Today we reported in Newsday that the possibility of Isiah Thomas remaining as coach under a new regime -- Donnie Walsh -- would be welcomed by the players in the locker room. We quote a player saying "when it all comes down to it, we would have Isiah over someone new."
But in today's Post there is a story that says the players all want Thomas fired. It also quotes a player, who says "I can't think of anyone [who would want him back]. There's too much smoke and mirrors with him, too much B.S."
Obviously neither opinion is unanimous.
Quite frankly I agree with the player quoted by the Post and I even told the player I interviewed that I don't agree with him. But our job isn't about agreeing with what someone is telling us or following a specific agenda, it's about reporting what you know. And after a conversation with this player, I felt compelled to report his side of the story, which hasn't been a side often portrayed this season.
The player acknowledged that "maybe a couple of people would be upset" if Isiah remained, "but none of those same people had problems last year with him . . . It's just everything went bad this year."
When I reminded him that he was upset with Isiah about things this season, which makes this claim inconsistent, he said, "I just think that its bigger then what we say day to day because all of this is uncharacteristic of what happened last year."
I know what you're thinking because I know what I was thinking when he was saying this to me.
Do you remember what your record was last year?
For anyone who wonders why we can not identify players in these kinds of stories, you have to understand the Garden's media policy. Players are not permitted to speak to reporters without a PR person present. For example, despite reports otherwise, Eddy Curry's actual first comments since his knee surgery were to me and another reporter before Wednesday's game. I saw him in the hallway outside the Knick locker room and said, "What's up Eddy? How are you feeling?" He said, "'Sup man, good." He shook hands with the other reporter and paused long enough to take a shot at asking a few questions when a PR staffer scolded him and shooed him away.
*
You may be reading Rick Carlisle's name elsewhere and even hearing it on the radio, but let me assure you that if and when Donnie Walsh takes over the Knicks, Carlisle will not even get a phone call, let alone an interview. I have heard this from several different sources close to Walsh. If it's not Isiah -- and as I've reported I don't believe that is a given, it's just plausible -- you can expect Scott Skiles and Herb Williams to get first crack. Mark Jackson will be on the list, for sure, but would bat third in the order. Jackson would have to wow Dolan, which we know he has the ability to do.
Skiles might outright scare the man. But he'd be a perfect fit in New York because his no-nonsense, scrappy and often hilariously direct personality fits the job.
Playtime would be over.
And maybe that's why some players would prefer Isiah.
Comments (24)
That's exactly why the players want to keep Isiah.
Hell, Kobe wanted to keep Kupchak instead of bringing in Phil Jackson. I think he said something about a "track record".
Momentarily reading the book "taking shots" from Keith Glass and yes, he describes Scott Skiles in such a way that I'd be ecstatic if he'd be our new coach.
I think Skiles would probably start with an 18 minute suicide drill practice before actually starting with the practice, lol
When asked what Eddy Curry needs to do to improve his rebounding.
Then Chicago coach Scott Skiles replies, "jump."
Co-worker: "Did you see in Newsday they quoted a player who wants Isiah to stay on as coach?"
Me: "So they interviewed Jerome James, huh?"
Co-worker: "Jerome James is the best player on the Knicks. I’ll give you 5 dollars if you even know what number he is."
Me: "Jerome James doesn’t have a number, it’s just a picture of a hamburger."
there are enough fascists in the garden already, the last thing we need is to add scott skiles to the mix. i mean please, this guy is such a jerk that he actually fined and benched a player (ben wallace) for wearing a headband!
let us not forget this incident fixers, we need progressive thinkers running the show, not knee-jerk reactionaries like skiles.
i don't know enough to make an intelligent recommendation for a head coach, but from what i've seen and heard from the list of suspects, mark jackson is the best choice. he is a new yorker, an ex-knick, a hugely successful point guard throughout a long career, and a guy who has done the most with the least.
the knicks will almost certainly be drafting a point guard with their first pick, so this will be the perfect situation to bring a new point guard into. also, expectations are so low at this point, no one expects a new coach to turn things around in one season, so the pressure will not be so intense when jackson makes mistakes, as he inevitably will. finally, the return of mark jackson might conceivably lead to the door opening for patrick and charles to return and lend their reflected wisdom and pride to us again.
Hire Mark Jackson, draft DJ Augustin, Bayless or Derrick Rose and grab a proven vet like Brevin Knight to backup/mentor. Tell the Knicks ticket office that my $100 miniplan deposit is contingient on Isiah getting ousted.
Alan, By the way I read that MSG is pulling out of the Moynihan Station talks. They going to renovate the Garden? Will the Knicks have to play in Newark for a year?
I think Alan talked to Crawford. Who else gets to take "any" terrible shot he wants? Who else has never been benched for any reason? Say what you will, but Brown was teaching the kid shot selection, n' est pas?
Godot (been waiting for you to weigh in) - I agree, Crawford is an abomination. Likable guy who does not care about winning or losing. You can't dislike him, but he never does what it takes to win.
The Zeke formula is to pick a pet or two, hope they will be a dominant player like he was, give the pet all the juice and rope and shots, whatever (a la Crawford, a la Marbury before the cannabilism began) whether they are dominant or not, and call it a day. Works when your pets are Ron Artest and Jermaine ONeal. Doesn't work when your pets are the afore mentioned. So if you are a pet, victory is always just around the corner, if only the OTHER guys could get their s#!t together.
As things slide sideways more and more this Walsh thing is looking like another three years of purgatory. If Zeke is even considered, Dolan has co-opted the thing from the beginning, the snake is in the Garden, the fall is fated. Why oh why would Herb Williams be considered? I love him to death, but in this arena, with these players and this owner, he is fatally marked. The stench of the losing and the lies and the insincerity will hang around him forever if he stays here. For his own sake, and for his integrity as a coach and a human being, he has to sever ties with this "Owner" and "Coach" and rebuild elsewhere, see the sunlight, be part of a real program. Anyone left over from Zeke's administration must be purged.
From all that we're hearing now, I think we are doomed again. Unfortunately, the only way to save this franchise is to run Dolan out of town. Its like Cheney conducting the search for the Vice President candidate to run with Shrub and coming up with Cheney. Is Zeke the guy who's picking the next GM? Perhaps he is; he's got the street knowledge to keep an old junkie like Dolan on a string. Oldest hustle there is.
the knicks need a coach that will focus on improving knicks defense. mark jackson is worth a shot, but as a player, he wasn't well known for his defense.
skiles is sort of like LB in a sense, because I can't imagine skiles operating under the bogus Jim "El Duce" Dolan media policies. maybe i'm wrong, money can talk instead of skiles talking to the media, but perhaps that is inhibiting a motivating factor to coaching the basketball team.
for that reason i'll attribute about 2-4 games lost this year specifically to dolan and his media policy.
my bet is alan spoke with nate or maybe malik. alan, if i'm write let me know. see how well i know these knicks.
Hold a press conference. Announce that Isiah is being fired and Donnie Walsh is being hired. The end. What is so hard about this?
flybanjo,
dolan wants everyone in the world to know, he is bigger than the knicks. the knicks are just in his pocket, the reporters too. the fans don't matter. this is his world we are living in. that's why the logical thing to do never gets done while he is around.
if new york is rome, then dolan is nero.
@ TFP - One of the single funniest things I've ever read in a blog!
I almost spit my lunch all over my desk at work...had to fake like I choked, so people wouldn't think I was crazy.
Good work!
Godot - you think it was Crawford?
I think it could be him or Malik Rose.
And Berman probably talked to Nate.
As for coaches, I don't think I'd want to load the bench with a rookie, ex-Knick staff.
I'd like Skiles, or any proven disciplinarian. I don't care if the players hate him, they need someone who is gonna work these guys. Then, maybe they'll reach the potential that a lot of them have.
Guy I really like, actually, is ex-Knicks assistant Tom Thibedeou (or however you spell it). He was here during the defense-focused Knicks, he's got a lot of experience, knows the Garden and NY already.
Same with a new GM. I would rather them get someone with some kind of track record than take a risk on an ex-Knick player like Greg Anthony. As cool as it would be to have Anthony as GM, Jackson as coach, and Ewing and Oak on the bench as assistants (maybe you could have Anthony Mason hired as head of Garden security while you're at it), I don't think it would necessarily equal wins.
Fixers, I'll never tell. But all good responses here and excellent points of view. flybanjo, good to see you back and, as usual, dead-on. You would think if this deal was done, why not just make the announcement now and end the season on a high note (of sorts)?
Unless...as I've said, this thing ain't done yet.
Be very afraid.
Crawford is the teacher's pet. He wears #11 in honor of his hero and gets away with anything and everything because "he's such a nice guy."
Can't wait to hear Jamal and Eddy's reaction if Skiles became the head coach. And you know Skiles would just as *thrilled* to coach them as well.
I'd love Scott Skiles. He reminds me a lot of Tom Coughlin.
Berman's source is Marbury.
Thanks, Alan. I am officially very afraid. Again. There’s something rotten about this deal. I don’t know what it is. But you can smell it. Dolan or Dolan and Isiah cooked something up. And it’s going to be inedible.
I don’t know enough about Walsh. But there’s a paradox here. It’s like the old Groucho Marx line that he wouldn’t join any club that would have someone like him as a member. Assuming Dolan is looking for a GM he can control . . . who won’t demand the kind of autonomy a great GM would need . . . I don’t think we want any GM who would accept ground rules like that. (Again, that’s only an assumption. But everything we know about Dolan would indicate it’s a reasonable possibility.) Would Walsh take the job under those kind of conditions?
I also don’t know enough to choose the Knicks next coach. If Byron didn’t have a job, I would have scooped him up in a second. I thought he did a great job in Jersey. Mark seems like he’d be a good bet, but do we want to gamble on someone with absolutely no track record? Who hasn’t even been an assistant? That scares me a little too. Especially with the rollercoaster this roster has already been on. Especially the young players. We need crediblity. And we need stability. One problem is that you really need a coach who’s in sync with your GM. Who would Walsh’s ideal coach be? That’s the $64,000 question, isn’t it?
Jimmy, you're probably right. And if you are, then it's sad that that became a story. Of course Marbury would say that no one wants Isiah there. That's not news. In reality, Steph might be more out of touch with the locker room than Zeke himself is.
I'd think that Crawford, Rose, maybe Z-bo and Curry are all Zeke guys. Hard to believe that any others are. (Most of them, though, should be kissing the ground he walks on because of the rediculous contracts he gave them. Jerome James should have a gold Isiah Thomas statue outside his unearned mansion.)
10 Reasons Why Isiah Thomas won't be the coach next season:
1. Consider this Isiah's 2 weeks notice...what do we do when we give a 2 weeks notice at a job? We come in late, we don't really work, and sometimes don't even come in.
Thomas 18 min shootarounds 30 mins late to the games, and when he's at the game he's not even really coaching.
2. Walsh must have approved Isiah getting fired from Indy he was the prez...So why would he keep him now when he's done a worse job with the Knicks then when he was in Indy.
3. Dolan will lose season ticket sales if he keeps Isiah.
4. There are so many angry New Yorkers I don't think Isiah will survive next season...it's hard for him to survive the rest of this season he looks like he's defeated...Don't think he even wants to go through that again, not to mention the level of hostility that will be raised a notch from this year to next if he stays.
5. In a report today all players want him gone.
6. The knicks are close to setting the franchise record for losses in a season...granted there tanking..but it still got to that point. He didn't produce not one winning season while he was here...He aint no Pat Riley proven coach (he will def. still have his job next year).
7. Alot of the young players regressed which means bad coaching.
8. Walsh will not want to answer to the media his motives for keeping Isiah whole season...Or set himself up for media bashing by keeping Isiah...He will be turned into the enemy along with Dolan and Isiah, don't think he wants to be in that situation especially not in his hometown.
9. Isiah was no where present when the meeting between Walsh and Dolan took place...for all we know.
10. Reports of people cancelling their cablevision...I'm sure the Dolans arent going to be happy about that.
LETS GO KNICKS 2008-2009 WITH NO ZEKE.
@ Alan - forgot to give you a nod for the Pink Floyd reference.
Although, I think the appropriate quote should have come from "Run Like Hell". 1st verse is pretty appropriate:
You better make your face up,
In your favorite disguise,
With your button-down lips,
And your roller blind eyes.
With your empty smile,
And your hungry heart,
Feel the bile rising,
From your guilty past.
With your nerves in tatters,
As the cockleshell shatters,
And the hammers batter,
Down your door,
You better run.
@ JEYFEZ: all your reasons are airtight, foolproof, incontrovertible. But then, why am I still so afraid? Why do I know -- KNOW -- that somehow this is all going to get screwed up?
@FLYBANJO
I kinda still have that small feeling as well that somehow this aint going to turn out positive. Let us pray.