http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=BKN-MCNULTY-06-28-06

Knicks troubles began at the top

By RAY McNULTY
Scripps Howard News Service
28-JUN-06

Here's what James Dolan, a bigger bozo in New York than any clown Barnum & Bailey ever brought to Madison Square Garden, wants everyone to believe:

That the New York Knicks, shamefully reduced to the punch line to a bad basketball joke, are a better organization without Larry Brown as their coach. And that the efforts of Isiah Thomas, the GM who assembled the overpriced collection of stiffs that won all of 23 games last season, were undermined by Brown's refusal to shut up and smile while playing the losing hand he was dealt. And that none of the team's problems are Dolan's fault.

Nobody in New York is buying it, of course.

Nobody should - especially after Dolan's made-for-morons media session Monday.

There was Dolan, after taking questions from the Knicks beat writers during an invitation-only press conference, starring in his own infomercial on his own network with one of his own announcers conducting a scripted interview designed to sell the company lie. I mean, the company line. Actually, they're one and the same.

And real Knicks fans, who are far too smart to be duped by Dolan's version of what went wrong, know it.

They know Brown doesn't deserve the bulk of the blame for a disastrous season in which the Knicks thoroughly embarrassed themselves, losing 59 games, finishing with the second-worst record in the league and creating enough off-the-court controversy to keep a last-place team on the back pages of the city's tabloids.

They know this is mostly Thomas' mess, from the wrong-headed decisions to acquire Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and Jalen Rose to the silly trade that sent the No. 2 pick in this year's NBA Draft to Chicago for Eddie Curry.

And they know next season, with the same cast of characters masquerading as an NBA team, won't be significantly better - despite the humiliating, win-or-you're-out-too ultimatum Dolan gave Thomas, now coach and GM.

Real Knicks fans know all this because they know more about basketball than the clueless, classless dolt who, as team president, hired Thomas, fired Brown and has no idea what to do next ... except to disgrace a once-proud franchise by trying to weasel out of the $40 million he still owes his dismissed coach.

Dolan says Brown wasn't just a bad coach, he was a bad employee, at least partially because he dared speak to reporters without a front-office monitor being present - which, apparently, violates some ridiculous team policy.

He chastised Brown for publicly criticizing players and accused him of going behind Thomas' back to explore trade possibilities, contributing to what he called a lack of trust throughout the organization. He claimed Brown spent more time trying to do Thomas' job than focusing on his own. He said Brown refused to acknowledge any misconduct or promise to not do anything improper again, prompting Dolan to believe Brown no longer wanted to coach the team.

Worse, Dolan charged that Brown deliberately set himself up to be fired so he could collect the full $50 million for only 11 months' work. (For the record: Brown denied using any such tactics and said he fully intended to continue coaching in New York.)

So that puts the matter in the capable hands of NBA commissioner David Stern, who will decide who's telling the truth and, more importantly, whether a contract with Dolan's Knicks is worth anything.

I know what I believe.

The Knicks are a miserable mess and two men are responsible: the GM who made so many bad decisions and the team president who hired him.

The Knicks are a miserable mess and two men are responsible: the GM who made so many bad decisions and the team president who hired him.

this line would actually be hilarious if the guy who wrote the article realized that Isiah was the president and GM. but he doesn't.