GOTHAM JOKER!!

This is the way things work when the New York Knicks get rid of you: They make it known they don't want you around, and eventually they exile you from Madison Square Garden with a nice, big severance check in hand.

Larry Brown is learning that today as he reportedly recuperates from bladder surgery. The end, in James Dolan's universe, begins with unnamed sources bashing you behind your back while blindsiding you with public disclosure of their displeasure.


Next, they pull out Dolan's checkbook, which is reloaded each year by corporate holders of Knicks season tickets and each month by the millions of New York area Cablevision customers, and after an agreeable number is found, they cut you a check and sever the cord. You leave with a vault full of cash, and Dolan moves on to his next blunder while remaining in utter denial about the root of his team's problems: his ownership.

Just ask around, Larry. There are plenty of people who can tell you how this is going to unfold. Give Dave Checketts a call. Or Scott Layden. Or Lenny Wilkens, Don Chaney or Shandon Anderson.

I run across Shandon all the time now that he's playing in Miami, where he's the second-most envied player on the team because of the jackpot he hit when he left the Knicks, getting a $19 million severance from Dolan after Anderson made it clear he was not buying into Isiah Thomas' program. (That's second behind Shaquille O'Neal, who used to get 70 percent of his annual salary from the Lakers in one lump sum, but ahead of Alonzo Mourning, who got a buyout of more than $9 million from the Raptors last year after refusing to report to Toronto.) Anderson still laughs proudly every time it's brought up.

Anderson spent three seasons in New York, none of them good ones, and watched different heads of state take the blame and the buyout. It's always someone's fault in New York, but never Dolan's.

It was Thomas, not Brown, who received the lion's share of the blame this past season, when the Knicks slogged through the most notorious season in franchise history. Thomas' acquisitions of Steve Francis and Jalen Rose were ridiculed while Brown's questionable decisions on how to best use those players went underscrutinized. It was a honeymoon season in that regard for Brown, who never once heard a "Fi-re Lar-ry" chant.

But Brown never earned the trust of Dolan, who watches most games from a baseline seat next to the Knicks' bench. If Dolan ever had to pick between Thomas and Brown, he'd choose the one he's grown to trust: Isiah.

Dolan was as flummoxed as anyone in New York by the Knicks' failings, and all internal fingers were pointed at Brown by the time the season ended. On the night the Knicks acquired Francis from the Orlando Magic, Brown and Thomas sat together onstage and declared the Francis-Stephon Marbury pairing as the second coming of Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe. But over the next two months, Brown steadfastly refused to start the two alongside each other, and Francis quickly became as embittered as any player in that locker room. Just like everyone else, he couldn't figure out Brown.

It now appears the event that tipped the scales toward Brown's departure, should it happen, came the day after the season ended, when several players conducted exit interviews and placed blame for the team's 23-59 record squarely on Brown's shoulders.

NBA players are adaptable, but they need to have their roles properly defined. Brown never provided stability, the players complained, with his constant changes to the starting lineup (Brown used 42 different ones) and his willy-nilly decisions on what the rotation should be on any given night.

Brown's penchant for criticizing his players through the media especially angered Dolan, for whom media strategies discouraging dissent are of paramount importance -- even more so than game plans.

So the word, according to the story first reported by the New York Post, is that Dolan now wants Thomas to do the coaching. But Dolan's lawyers must first negotiate a buyout of the remaining four years and $40 million on Brown's contract, and that might not be easy.

If I'm Brown's agent, Joe Glass, I ask for 99 cents of every dollar that's owed to Brown. If I'm Dolan's lawyer, I offer him 50 cents on the dollar and a chance to move on to the next job of his choosing, as long as he keeps his mouth shut about what really went down with the Knicks.

Somewhere in between is the middle ground, and chances are it'll be closer to Glass' number than Dolan's. It's no secret that Dolan has the deepest pockets of any owner in the league, thanks to the tremendous cash flow generated by his company, Cablevision.

Every owner in the NBA who avoided the luxury tax threshold will get more than $2 million of Dolan's money this summer after Dolan pays his tax penalty for having an NBA-high payroll of $120 million, and they'll be lining up for checks next summer, too, after Dolan burns through another $125 million to meet his player payroll.

They'll be laughing all the way to the bank after they get those checks, and they might just run into Brown on the way to the deposit window. He'll be the guy scoffing at the size of their Cablevision checks, saying, "You should have seen mine."

It almost makes you feel sorry for Isiah, who doesn't exactly have the best job performance track record over the past decade.

Looks like he's messing this one up, too, if you consider how he's one of the few people in the NBA actually working for the millions Dolan is paying him. But if Thomas indeed becomes the coach and the Knicks stumble out of the gate next season, he can still get fired, receive a severance package and sit around Layden's house with Chaney, Wilkens and Checketts lighting cigars with $100 bills.
Now thats funny!!

Thomas' check won't match Brown's, but at least it won't bounce.

Jimmy Dolan's checks never bounce, just like the Knicks never get better. Nor will they until someone else owns the team.

Chris Sheridan, a national NBA reporter for the past decade, covers the league for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Chris, click here.

LEGACY IN JEOPARDY

LARRY BROWN
Age: 65
Experience: 24 years
Regular season record: 1010-800
Postseason record: 100-89
2005-06 Knicks record: 23-69
Brown's coaching timeline

Remember dolan tied JVG to not work for a year?

Phuch dolan and his millions, the man is clown.

I hope larry gets it all!