Knicks sinking faster with Thomas at helm
Ty Hildenbrandt / FOXSports.com
Posted: 1 day ago

One day, Isiah Thomas will reveal that his stint with the Knicks was part of an elaborate hoax, hatched by NBA executives and aimed at changing David Stern's outlook on life before his 65th birthday next September.

At this point, that's the only thing Knicks fans can really hang their hats on — a wildly convoluted scheme pulled straight out of The Game with positive, long-term intentions that none of us have the foresight to understand. Hey, it worked in the movie, right?

For Isiah Thomas, there better be an underlying "catch." There better be some silver lining that we're missing, perhaps a secret sponsorship and related Oprah-style giveaway. There better be a bona fide reason for all this jostling. There just HAS to be a purpose for all this madness.

If there isn't, then it just doesn't add up.

The recent dismissal of Larry Brown was just another bump in Isiah's rocky tenure in New York. For sure, his portfolio of moves over the past two and a half years has generated a full spectrum of responses. At first, they were curious but intriguing. Slowly, they became ridiculous and illogical. And now, well, they're just starting to get fishy — so fishy, that you can't help but wonder if the Knicks are now the Enron of the NBA, with Thomas moonlighting as Kenneth Lay.

Little by little, the Knicks have become the best-kept fraud in the American sports landscape — the kind of product that executives insist is getting better when warning signs say otherwise. In his own way, Thomas has promoted this false sense of security. No, he hasn't fudged any numbers or taken anyone's life savings (that we know of), but he's cooked the proverbial books in a much different way: He's distracted the public with star power while sacrificing nearly ever other aspect of the franchise. Never mind the conflicting attitudes. Never mind the financial hell. The names that Thomas has brought in — Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and even Larry Brown — have created an illusion of comfort. And therein sits the problem.

Isiah's entire philosophy has revolved around making the Knicks look better than they are. After all, as long as people think the team is getting better, they'll keep buying in. As long as there's star power, they'll always feel like they have hope. And as long as someone's making an effort, it seems like someone's in complete control — no matter how flawed that control may be.

But the secret got out. The public woke up from its daze and discovered a grease fire burning out of control. With owner James Dolan apparently still asleep, Thomas responded in the only way he could to save face: He blamed somebody else. It didn't matter that Brown was a Hall of Fame coach with a hefty contract. It didn't matter that he didn't mesh with Marbury or that he was levied with an impossible first-year situation. At the end of the day, 23 wins just wasn't enough to keep people content. Thomas needed an out, and Brown was fired in a New York minute.

Now, Thomas has a new set of problems on his hands. In what's sure to be the last straw in his career with the Knicks, he made a famous mistake that Lay and his cronies know all too well — he bit off way more than he could chew. With trust in the Knicks already violated, Thomas did the only thing he could to preserve comfort and went "all-in" by naming himself captain of the ship. But it's only a matter of time before that sinks, too.

Eventually, the numbers always catch up and people are forced to face reality. Isiah Thomas is not going to be the Messiah for the Knicks. He's not going to take over and have a miraculous run like Pat Riley. Just ask the Pacers, an organization that handed him the keys to a championship caliber franchise back in 2000 and won only 53 percent of its games, bombing out of the playoffs in three consecutive first rounds. If he hasn't proven that he can coach good teams, why should anyone think he can bring the Knicks back to life? How long before his track record starts shining through?

The fact of the matter is that the Knicks have already bottomed out, but Thomas doesn't want anyone to know it. If word reaches his boss, he'll most certainly be the odd man out, despite all his great accolades as a player. Thomas' idea of successful management has not focused on winning, losing or anything in between. Instead, it's been about creating false hope, disguising the obvious and doing just enough to not get fired. Perhaps that's the real "catch" we were searching for all along.

So my advice to you, as basketball fans and general sports junkies, is BUYER BEWARE. Cash out now before you waste any more time, money or emotion on a franchise that's certain to crash.

And to David Stern, I hope you're enjoying your present. If this doesn't force you into a happy life of retirement, nothing will.

didnt know Islesfan was writing for FOX these days.

That article is everything we pleaded we did not want to happen when they HIRED Isiah!

My "No Starphuching" mantra seems to be instead the very definition of the current state of the team.

WE won't allow Riles to be GM and Coach, we say Isiah will never coach and we let Isiah coach/Gm anyway.

Might we have been better with Herb as coach with Isiah as puppet master?