"i've seen 'nuff moves before, but i've never seen a GM as dumb as Thomas... this guy tops tha list!" - elephant man

"Pon Di River, Pon Di Bank... Like a baller, we put down the flank... ShiZZa!"

Thomas needs to stop wilding out and put together a dream team... Dolan, fire this tool! Thomas's not about championships, as an executive he's about the bottomline - what nonsense he can sell us!

----------- FROM ESPN (Below) --------------

The honeymoon's over, Isiah
By Chad Ford
NBA Insider
Send an Email to Chad Ford Thursday, January 15
Updated: January 15
10:04 AM ET


Chat with NBA Insider Chad Ford at 1 p.m. EDT today!

Is it just me, or have the Knicks been on a really, really long road trip?

I know there's a basketball team wearing Knicks' jerseys shooting around in the Garden, but I'm still not convinced they're the good old Knicks, whom you either love or hate, depending on your persuasion.

"The MSG Circus" I'd buy. "Jerry Springer on Ice" I'd believe.

But the Knicks? That team with the long, proud history that Isiah Thomas promised to meticulously restore? They were better off with Scott Layden pacing the hallways mumbling "We like our team" under his breath.

Thomas has been president of the Knicks for roughly three weeks. In that time he's made as many moves as Layden made in three years. If you think that's a good thing, Knicks fans, be careful what you wish for.

The Clarence Weatherspoon-for-Moochie Norris deal has been a mild success.

Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway for Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley and the entire future of the Knicks was bold enough. Only time will tell whether Marbury's leadership skills will ever catch up to his talent.

The last 10 days have been less impressive.


There's a reason Lenny Wilkens was available to coach the Knicks.

Thomas tried and failed to land Rasheed Wallace, Darius Miles and Marcus Camby.
He started bringing in cronies to mentor players without first asking his coaches how they felt about it.
He took over as Marbury's personal tutor only after he made sure the cameras were rolling.
He decided to fire coach Don Chaney days ago, joked about Chaney's status with David Letterman, but somehow forget to tell Chaney until just minutes before a press conference on Wednesday.
He debated privately between three washed up coaching candidates -- Lenny Wilkens, Mike Fratello and himself -- before concluding Wilkens was the best choice. Of the three, I'm wont to agree with him. Fratello is a terrible fit for the Knicks and Thomas would be a disaster. But there's another 10 candidates I'd put in front all of them.
What's next? Hiring Dennis Rodman to help bolster morale and good friend Michael Jackson to help with public relations? I can see the press release now. "Dennis and Michael have been successful in every endeavor they've ever undertaken, despite overwhelming odds."

At first glance, it's not unreasonable to conclude that Isiah' quick trigger finger on Wilkens is a result of a panic attack -- an act of desperation just three week into his job as savior of the Knicks. Moochie didn't get done. Starybury hasn't meshed with his teammates. Maybe Lenny's the answer. What's Zeke going to do it the crowd starts chanting "Fi-re Tho-mas!"?

Wilkens is a terrible choice to replace Chaney. Several of Thomas' closest advisers tried to talk him out of pulling the trigger, to no avail. On style and substance, Chaney and Wilkens are mirror images of each other. Both are laid back, let players play the game their way and hope player happiness and chemistry translate into wins. Wilkens flamed out royally in the last two places he coached. He completely lost his team in Toronto, and the suggestions from players there were that the game had passed him by.

That is, of course, no concern to Isiah.

"You never thought you would be able to get a Hall of Fame coach to be able to coach a team," he said at the press conference Wednesday. "Having the opportunity to have the winningest coach in basketball, we pride ourselves on being the best and having the opportunity to select the best. I just think he's a perfect fit. And I think he's the perfect fit for Stephon."

Wilkens the best? Wilkens unattainable? There's a reason he didn't get one of the 20 coaching jobs that were open this summer, Isiah. Tim Floyd, the losingest coach in the history of the NBA, heard his name called before Wilkens. In a league where guys get recycled by the hour, that means something.

In Isiah's world the past is more important than the present or the future. Stature and image trump substance and reality -- it's how Isiah continues to make himself relevant in the face of mounting evidence that his glory days ended in the late '80s. Wilkens is a Hall of Fame coach who owns the most career wins (and losses) of anyone who has ever coached the game. That his team was 24-58 in his last season in Toronto and 28-54 in his last season in Atlanta is irrelevant to Thomas. So is the fact that he has coached in the conference finals just once in the past 25 years (with the '91 Cavs). Wilkens is a name and names mean something to Isiah.

Wilkens will coddle Marbury, who is now on his ninth coach in eight seasons in the NBA. He will toe the company line. He will, I assume, stay out of Isiah's way (something Fratello apparently was unwilling to do). And, most importantly, he'll pave the way for Isiah to take over on the bench once Thomas is convinced he has the pieces in place to make a run at the NBA title.

What Wilkens is not is Hubie Brown, as Isiah tried to insinuate Wednesday. Wilkens does not have the demeanor nor the temperament to take this team and drill down to the basics, the fundamentals the Knicks so sorely lack. He is not bold enough to force Marbury to play the right way, like Brown did with Jason Williams in Memphis. Wilkens is a name. A whisper of a bygone era. A 14-carat placeholder.

Barring more trades and more high-profile hires, the Knicks are essentially the same team Layden "liked," just with fancier names, more hype and much higher expectations.

The honeymoon's over, Isiah. Unless Wilkens transports back to 1977, Marbury turns into Jason Kidd, Allan Houston morphs into Kobe Bryant and Keith Van Horn starts resembling Larry Bird, it's going to be a rocky marriage.

Around the League


Did Isiah botch Chaney's firing? Adding to the circus atmosphere in the Garden was the way Don Chaney was let go on Wednesday. The New York Daily News on Wednesday morning reported that Chaney would be fired and replaced by Mike Fratello after the Knicks game versus the Magic on Wednesday.
Despite the report, Thomas failed to communicate anything to Chaney, and Chaney was forced to run the Knicks shoot around Wednesday morning knowing that he was coaching his last game. Chaney described his "horrible working conditions" and told reporters during shoot around that he felt he was being disrespected by Thomas.

"Without hearing anything one way or the other is a sign of disrespect to a degree, yeah," Chaney said. "If that's the case. I don't know if that's the case yet. If that's the case, I think management should at least communicate with me, just out of respect."

Chaney and his staff finally got word around 5 p.m., less than an hour before the Knicks held a press conference to announce that they'd hired Lenny Wilkens to replace him. Thomas had gone through a similar firing in Indiana, and folks around the league thought Isiah would be more sensitive to Chaney's plight.

Thomas claims he was.

"I think I've been very respectful and supportive of Don since the time I've been here," Thomas said. "I didn't feel it was appropriate to give a 24-hour status update of what was going on. I didn't feel it was appropriate for me to go in every day and say to him, everything's O.K., because I was still in the process of evaluating the whole situation. I never wanted to lead anyone on or give any false intentions. I wanted to be completely honest."

Assistant coach Lon Kruger, who was also fired Wednesday, disagrees. He told reporters Wednesday that he told Thomas he felt he botched the firing.

"There should have been better communication," Kruger said. "I'm disappointed for Don. My emotions are tied to Don."
------------ END ESPN -------------

Thomas did botch firing chaney. Its irrelevent, but he did botch it.

Its important because GM's need respect, especially from their peers to make good deals. Layden botched trades and trade proposals. We fired him.

We can root for thomas to do better well, even if we don't like how he is going about his business.

Wanting Chaney Fired and Thomas botching it up, panicking and perhaps not getting the Best available are different issues. Getting better than Chaney is one thing acomplished, but if some people think we could have done better than wilkins is an arguable point.

Blindly following your teams moves, your governments moves, and what you do for a living is not thinking. We can support our teams, our president, our senater, our boss, our teacher, our parents, but we don't always have to agree, and it helps to think things thru.

The media will take a sharp angle to increase readership, but one can be critical without indictment.

<<<On style and substance, Chaney and Wilkens are mirror images of each other. Both are laid back, let players play the game their way and hope player happiness and chemistry translate into wins.>>>

This is a point that bothers me. I agree that thier styles are similar. I do admit that Wilkens is smarter, more experienced and has won more obviously. However, I think this team needed a drastic change in style and approach, because there were points out there when we've played hard, but not exactly intensely. That's mostly why I'm cautious here I think. But as I've said before, lets see what changes Lenny makes.

I don't know, but I think I have lost a little respect for Chad after this article. Just disagree with too much he said.

Posted by martin:

I don't know, but I think I have lost a little respect for Chad after this article. Just disagree with too much he said.

Man do I agree... this just smacks of media overreaction so if this does blow up its a big "I told ya."

Chad also thought Jerry West lost his mind hiring Hubie Brown... now all of the sudden Hubbie is the barometer for old school coaches.

Chad gets a big pa-leeze for this one. Not because he's dogging IT, but he's just being WAY to dramatic and onesided.

at least give the man a chance. If he doesn't motivate his players, which I doubt, then fire him because at that point there would be no question we need a hardnosed coach.

People actually pay to read this ****?