Your subtleties
They strangle me
I can't explain myself at all.
And all the wants
And all the needs
All I don't want to need at all.
The walls start breathing
My minds unweaving
Maybe it's best you leave me alone.
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow.
When darkness turns to light,
It ends tonight
It ends tonight....
These are the final media sessions with Isiah Thomas. This morning he talked about enduring life in the media crucible this season.
"I’m not looking for sympathy or anything," he said. "Sports and basketball has been extremely good to me. You can’t be on the top all the time, although I want to. When you’re on the bottom and you lose, all the things that get you to the top you have to rely on those things. You have to persevere, you have to overcome hard times. You gotta hold on to your dignity and integrity and you walk through those tough times."
Before the game, Isiah stayed high-road with his comments, even when the subject of his former protege, Stephon Marbury, was brought up. Aside from Isiah, himself, no other person contributed more to his demise in New York than Marbury.
"I know for every person that I’ve coached or tried to be a part of their growth I know that myself I personally tried to help ever single person I’ve come across," Isiah said. "I do believe that he, like others, I definitely have tried to help."
....A falling star
Least I fall alone.
I can't explain what you can't explain.
Your finding things that you didn't know
I look at you with such disdain
The walls start breathing
My minds unweaving
Maybe it's best you leave me alone.
A weight is lifted
On this evening
I give the final blow.
When darkness turns to light
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.
Just a little insight
Won't make this right
It's too late to fight
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.....
Donnie Walsh also chatted with us before the game. Still no timetable on the Isiah Decision, but rest assured he won't let this drag on.
“I don’t want a timetable because I don’t want phone calls every day on this," he said. "But, yeah, now that the season is over with I’m going to get down and take a look at how I feel the future should go.”
So, as I'm sure most of you Fixers would ask, what more does he possibly need to think about?
“I think, like any decision, you just have to get by yourself and then make the decision one way or the other,” he said.
Are you at that point now?
“I’m gonna be.”
....Now I'm on my own side
It's better than being on your side
It's my fault when your blind
It's better than I see it through your eyes
All these thoughts locked inside
Now you're the first to know
When darkness turns to light,
It ends tonight,
It ends tonight.
Just a little insight won't make this right,
It's too late to fight,
It ends tonight.....
(Lyrics by All-American Rejects)
* *
Tomorrow, along with the final standings for the lottery drawing (May 20, by the way), I will post a blog of what I would say to each player in exit interviews...Thanks for the post, OldSchoolOakley...I checked it out and it seems Jerome already had his exit interview and headed home. Donnie said he had a few exits already, so clearly Jerome was excused.
Good scouting by your wife.
* *
And we present this, with thanks to HooDPoV via YouTube:
Comments (34)
Don't let the door hit you...
Let the healing begin.
I would attend a rally just to celebrate Isiah's banishment.
it never really ends with knicks fans.
right after this, we'll all be counting the moments leading up to Donnie Walsh's decision on Isiah Thomas' fate as the unsuccessful coach of the knicks.
and immediately following that, we'll be looking forward to the draft lottery, followed by the draft in june, followed by the summer league in vegas, which will be supplemented by the off-season buyouts, trades and accompanying trade rumors.
but if you meant isiah ends tonight, well, maybe.
depends on how ol' donnie feels about firing a man twice, a guy he supposedly is very fond of.
I've never been happier to see a Knicks season come to an end.
David - I've been calling for this - a party at Brother Jimmy's across the street from the Garden for the Fixers the night after Isiah's canned. Could be a good time. Plus, I think that it'd get some TV coverage if we really wanted it to.
As long as it's not on a Monday or Wednesday, I'd be down. Saturday would be tough for me to.
I wonder if Alan would come... If I were him, I might be content keeping the digital divide between me and my of his readers, who might be a little crazy. But it could be a cool meet and greet..
Alan - talk to Newsday's people about it. you know that the post and news will get some extra pub themselves because of whatever wacky headline and photoshoped picture they'll have when isiah is canned. newsday could keep up with them by sponsoring an isiah's gone party... i could so see that getting picked up by sportscenter.
Well, I have advised Donnie to give isiah a new role to keep him in the Knicks family. Director of player personnel will be Iisah's new title and Isiah will stay have say in every decision we make, along with Donnie. I also recommend Isiah to stay on as coach, but that's Donnie's call.
Not to put a damper on the festivities, but has anyone looked at records lately?
Knicks are tied with the Paper Clips and have 1 more win than Memphis. All 3 teams play tonight.
Can anyone say draft position #7, if Zneaky tries to make a statement?
did alan mean "IT ends tonight" as in, I.T. ends tonight?
Does it though??? Does it really end tonight? I really hope so...
I wouldn't be too concerned about the ping pong balls. Win or loss tonight won't make much of a difference. 5, 6 amd 7 all have a similar chance of getting the no. 1 pick. And they never bounce in order anyway...
When is this year's lottery?
Goodbye Isiah!! Hopefully the second time Walsh fires Thomas in Indiana.
Come on in, Mr. Jackson.
I think the Lottery is always in the 2nd Round of the Playoffs
??
I know that Donnie is got something up his sleeve in the Knicks off season. Here is some speculation as to how I think things will pan out:
Isiah will either except his new role as special adviser ti the president or leave the organization. Something tells me that he will leave rather stay and suck up the demotion and continued ridicule from the media and fans.
David Lee will be offered a sub prime contract and not 13 Million a year that people report. I say let him prove he got a jump shot and solid defense in the summer league if not offer him the minimum contract. Worse case he walks away to some team that wants to pay him 13 mill a year. He has heart but he ain't that good.
Buyout Steph. He is cancer to a winning team. 20 million worth every penny for buyout.
Buyout Jerome James. The guy is a bigger bum than Pavano on the Yankees.
Q-Rich looks like he gain 200 more pounds. He has got to go. Oakley can't believe he is still a Knick. Undersized, underachieving, heavy b ball. Loser.
Nate "The Great Bust" Robinson needs to belong to a younger team that like to chuck shots up and play erratic. He is not a Knick keeper.
Crawford will be a Raptor by the end of the summer.
Wilson Chandler - I would like to see more. He need to polish his kills and develop a killers mentality. He has an upside.
Jefferies will oddly be still here because he doesn't have any real role. He's like a utility infielder in baseball.
Fred Jones will resign for a one year "I can show you again deal" with Donnie. His old new boss.
The rest will either be packaged away or left to the Donnie waste basket. Curry goes in a trade. And the Zach hole to.
Hire Mark Jackson.
Hire Billy King as GM. I still would like to see Ernie Grunfeld get another shot.
Until they fire Isiah, I won't feel any better about this pathetic franchise.
They will fire him, right?
from the NY TImes:
REBOUNDS
Wilson Chandler will miss the Knicks’ season finale after injuring his left knee Monday night. A magnetic resonance imaging test confirmed the initial diagnosis of a sprain and also revealed a bone bruise.
The bone bruise worries me - these can become arthritic and cause loose bodies to form in the joint.
Mark Jackson/Tom Thibideau
GM - I don't want Philly's or Seattle's discards - they were fired for a reason.
Thank God the season is done. I'm more looking forward to following the offseason moves then I was for watching the team play.
Mark Jackson is not ready for this team.
What should happen is that we get an experienced coach in here - Van Gundy, Fratello, etc., and see if they would be open to having Mark on their staff.
Will the BS ever end? Does he really believe that the fans or media think he is being genuine with statements like the one below. Isiah says he is "....worried....how we're going to defend..." ISIAH DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THE S HIT YOU SAY?
How many practices have the Knicks had in the last month? one or two? At a minimum he should have had the younger players in the gym working on skills.
Isiah is a B ull S hit artist. ISIAH GET OUT! Isiah cannot remain with the organization in any capacity. Take your money and get out!
________________________
Thomas insisted Wednesday his thoughts were still on basketball.
"The last day [of the season] will be tomorrow," he said. "Today, I'm worried about how we're going to play, how we're going to defend, how we're going to execute and the game itself."
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3349654
is it over tonight?
happy happy joy joy...LOL...
the reign of darkness is coming to an end.
it is like when luke skywalker took down the empire and found out darth vader was his father...LOL...well not exactly but you get the point.
maybe i will use my season tickets next year.
we need to lose tonight to help those ping pong balls...1 game ahead of memphis...damn memphis is playing denver though...
LET THE NEW ERA BEGIN TONIGHT!
A sighting of J.James and how he's spending his FREE money from IT:
My wife flew down to Florida yesterday for a business meeting. She told
me that on her flight "there was a Knick". I asked for more detail, and
she said "he was 7'2 and named Jerome. He had to buy two seats."
So...I'm thinking that Jerome James is currently sunning himself on a
beach in Fort Lauderdale.
Thought you would appreciate...
Jerome James.
5 minutes on the season, $6 million for the very same 5-minute season.
this is why isiah no longer wears the gm/president hat.
playing q instead of chandler for 90% of the season will be one of the reasons why he may not wear the coaching hat much longer.
are there strip clubs in ft lauderdale? i'm betting there are. time to spend some of that hard-earned cash Jerome.
you earned it!
jj is probably headed down there to see his grandparents for pesach
Big game tonight fellas. A must lose!! I have been big on trading the pick but I think I am starting to buy into the Bayless/Mayo hype. If we don't get Rose I am open to taking one of those too.
Lopez or Love will be a disaster next to Rose or Curry, and Beasley needs to go to a more stable franchise. If we do pick Mayo we need to trade Crawford who doesn't seem to play well without the ball. We must to lose tonight though to have a shot at Mayo.
if i were walsh, the first player i'd try to find a new home for is Jamal Crawford.
of course the rumors are he's going to move zach and/or eddy first (one of the many redundancies on the roster), but I think if you're going to win basketball games, you need to upgrade your backcourt. jamal has the record for most seasons in the league without any playoff experience for good reason.
he's not unskilled, he just doesn't play the team game very well. the best year of his career was when LB had him taking more free throws than three point shots. he has since regressed back into jchuck.
Knicks fans, on behalf of the rest of the league's fans, I salute your fortitude and I hope it wasn't too wrong that we were all greatly entertained. For all of us, I made a shirt to immortalize this magical roster. We are all witnesses.
Old School:
Is that comment legit?!?! Unf'ing believable. Well, it IS believable, which is painful to say.
Some days, I hate this team.
Jerome. James. That has to be the worst contract given in NY Knicks history. In fact, hey Alan, that's a post for the offseason - the worst contracts given to players in Knicks history.
I can't see any worse ones. Did we give Travis Knight a contract, or was that the C's?
B
great. yet another t-shirt.
here is a hint, don't go selling your oh so clever hipster t-shirts in front of MSG without first getting a permit. Or do, if you want to garner publicity after being arrested for selling said shirts. be sure to wear a bandana around your neck like the last guy to maximize the arrest effect.
who knows, maybe some people will read the write-up in newsday and actually be tricked into thinking you give a rat's behind about the knicks.
probably not though.
Good news, the Knicks lost tonight so they will have no worst than the sixth pick in the draft, and will have the same number of ping pong balls as the fifth pick as they are currently tied with the Clippers.
Too bad the Knicks messed things up by beating Detroit on the road!
to all fixers:
the only good thing that happened this season was you guys, this blog, and alan's work (including gracie).
as for this knick "team", good riddance, R.I.P.
i'll be away for the next ten days, i suppose i'll be missing the best action of the season. have fun!
Alan, good post, but that stupid song is now gonna be stuck in my head again all day today at work.
Thanks everyone else too for posting all season. Misery loves company, and it was great to be able to come here to share the agony of Knicks fandom this season.
I'm sure we'll all be checking in a lot in the next few days to see what Walsh will be doing in the offseason, but just thought it was a good time to express a quick note of gratitude to Alan and everyone else here. When the Garden's rocking in 2010 with LeBron, a real point guard, Lee, a tamed Robinson, and rising star Will the Thrill, we'll be the ones who can truly enjoy it, after sticking it out in 2007-08, the worst season in the history of New York.
@ Brian from Scato - 100% legit, but I can't take credit for the report...it came from a friend of mine who's a fellow Knick fan.
@ Alan - thanks for getting the details on JJ and the lottery date...I actually thought the best part was that he's spends all that dough on 2 plane seats!!
Donnie needs to get everything in order before the lottery, I'm expecting changes by the end of the month.
mark jackson quit his nets gig last night on-the-air. Yes claims they had no idea. let the coaching replacement speculation begin.
MSG last night clearly painted Isiah as a man on his way out of New York.
So glad to see Peaceman's prediction about the Knicks making the playoffs as a fourth seed in the East with 50 victories worked out.
Listen to those knicksdefense crickets a chirping.
Worst contract in Knicks history was probably Allan Houston's. J. James and Jeffries were horrible but they were only the mid-level and didn't kill our cap. It was Houston's contract which put us in the salary cap hell we never got out of. Remember we didn't even have to give him that contract, it was another James Dolan blunder, trying to reward a friend, which destroyed our future. Layden and I.T. have made it worse, but that started it all. I still boo Houston when I see him on TV.
Knicks need an XO's coach who works well with young players and can get this team to play defense for once. Mark Jackson was a terrible man-man defender, give me Skiles and trade Curry.
Curry is not so easy to get rid of (esp. since he doesn't produce):
08/09 - owed 9.7M
09/10 - owed 10.5M
10/11 - owed 11.3M
Randolph might be easier b/c he can score:
08/09 - owed 14.6M
09/10 - owed 16.0M
10/11 - owed 17.3M
Just an FYI...owed to Crawford:
08/09 - owed 8.6M
09/10 - owed 9.4M
10/11 - owed 10.1M
If NO changes were made & didn't re-sign Marbury, Jones, Rose & Morris in 2009/10 they's be at 58.3M.
old school - another problem is gonna be the money they'll have to give to lee, which could be 13 mil...