misterearl wrote:Whose bright idea was it to Madison Square Garden into an amusement park?

Similar braintrust that turned Times Square into an amusement park.

There are strong indications that Pacers coach Frank Vogel will be retained after taking over for Jim O'Brien and losing to the top-seeded Bulls 4-1 in the first round. It also is believed that team president Larry Bird, who has been contemplating retirement, will be back next season, sources with knowledge of the situation told CBSSports.com.

Guessing that Larry Bird staying in Indiana will be a pretty big factor on Walsh deciding to stay in NY.

BRIGGS wrote:

ItalianStallion wrote:Walsh and D'Antoni were being good soldiers when they said they were "on board" with the trade. They both hated it!

All season long D'Antoni said he was very happy with the current squad, its upside, cap space etc... and didn't want to change much. All season long Walsh said he would NOT gut the team to make a trade. Then they gutted the team and overpaid for a moderately better version of a ball stopping Al Harrington that doesn't fit the system and doesn't play defense. No freaking way!

There aren't many people in the world dumb enough to do that. Here's the list:

1. Dolan
2. Isiah
3. All Knicks beat writers, sports radio call in hosts, and most Knicks bloggers
4. A lot of Knicks fans that don't understand the game

IMO both Walsh and D'Antoni are trying to figure out a way to get out of NY with some level of dignity and self respect without also calling Dolan, the NY sports media and most Knicks fans complete a-holes and morons.

I think it's Yankeeitis and brain-washing. The NY fans always see the Yankees play well and win big with big names. Then you had guys like Lupica Francesca etc... beg to bring Melo in at any cost because were just getting rid of role players. The brainwashed fan believes that because Boston has a trio of top line players and Miami does--means we have to and that it will work big time. Guess what---it never had a chance.

The Knicks are the ANTI Yankees.

Remember when Minnesota wanted a kings ransom for Santana? They wanted the Yankee's star prospects and Santana was probably the best pitcher (certainly top 5) in MLB. Yanks passed and signed CC in the offseason. Yanks built a dynasty around home grown talent supplemented by star FAs.

The Knicks were in position to exactly the same, and they traded it all away.

Now.. once they WON, and had a massive revenue stream as a result of WINNING the Yankees have certainly gone out and spent money to continue the winning, but the Yankee success was not bought, it was home grown.

There are candidates, yet it requires a special skill set and street cred to play the game in New York.

Donnie Walsh was undermined, overruled and eventually out maneuvered. The contract smokescreen could not mask his frustration, no matter how good a soldier he portrayed to the media. He is too old to go out like that. Now, who will take the weight?

The best time to play amateur GM to recommend a GM is when you do not have a President or General Manager

Q. holfresh: How can you be undermined by the owner of the team?

A. When the owners agenda is raising ticket prices in his remodeled arena (the catwalks are wack) as quickly as possible and the President of Basketball Operations prime directive is patiently building a championship contending roster.

Juice wrote:The situation here is going to go from Volcanic to Earthquake to Tsunami to Hurricane.....might as well get a move on while he can.

He is part to blame though but there are others more at fault

Part A of this original quote was off(left out and edited...lol)

but

Part B of this edited quote was spot on

misterearl wrote:holfresh - asinine?

Really?

"Despite reports that he was on verge of re-signing and not re-signing, Walsh said that he had decided that he was too tired or old or some combination thereof to accommodate Dolan — as usual, nowhere to be found Friday — on a multiyear commitment.

According to one person who knows Walsh well and spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their relationship, Walsh was technically telling the truth.

He couldn’t stomach a contract for more than one year under the conditions Dolan had imposed: a 40 percent pay cut to offset the likelihood of a prolonged lockout, the inability to hire and groom his successor and no guarantee that corporate interference would cease and desist, including what Walsh considered excess marketing demands on the players."

- Harvey Araton, NYTimes

Donnie wanted privileges of ownership...No owner would agree to that...But Dolan is the bad guy...

D’Antoni was as stunned as anyone."

- Howard Beck, NYTimes