 1999 for slightly more than $9 million. He has been ordered by the NBA to sell the CBA before next season's training camp.

The Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette, citing a league source, reported Thursday that two parties interested in buying franchises walked out of the negotiations. The CBA, in its 55th season, apparently is nearly $1.5 million in debt.

The league's value plummeted when the NBA decided to operate its own developmental league rather than relying on the CBA, though the NBA extended its partnership through the current season.

This is the last time I defend Isiah on this site just because this isn't ultimateisiah.com. But I just wanted to show everybody how people can't wait to see Isiah fired but, other GM's with questionable moves are spared by the media and the fans. The Lakers GM traded Shaq and he just has one player left from that trade, but their is no crucify Kutchpak articles coming out on ESPN and I'm not going to even talk about Babock and Billy Knight. So this was my soapbox episode and I'll let it rest from here, but don't believe everything you hear until you get all sides of the story ok Bill Simmons. Good night


[Edited by - boomann on 11-16-2005 6:32 PM]

Posted by newyorknewyork:

Booman I wanna thankyou for taking the the time to dig up the articles and all that.

But to be realistic, these articles will get ignored, and if the knicks lose some games. Then by next week someone on the board will bring up how Isiah failed in Toronto, Indy, and with the CBA.

Sad but true. People knowingly turn a blind eye to factual information because it hurts their arguments when talking about Isiah and for the record most people don't even care to look what really happened. It's sad really.

Posted by MS:

What did he say that was wrong in the article, nearly every trade Isiah has made has been terrible, no exceptions he adds terrible contracts and under motivated me first players.....

Larry simply likes ****ing with people, he already lost one game golden state on his own, and continues to make questionable decisions with Malik Rose and Matt Barnes. Its a crime that Ariza is not starting, Lee is losing minutes and confidence and I'm sure feels pressure to try to earn rotation minutes....Fyre needs to be out there to open up the post for curry and use the pick and roll with marbury......Marbury needs a rest Crawford should play until he inserts Nate in which case Steph needs to be on the floor.....Malik and Davis should never play 20 minutes.......

Q is a gunner lets be honest, he had three All-Stars and one budding All-Star in the lineup so of course he is going to get open shots, he didn't shoot a high percentage whats really there to mention....its one thing if he is shooting 44% and taking smart shots but lets look at the situation before saying everyone's opinion is wrong.....

Would anyone with a brain trade for Crawford or sign Jerome James......not likely but Isiah did

Agreed. It's a little scary how come people on this board defend Isiah like he was their momma and just refuse to see any of what Simmons and plenty of other sports reporters and objective fans can see. For somebody who's been perfect it's amazing how we got smoked in the playoffs 2 years ago, won 33 games last year and are 2-5 this season.

As for all those say nothing articles that boomann dug up, Isiah never had those Toronto teams going anywhere, underachieved big time in Indiana and killed the CBA (dig up the SI article few years back detailing everything Isiah did to blow that league up and how he jumped ship at the end as told by the owners of the CBA franchises).

Posted by rvhoss:


I'm actually enjoying the naysayers...Isles hasn't posted in days.

How sweet of you to notice. Did you really miss me? I figured you needed a few days to calm down and compose yourself.

Misterearl are you serious........do you ever know anything about this game?

How did he turn Kurt Thomas into Frye, through the draft; the one area where he excels, how did we get him because we underachieved during the year and missed the playoffs

Your mentioning Tim Thomas into Ariza, he traded for Tim Thomas who is one of the biggest pieces of **** the game has ever seen…..

Q and Crawford, you pick one or the other not both…..

Isiahs moves, drafting he gets an A – (Butler, Fyre, Lee, Ariza are all very promising, Nate Rob the verdict is still out but he does bring energy and leadership and is a good teammate)

Trades D
He traded for immovable players with bloated deals, Mo Taylor, Malik Rose, Penny Hardaway, Jerome Williams, he traded big for small adding more salary more years killing any flexibility
The Curry trade was a good one and needed to be done because he put himself in a horrible situation to begin, where the only thing he could have done was trade and sign someone with a heart problem

Your mentioned **** that didn’t happen as a result of him trading for players, picking up an NBDL guy, or drafting someone with a pick we could have got with cash is not genius……

You would sign Crawford of Jerome James than you’re a god damn idiot…..JJ is one of the worst big men in the game doesn’t compete, stay in shape or have any fight in him and he complains…..Crawford regardless of his improvement over the last few games doesn’t defend and takes shots too early in the clock with no regard for the offense you can’t win with players like that. They may be more fun to watch, but how could they not be…….

Isiah does deals to do them, not really looking at the full situation, he has taken on a payroll that exceeds some teams on its own that is made of bench talent Penny(15.7) Rose (6.8 for three more years) Taylor (9.1 for two more) James (5.5 for 5), that’s nearly 37 million for 5 points and 5 rebounds a game……So all praise be to the GM he has really done his job…..

Is there a future yes, do we like our young guys yes, but chances are Isiah is going to do something stupid, definitely!!

So be blinded by the light always look for the silver lining and cut him all the slack in the world, he deserves it…..