http://www.nysun.com/article/72631

[Edited by - misterearl on 03-10-2008 10:24 AM]

And yet there are some that still beleive that you can't rebuild in NY

Posted by BlueSeats:

People called the Larry Brown season a "wasted year" but the truth is, it's the two years since his firing that have been wasted.

Brown saw it coming
BY GREG LOGAN
Newsday Staff Writer

June 28, 2006


Larry Brown knew the Knicks wanted him to quit long before the story broke May 14 that owner James Dolan was considering a buyout of the remaining $40 million of his contract. Brown even told team president Isiah Thomas, who will take over as coach, that he believed the Knicks were trying to force him out by their resistance to the changes he wanted to make.

The handwriting was on the wall a few days after the Knicks' 23-59 season ended. On the day after the final game, Brown and Thomas met with beat writers and agreed the team had to change. But a person familiar with Brown's situation said that when they met three or four days later to discuss offseason moves, Thomas said, "We're doing nothing."

Thomas told Brown that neither the midlevel salary-cap exception worth about $5 million nor the $1.75-million exception was available to sign free agents. He said Brown did a terrible job and should focus on coaching the same group of players.

Brown's response was, "You're trying to get me to quit."

In a meeting with beat writers Monday, Dolan, Thomas and Madison Square Garden sports operations head Steve Mills said Brown came to them with a demand to waive or buy out five players with a combined salary of $180 million. A Garden official revised that figure downward yesterday.

The players in question, according to persons on both sides of the dispute, were Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Jerome James, Jalen Rose and Maurice Taylor. Their combined contracts are slightly less than $160 million.

But the person familiar with Brown's situation said his request was misrepresented by Dolan and Thomas. When they told him to coach the same roster, he said he wouldn't play Rose and Taylor. Both players are in the final year of their deals and can be traded to teams looking to clear cap space, which is what likely will happen even with Thomas as coach.

Rather than rely on veterans, Brown told Thomas he would play last season's three rookies, Channing Frye, David Lee and Nate Robinson, plus the players they get in tonight's draft and said the Knicks "would be better."

Brown's problems with Marbury, Francis and James were well documented last season, and he undoubtedly would have welcomed a trade for all of them. Whether he asked the Knicks to waive them and eat their combined $132 million in salary is a matter of conjecture that surely will come up during the arbitration process headed by NBA commissioner David Stern to resolve their contractual dispute.

But when Brown was hired 11 months ago, the person familiar with his situation said, Dolan and Thomas told him, "This will be your team." They understood progress might not come easily the first season.

When Brown lost their support for the changes he wanted, he was convinced their only motive was to discredit him and supplant him with Thomas as coach of the players he hand-picked.

In Brown's meeting with Dolan last Thursday, he never looked at the paper the owner had listing conditions under which Brown supposedly could retain his job. That was because it was obvious to Brown that they didn't want him under the same circumstances to which they agreed when he was hired.

The succession to Thomas as coach, Brown believed, was in the works all along. Contrary to one published report, a person with knowledge of the Knicks' situation said Dolan did not surprise Thomas on Monday with his one-year ultimatum to show "significant progress."

After all, the owner would have been violating his own rules against communicating to employees through the media.

Dolan will come to find out soon, that chosing isiah and marbury over brown has ruined this team to no end...

Posted by Bippity10:

And yet there are some that still beleive that you can't rebuild in NY

well, to be fair, there's a difference between cheering those guys on for one game and having the patience to do so for a season or two of losing. will the cheers continue? i'd like to think so, but who knows if fans would lose patience with nate, dave lee, wilson like they did with frye. whether that actually matters is clearly another issue.

i think the one positive we can take from isiah's tenure here is this: the incoming GM will know that he has at least 3-4 years to show tangible results. isiah accomplished absolutely nothing record-wise in 4+ years. hopefully the next guy will come in and be able to point to something more than illusions and hype to keep his job while an actual rebuilding plan unfolds.

Posted by tkf:

Posted by BlueSeats:

People called the Larry Brown season a "wasted year" but the truth is, it's the two years since his firing that have been wasted.

Brown saw it coming
BY GREG LOGAN
Newsday Staff Writer

June 28, 2006


Larry Brown knew the Knicks wanted him to quit long before the story broke May 14 that owner James Dolan was considering a buyout of the remaining $40 million of his contract. Brown even told team president Isiah Thomas, who will take over as coach, that he believed the Knicks were trying to force him out by their resistance to the changes he wanted to make.

The handwriting was on the wall a few days after the Knicks' 23-59 season ended. On the day after the final game, Brown and Thomas met with beat writers and agreed the team had to change. But a person familiar with Brown's situation said that when they met three or four days later to discuss offseason moves, Thomas said, "We're doing nothing."

Thomas told Brown that neither the midlevel salary-cap exception worth about $5 million nor the $1.75-million exception was available to sign free agents. He said Brown did a terrible job and should focus on coaching the same group of players.

Brown's response was, "You're trying to get me to quit."

In a meeting with beat writers Monday, Dolan, Thomas and Madison Square Garden sports operations head Steve Mills said Brown came to them with a demand to waive or buy out five players with a combined salary of $180 million. A Garden official revised that figure downward yesterday.

The players in question, according to persons on both sides of the dispute, were Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Jerome James, Jalen Rose and Maurice Taylor. Their combined contracts are slightly less than $160 million.

But the person familiar with Brown's situation said his request was misrepresented by Dolan and Thomas. When they told him to coach the same roster, he said he wouldn't play Rose and Taylor. Both players are in the final year of their deals and can be traded to teams looking to clear cap space, which is what likely will happen even with Thomas as coach.

Rather than rely on veterans, Brown told Thomas he would play last season's three rookies, Channing Frye, David Lee and Nate Robinson, plus the players they get in tonight's draft and said the Knicks "would be better."

Brown's problems with Marbury, Francis and James were well documented last season, and he undoubtedly would have welcomed a trade for all of them. Whether he asked the Knicks to waive them and eat their combined $132 million in salary is a matter of conjecture that surely will come up during the arbitration process headed by NBA commissioner David Stern to resolve their contractual dispute.

But when Brown was hired 11 months ago, the person familiar with his situation said, Dolan and Thomas told him, "This will be your team." They understood progress might not come easily the first season.

When Brown lost their support for the changes he wanted, he was convinced their only motive was to discredit him and supplant him with Thomas as coach of the players he hand-picked.

In Brown's meeting with Dolan last Thursday, he never looked at the paper the owner had listing conditions under which Brown supposedly could retain his job. That was because it was obvious to Brown that they didn't want him under the same circumstances to which they agreed when he was hired.

The succession to Thomas as coach, Brown believed, was in the works all along. Contrary to one published report, a person with knowledge of the Knicks' situation said Dolan did not surprise Thomas on Monday with his one-year ultimatum to show "significant progress."

After all, the owner would have been violating his own rules against communicating to employees through the media.

Dolan will come to find out soon, that chosing isiah and marbury over brown has ruined this team to no end...

The saddest part in all of this there were very few of us who knew this and understood Brown's approach(even though it may have not been the right one) a long time ago. We knew if he was fired we were looking at even greater set backs.

When I see Nate and Lee and Chandler and Morris and Balkman busting their tails it's exciting win or lose. I don't think there is a star in the bunch but at least I can see some role players that can help the proper roster be very successful. But everytime I see Jeffries and Jones and Malik come off that bench I want to stab myself.

Think about it, the team has been miserable for 7 years and yet the fans last night were on their feet cheering. This can't rebuild in NY is media/Isiah/Dolan created poppypoop

Brown did a horrible job of managing the personalities on this team, let's be real about it... he got into that ridiculous media feud w/Marbury that really he could have easily avoided... i'm not blaming it all on him but he certainly played a huge role in the team's collapse that year... i was the biggest advocate of going after LB to coach this team from the start, but looking back objectively you have to say he did not do a good job coaching this team during his time here overall.