If you've been around since the beginning of the season, you might remember that Jeff from Celticsblog organized all the basketbloggers around to preview their favorite teams. Mine was pretty  damn silly, and even Joey from Straight Bangin' over-estimated. Thus, along with the rest of the NBA blogosphere, we were asked to look back and evaluate our season previews. Watch us come to terms with our over-optimism here. Oh well.

We're gonna have to put up with a lot of this rumor-mongering for some weeks, or at least until Isiah and Donnie Walsh have a formal meeting. Anyway, Frank Isola is under the impression that Scott Skiles would be a good fit for our Knicks. I'm here to say that aside from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Skiles is the only coach over whom I'd take Isiah Thomas. And I don't even have to come up with a reason. Isola says it for me:  

That last part is rather important. If anyone could reintroduce the tense, paranoid atmosphere of Dolan's recently abandoned media policy, it's Skiles. Nothing pisses me off more than a coach who uses the media as an outlet for lashing out at his players. We've had that before, and it simply did not work. There are ways to hold a team accountable without being overbearing and belittling. The Knicks need a new culture, and Skiles just doesn't fit. Here's SML with much more on this possibility.  

Found at the Fanhouse, Portfolio has done the math and come up with a grand total- a cautious one at that- for Isiah Thomas' expenditures. I recommend reading the whole thing, but here's the breakdown:

$187 million to make the Knicks worse than they were when he started. If anyone was wondering why we're so excited about the Donnie Walsh hiring...this is why.

If you're like me, you couldn't pick Donnie Walsh out of a lineup of old white men before this week. He's always been around, but isn't as visible a GM as guys like Cuban, Dumars...or Isiah Thomas. First of all, here he his:

Nice. Slicked-back hair, a short-sleeved plaid shirt, and a shiny wristwatch. He's a man of the people with a touch of class and New York sensibility. And how about that facial expression? It's like the Mona Lisa of candid GM photos. Is he warm? Calm? Firm? Sinister? If there's one thing this photo says it's that Mr. Walsh is ready for the pressure of New York, thank you very fucking much.

What else can we learn? Well, Walsh is from the Bronx, played ball at UNC, and has coached in college and in the pros. He's the man who drafted Reggie Miller, dug up Jermaine O'Neal, and drove Jamaal Tinsley's getaway car. Larry Bird has stolen some of his responsibility over the last few years, but Walsh made the last two decades of Pacer basketball, an era we New Yorkers know far too well. For more expert insight, I went to Tom from Indy Cornrows:

It's good news, all around. Walsh is a guy with an eye for talent and a respected name in NBA circles. The guy is good news. In fact, the only bad news I can think of is that he's got previous connections to Isiah, and this guy as well. But let's cut the man slack. The rumors are nothing more than rumors at this point, and there's gonna be some competition, but I'm hopeful that a guy like Walsh might be leading this team come next season. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Seriously. Frank Isola is throwing out, of all people, Billy King as a replacement for Isiah. From the Daily News:

Good friends, eh? How good? Good enough to make Kiki Vandeweghe jealous? Mr. Mills needs to quit being a tease with all these friends of his. Oh, and as for a "strong candidate", Ziller puts it best: "If by "strong" you mean "virtually indistinguishable from Isiah except for the whole sexual harrassment thing," then yes, King could be a "strong" candidate." Gotta love the New York media. Coming next: Are the Knicks looking to trade Eddy Curry for Oliver Miller?

Headlines like this make me a little sick. This has come up before, but the fact that people who write for a living and have a press pass to games can get away with that kind of slander really bugs me. I guess I'd like to take this opportunity to use the Post as an example. I've certainly been guilty of taking shots at players, Knicks and otherwise, so this goes as a lesson mainly for myself. Let us all remember that the people we're talking about are human beings, many with families and young kids. Some would argue that basketball players get paid to perform and be seen, and thus invite criticism. This is absolutely the case, and I welcome any and all comments on what a player does. Zach Randolph's ball-hogging, Jared Jeffries' jump shot, and Malik Rose's chair-pulling are all ripe for shit-talking. The line is drawn when we're attacking what a player is. It's a line that's certainly been crossed on this blog. We've all made fat jokes before, and there are probably more to come. Some of this is regrettable, but I like to think that we maintain a light enough mood here (which is an accomplishment, given the circumstances), to get away with saying some stuff in jest. I'd just like to make sure that things here stay playful and in decent taste, and, most importantly, that we always remember we're talking about real people.

I noticed this little aside in a Mike Dougherty blog post:

See, THIS is the shit we need to hear about. Gimme details! What exactly do they do to each other's clothes? What are their reactions? Can I get video tape? We already know the Knicks suck. We know Isiah's incompetent. We know Steph is surly, Curry's fat, and Nate is immature. Enough repackaging the same depressing stories. Show me Nate Robinson pissing on Eddy Curry's mink coat.  

I guess fans of bad teams don't get insight into the hidden quirks of their players. Also, the Dolan regime would never permit that kind of transparency. Someday, friends. Someday.

I'm a big fan of Get Fuzzy, a comic strip about a man and his talking pets: a volatile cat and a dim-witted dog. So coming from them, this hurts.

Get Fuzzy- Darby Conley

(Tip of the hat to Deadspin commenter, LeagueofShadows)

Watching last night's Portland-Seattle game, something puzzled me. In the first half, hometown Blazer fans were distracting Sonic free throw shooters with inflatable "Thunder Stix". I wondered aloud why they had them so early. At the Garden they distribute them to the fans behind the away basket at halftime. Then I realized, if both sides got Thunder Stix, we bitter Knick fans would surely be compelled to attack our own players with noisy distraction as an indicator of our discontent. Limit it to one side, one half, and the opposing team is the only viable target. The Dolan regime is censoring you in ways you can't even detect.

From Alan Hahn's blog:

As far as I can remember, the whole notion of Curry to the Heat was started (fabricated) by Sam Smith and seconded by Chris Sheridan, both of whom would be loathe to be called "bloggers". If anything, it was the blogophere that first called bullshit on this and proceeded with caution. No respect, I tell you.