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joec32033
Posts: 30632
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Joined: 2/3/2004
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USA
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Isiah already screened out
Knicks blow off workout request
BY FRANK ISOLA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Isiah Thomas finds few Knicks are interested in getting head start on season.
Spike Lee's shirt carries message that Renaldo Balkman and Knicks don't appear to be getting as training camp is set to begin.
Isiah Thomas mailed letters to his players in August suggesting that they arrive in New York after Labor Day for informal workouts, which is common for NBA teams. Thomas' plan was to encourage his team to begin building camaraderie while removing the ugly memory of last season as soon as possible.
In theory, it seemed like a great idea. But on the day following the holiday, only four players, including Channing Frye and David Lee, bothered to show up for work, according to a team source. The majority of the Knicks didn't arrive in town until last week.
The lukewarm response to Thomas' letter doesn't mean the players weren't training in their hometowns. Nor does it suggest that the league's highest-paid club was defiantly ignoring its new coach. But for Thomas, who has a "win now or else" ultimatum hanging over his head, the poor turnout doesn't represent a great start.
It also proves that removing Larry Brown from the building is not the solution for all the Knicks' problems. Not by a long shot.
"The first thing I need to do is instill confidence back into the players," Thomas said yesterday. "(I have to) make them confident about what they're doing. Make them smile again. Make them like basketball again."
The job of cultivating a positive environment, motivating the players and winning games now falls squarely on the shoulders of Thomas, who has the dual title this season of president and head coach. In his first public remarks in nearly three months, Thomas admitted "there are going to be some tough times" ahead for the team. But he easily could have been talking about himself.
Thomas is at the center of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former female employee and the trial could start early next year. On Friday, Thomas testified at Larry Brown's arbitration hearing before commissioner David Stern, and there were rumblings that Thomas would be ordered to testify today, thus making him unavailable to run the Knicks' first official practice in Charleston, S.C. Yesterday, however, Thomas accompanied the team to South Carolina.
"I haven't been distracted at all," Thomas said at the Knicks' training facility in Greeburgh. "I fully expect to be in Charleston (today) and for the duration of training camp."
Thomas has a tough job ahead of him. The Knicks should be better than last year's 23-win season - "a debacle," as Steve Francis called it - but they may not be good enough to finish .500. Garden chairman James Dolan refuses to say how many wins Thomas needs to save his job, but anything under 35 victories could end Thomas' four-year run in New York.
Thomas will need big years from three players - Francis, Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury - who quickly fell out of favor with Brown. Curry has the tools to be a dominant player but lacks the desire. Both Francis and Marbury fell far off their All-Star pace.
"In one game this year we'll play more (together) than we did all of last season," Francis said, while taking a subtle dig at Brown. Marbury took a more diplomatic tone when asked about his former coach, specifically whether the Knicks should pay Brown the $40 million he is owed.
"No comment," Marbury said. "You guys know you're not getting any Larry Brown stuff out of me."
Thomas also managed to avoid any references to Brown, the Hall of Fame coach who replaced another Hall of Fame coach, Lenny Wilkens. Neither Brown nor Wilkens coached a full season (82 games). Now the clock is ticking for Thomas.
"The most important thing is that we come together as a unit and we think and act like one," Thomas said. "It's a tough league. It's a very unforgiving league as we've seen the last couple of years. When you're down people kick you."
~You can't run from who you are.~
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10/3/2006 7:20 AM