How long jimbo been sober. I picture him as "arthur" the lovable drunk in the movie of the same name played by Dudley Moore.

Can almost seem him stumbling around and laughing and giving anything anyone asked of him!

He also looks like the actor Tim Curry, whom has played many roles, of course he is famous for the "transexual from transylvania" in the Rocky Horror picture show.

the only thing I can say in their defense is they bought when the value was the highest. However poor management decisions have obviously hurt the them for a long time now.

The Layden thing was the most puzzling. With Ewing gone the franchise was clearly in a critical stage of rebuilding/retooling. I cant believe any good business man would leave that job to someone with no experience in doing it. So what if you have to overpay for an established person w/ a good track record. Not doing so has cost them millions, not to mention the fact that they still owed Layden like $15mm when they fired him.

Isiah has a lot of power.. lets see what he can do with it. So far I like the direction, but there is a big difference between a good plan and team that can contend. Lets see him execute over the next 2 years.

Posted by fishmike:

The Layden thing was the most puzzling. With Ewing gone the franchise was clearly in a critical stage of rebuilding/retooling. I cant believe any good business man would leave that job to someone with no experience in doing it. So what if you have to overpay for an established person w/ a good track record. Not doing so has cost them millions, not to mention the fact that they still owed Layden like $15mm when they fired him.

The Layden hire actually wasn't too strange.

Dave Checketts was part of the Utah organization way back in the day and helped turn the franchise in the right direction. He was then recommended to the NYKs by Stern (I think).

Dave Checketts loved the spotlight, and to compliment himself within the Knicks' organization, he hired Layden. This hiring *could* have been a thank you to the Layden family who had given Checketts a break into the NBA, but it was also a hire that would compliment Dave - someone who had keen eye for talent but didn't need to be in the newspaper headlines. Dave would do the big deals and Layden would be his source of talent scouting, which Scott is not too bad at.

Dolan didn't renew Checketts's contract like a year later and Layden was left in charge, and left in a position he was not really suited for.

The really dummy in this whole situation: Dolan.

Posted by martin:

The really dummy in this whole situation: Dolan.

Fair but not completely right. DOlan might have given him a gun but Layden still had to pull the trigger to do some damage. I still think Layden is the biggest idiot in the last 4 years. He was the one that put us in the salary cap position. He was the one that wanted to run the offense around Allan Houston. He was the one who wanted Eisley to start over Ward because "Eisley is not great off he bench".

I am not defending Dolan. He is a bad owner but it was 75% Layden's fault our team got destroyed over the last 4 years.

Posted by Silverfuel:

Posted by martin:

The really dummy in this whole situation: Dolan.

Fair but not completely right. DOlan might have given him a gun but Layden still had to pull the trigger to do some damage. I still think Layden is the biggest idiot in the last 4 years. He was the one that put us in the salary cap position. He was the one that wanted to run the offense around Allan Houston. He was the one who wanted Eisley to start over Ward because "Eisley is not great off he bench".

I am not defending Dolan. He is a bad owner but it was 75% Layden's fault our team got destroyed over the last 4 years.

I see your point but I still disagree with you. Did Layden really last 4 years?

It's always the job of a manager to re-evaluate his employees on a regular basis -weekly, monthly, yearly, whatever. And it's MORE important to do so the further up the food chain you go because of the impact of the critical decision-making. If the janitor makes a mistake - who cares - you can fire and hire and rewash the floors another day and no one will really know the difference. Sign Shandon Anderson to a long-term deal, trade for Eisley, trade for Dice and you may have shot your organization's foot for years to come.

Jim Dolan came from a family that owned the Knicks and MSG. He should have had outside council or contacts that would lend another opinion of his current staff. That's HIS job. Who are my employees? What are their strengths? How can we put them into the best position possible to maximize their strengths? Why was this fool hired in the first place? Is he still a good fit? If not, why? And if not, who?

Let's put this into clear terms. Dolan had 4 years of Layden before he pulled the trigger to release him. 4 FREAKIN years before he woke up and smelled the bad coffee. Potentially millions of dollars lost.

This is not fool-around time for son to play with daddy's toys that he left behind. This is thousands of people’s jobs and millions of dollars to be made. Jim Dolan is a joke.

Didn't Dolan layoff a whole bunch of the MSG security staff? If that's the case, should we even feel safe going to MSG?