Isiah Thomas Named Knicks Consultant

Especially when players can’t even look sideways at an agent.

with this: “Thomas had already been working behind the scenes with the Knicks for a while, so it’s pretty silly to get huffy all of a sudden just because there was an announcement.”

As far as basketball considerations, and worrying he’ll ruin the roster this year, yes, it’s silly to worry about that. But it’s not silly to fret about the fact that the man most associated with the most disastrous stretch in Knick history is being publicly welcomed back into the organization. To draw a partially facetious parallel, do you think Democrats would welcome George W. Bush back in an advisory role to the president? Do you think the general population would be ok with that? Even knowing that Bush wasn’t making the ultimate decisions?

Look, obviously basketball is less important than politics in the grand scheme, but on a day to day level I am more emotionally invested in the Knicks than in congress. Probably most people who post on this blog are. And we, almost uniformly, were so thrilled to move past the ineptness of the Isiah era and finally have a front office and head coach we could trust (to one degree or another). And a lot of us (myself included) were thrilled with how this offseason turned out, LeBron or no. And this move doesn’t let us keep the momentum this summer built. It pulls back into 2005-06 doldrums. It shows that Donnie Walsh doesn’t have all the authority he wants (anyone believe he actually wants to hire Isiah?)

What a move like this says is “I, Jim Dolan, don’t give a shit about the fans who shelled out cash to watch a broken product for ten years. I, Jim Dolan, don’t give a shit about associating with a man who publicly embarrassed my organization and the fans who support it by putting us through a sexual harassment trial (that cost me 11.5 million personally) and 10 years (4 under Isiah) of irresponsible management that led to a disastrous product on the court. I, Jim Dolan, don’t give a shit what any of you think. I like the guy. So suck it Knicks fans. It’s still my team. I’m still the same guy who ran us into the ground. Plus we sold out season tickets already, and there are no refunds.”

It’s simultaneously disheartening and infuriating. Sounds like the 2005-06 Knicks to me.

Hiring the same guy to do a job and getting the same bad result. Scouting talent-what talent? Curry, Jeffries, Jerome James, Starbury, Mardy Collins, Nate Robinson etc. and grossly overpaying them. Missing te playoffs year after year. I would like to know what this guy’s salary is? He gets credit for Amare? Amare signed because he got 90 M, not because Isiah persuaded him. He tried to reach LeBron, and we know that result. This really is a bad dream.

The management team didn’t give him the keys to the Penthouse, but put him in the best possible position for the Knicks. Loved all of his draft picks while with the Knicks.

But I don’t see anything?!
(Let’s up that is how it plays out.)

I don’t mean in the sense that they have some contract or some secret deal. But he was a good soldier took all the heat in the press for the Anucha case even though MSG, the corporation was mostly at fault. The press has been extremely biased about the facts in the case. Let’s review what actually happened. Anucha sued both MSG and Isiah. They defended jointly and Thomas supported his employers during their defense. MSG lost. The jury verdict came in against them. Isiah did not lose! The jury verdict was hung for him. MSG then settled both suits out of court. I read a lot of press about the trial at the time. The one thing Isiah was said to have actually done was put his arms around Anucha and say things like “I love you Honey”. This was obviously stupidity on his part, especially in retrospect, but worthy of a sexual harassment verdict? I don’t think so and the jury wasn’t sure either. Why? Because from all the testimony reported in the press, apparently neither Anucha or anyone else told Isiah his conduct was unwelcome or that he should stop. Anucha complained to her boss (not Isiah and not in his management chain) and MSG didn’t do anything at all. From what I have heard in corporate training sessions, this is a key distinction. MSG was definitely at fault in this.

But Isiah didn’t choose to defend himself separately or even hint that MSG should have told him something. He stood by his employer and his reputation was totally destroyed as a consequence (which is partiallly the fault of the way the press covered the trial). MSG doesn’t get anywhere near the venom he does even though they were more at fault.

Now it is true that the Knicks performed horribly under his management. But they did come close to the playoffs one season before injuries derailed them. And he managed to bring in young talent, even if he didn’t make a coherent team. This is no worse than many of his predecessors. And his team was never the worst in the league in any of the seasons. But he is the one reviled as “the worst GM of all time”. So yes, the Knicks owe him one.

I have been a fan of the Knicks since the days of Harry Gallatin. I live in LA and I take heat for having a Knicks decal on my car window—-because the Knicks are a national joke—-all that money, arguably playing in the most historic arena in the U.S., great, knowledgeable fans, and a history that contains magic moments——a guy playing on one leg and the crowd screaming in admiration. No more. A whorehouse in more ways than one. Even if they win a championship, they are no longer my team. Even a fan has limits. There are more important things than winning. Which, by the way, they won’t. Goodbye and good luck.

Dorisadmin, The jury did not find that Anucha had been sexually harassed. They found that that MSG created a bad environment for women that encouraged harassment and did nothing about complaints. If they had foiund she was harassed, why would they find against MSG but not against Thomas?

general managers are rolling on the floor with laughter.

Isiah was obliged once again to use the phrase “skill set”. Of course, we all hope that Isiah has not been (nor will he ever be) the ghost GM of the team. My fear is that there is a lot of boardroom intrigue going on, which is why a GM/assistant to Donnie has not yet been named. Paranoid-maybe, but i’ll rest easier when new GM is named, and Donnie just oversees all.

Some people have a short memory or are very forgiving.

Isiah was hired in 03. The team won 39 games, made the playoffs, but were swept in 4 games by the Nets. In 04-5, they won 33 games. In 05-6, they won 23 games. In 06-7 with Isiah as coach they won 33. In 07-8, they won 23. Along the way, he fired Don Chaney, Lenny Wilkens and Larry Brown. Let’s not overlook the tens of millions in contracts to a collection of bums, and the loss of draft choices. Why not- let’s rehire him.

gbnypat,

I stand corrected. I remembered wrong. The jury found he did harass her, but that is wasn’t worth any damages. He was found to have made passes at her and to have called her a bitch. My guess is half the athletes in the NBA have made inappropriate passes at women at one time or another and many of them also called women bitches. The difference for Isiah seems to be that no other organization than MSG fires the woman for complaining about it. I still stand by my point that basically Isiah took all the heat in the press. And MSG paid money, but the attitude in blogs seems to be they paid for Isiah’s mistake, not that they paid for their own ones.