Forget Isiah: Knicks' prez Walsh will soon feel heat, more mail

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/ian_thomsen/11/11/isiah.mailbag/index.html#ixzz15BHAd0BH

People outside of New York cannot understand why Isiah Thomas continues -- more than two years since his exit -- to dominate coverage of the Knicks.

Team president Donnie Walsh is now in his third season of cleaning up the mess left behind by Thomas. Walsh is a tough guy who has been pushing himself through a variety of serious health problems, including an upcoming hip-replacement surgery. But it has been 31 months since he replaced Thomas, and in that time, he has not been able to manufacture a roster compelling enough to knock Isiah off the back pages.

Hasn't this story reached the point where there should be more attention paid to Walsh and less to Thomas? Why is Isiah still the big story in New York even though Walsh has been running the franchise for a relatively long time now? It makes little sense to me.

Zach Lowe: Isiah appears more delusional than ever

For years and years there has been talk of the toxic environment Thomas is said to have created in New York. But if it was so toxic then why hasn't Walsh replaced more of Thomas' front-office staff? I've talked to Walsh about this many times since Thomas' departure. And a couple weeks ago, Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski revealed that Knicks director of East Coast scouting, Rodney Heard, a Thomas hire, may have organized illegal workouts of potential draft picks on behalf of the organization over the past four years.

Thomas has been vilified in the aftermath coverage of this story, and there is nothing wrong with that criticism. Thomas should be held accountable for his staff. Yet, Walsh has avoided criticism surrounding Heard, even though Walsh chose to re-sign him to a new contract.

If I were a Knicks fan, I wouldn't care so much about Heard and Thomas. I would want to know why, after two years of free-agent buildup, the Knicks struck out in their recruitment of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Knicks were never close to signing any of those guys after dumping most of their players and draft picks to create cap space.

It is no exaggeration to say that Walsh was completely outmaneuvered by former Knicks coach Pat Riley in the pursuit of free agents, and that Thomas had nothing to do with it -- not until five days before the opening of free agency last summer, when the Knicks asked Thomas for help because their recruiting plans were such a mess.

Can you imagine if Thomas had presided over such colossal a failure of expectation? Fans were buying season tickets on faith that the Knicks would sign one or two of the top free agents. People in New York spent last season talking about LeBron as if he was theirs in a Knicks uniform already. But Walsh has evaded most of the punches, while Thomas continues to get clobbered.

But it won't go on like this forever. Eventually, fans in New York will tire of the blame-Isiah platform and they'll want to know what the Knicks are doing to build a contender and why it hasn't happened already.

Let me make clear that I'm not saying Walsh has anything to do with the anti-Isiahism. Nor is it Walsh's fault that coach Mike D'Antoni has absorbed more criticism than Walsh over the last two years. I can tell you that whenever I've spoken with Walsh, he has been entirely honorable while taking full responsibility for the Knicks' flawed roster. But it is going to be Walsh's turn to feel the heat eventually. It doesn't matter that he didn't create the climate of hatred for Isiah. When it backfires, as it surely will, it is going to backfire on Walsh.

When Thomas last week told ESPNNewYork's Ian O'Connor that he'd like to run the Knicks again, why was it such big news in New York? The answer is because the Knicks don't have a better story of their own to tell. The summer of LeBron passed them by, they are 3-5 through Wednesday and they are being outshot from the field and outrebounded on the glass. In this vacuum of excellence the only noise continues to be made by Thomas.

If the Knicks truly want to silence their former boss, then they should assemble a roster that can win 50 games. No one will be talking about Isiah Thomas then.

crzymdups wrote:the word from guys like Isola is that Donnie has tried to clean house in the front office and scouting departments and been told that he can't. Walsh wanted to bring in Mullin to be the GM but was told he couldn't.

that tells you everything you need to know - as long as Jim Dolan is meddling, the Knicks will be doomed.

We truly have the worst owner in professional sports.

Then what is the point of rooting for the Knicks? Some have had optimism because of the last personnel changes, from the President to the coach and so. Those changes happened because they were simple to happen since coaches, presidents and gms are hired and fired easily. But the owner? That sure won't change anytime soon, so if the root of our disease is the owner and that won't change, what hope do we really have?

I wasn't believing that Isiah could indeed come back, but with the team failing under Walsh and D'Antoni and Dolan having Isiah waiting on the wings, I can now see the worst really happening for us. I can truly see Isiah being brought back.

And that day many die-hard fans will find that its not improbable for them to really stop following the team.

BRIGGS wrote:

Knicksfan wrote:

crzymdups wrote:the word from guys like Isola is that Donnie has tried to clean house in the front office and scouting departments and been told that he can't. Walsh wanted to bring in Mullin to be the GM but was told he couldn't.

that tells you everything you need to know - as long as Jim Dolan is meddling, the Knicks will be doomed.

We truly have the worst owner in professional sports.

Then what is the point of rooting for the Knicks? Some have had optimism because of the last personnel changes, from the President to the coach and so. Those changes happened because they were simple to happen since coaches, presidents and gms are hired and fired easily. But the owner? That sure won't change anytime soon, so if the root of our disease is the owner and that won't change, what hope do we really have?

I wasn't believing that Isiah could indeed come back, but with the team failing under Walsh and D'Antoni and Dolan having Isiah waiting on the wings, I can now see the worst really happening for us. I can truly see Isiah being brought back.

And that day many die-hard fans will find that its not improbable for them to really stop following the team.

Not happening.

Hiring Thomas again would be a tragedy.