Somebody is losing it

Yesterday James Dolan, who loves playing the part of big boss, told the Knicks nobody is getting fired. Today, in all likelihood, Dolan will give a public vote of confidence to Isiah Thomas when he meets with the Knicks' beat reporters in Memphis. If Dolan does this, does it out of some misguided sense of loyalty, or some macho notion that if you do the opposite of what everybody in town wants you to do you're some kind of tough guy, he will make the ducks who march through the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis every day look smarter than he is about pro basketball.

Since Dolan bounced Dave Checketts out of the Garden five years ago so he could have the full run of the place, the Knicks are a cool 76 games under 500 and got swept by the Nets in the one playoff appearance they made. Now these Knicks, coached by Larry Brown, have a chance to win fewer games than any Knick team in history. Despite all that, two people think prosperity is right around the corner:

Dolan, Thomas. Brown tries, but he isn't nearly a good enough actor.

If Dolan makes a big show of public support for Thomas today, then he should get it from his own fans after they are done with Thomas Friday night, when the Knicks return home to play the Bulls. Because if Dolan actually buys into this idea that Thomas actually has a plan here, that the Knicks' future is bright, that the Knicks are right where Thomas wants them to be, then his fans should start chanting "Goodbye, Jimmy" when they get tired of chanting "Fire Thomas."

Dolan does not have to do this, should not do this, will look like a fool of sports if he does, considering the current sorry state of the Knicks. The issue here isn't whether or not he should make his annual road trip surrounded by all his sidemen, have this meeting with the writers.

The issue is Thomas, and all the moves he has made in the last two years and the money he has spent and the fact that he has turned one of the most famous franchises in sports into the No. 1 joke in professional sports right now. Knick fans constantly say to me, "Can't somebody talk to Dolan?" That's not the problem. People talk to him all the time. His coach now talks to him once a week. But the only person he really listens to is Isiah Thomas, who will say anything these days, about anybody, to save his job.

Dolan ought to listen to his fans instead. It will be easy to hear them Friday night if he shows up, sits in his usual seat, around the corner from all those players Thomas brought to New York.

Dolan desperately wants to be a player, in the way Mark Cuban is in Dallas. He got rid of Checketts nearly five years ago, after the Knicks lost in the first round to the Raptors, because he didn't want to listen to Checketts anymore, even though Checketts showed up from Utah with more of an understanding of what the Garden is supposed to mean in New York than Dolan, a New Yorker, ever will.

"I succeeded in turning a building into a business," Checketts said on his way out the door.

It is back to being a building, at least when the Knicks are inside it. Friday night, when the Knicks play the team to whom they traded what will most likely be the No.1 pick in the draft for Eddy Curry, it will have the charm of a shelter.

When Dolan capped Checketts, he tried to convince people that he was going to oversee Garden activities only on an interim basis. Knick fans wish. Since that time, their team's record is 154-230. And right now, today, 20 losses in 22 games and counting, this is the lowest point in the history of the Knicks, the darkest season in the history of the Knicks. And Thomas keeps saying, "Our future is bright." He sounds like a crazy person.

You want to say Brown is having a bad year even coaching bad players, go ahead. But since Thomas stopped being a player, he is having a bad career. I thought he had the Knicks going places a year into this. I did. Now they go downhill in a way that makes even a barstool like Bode Miller look like a champ. The worst of it, he still thinks the players he brought here are better than they really are. And as long as Thomas still has this job, those same players will think he's right and Larry Brown is wrong.

When Dolan finally got around to firing Scott Layden, Thomas' predecessor, in December of 2003, he said the following: "I don't think there's any question that everybody is underperforming. Just look at our record."

He should say that today and nothing more than that and say he will discuss the job status of the man who assembled this team when the season is over.

Dolan is in Memphis today, not England, so he can't do what he really should do, issue a "no confidence" vote. So he shouldn't vote at all. He thinks it is some sort of badge of honor to stay with guys who can't do the job. He did it with Layden, he did it with Don Chaney, he is about to do it with Isiah Thomas. He is loyal to everybody except his own fans.

Lupica seems hurt

yup. lupica's on the money. I wish Dolan would retire.

Lupica needs to stick to stories about autistic kids that play baketball and stuff like that.

Yet another version of pin the blame on the donkey.....

was this in the editorial section?

Are all sports writers like this putz? Is he such an egoist that he thinks people care what he personally thinks? That he thinks Dolan is looking for validation of his masculinity?


Thank god for Howard Beck.

Lupica is on the money. If you knew anything about Dolan you'd know he is an egoist. He had a power struggle with his dad (the brains behind Cablevision) and spend a ridiculous amount of his money shooing away a West Side stadium.