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Posts Tagged Isiah Thomas

D’Antoni Won’t Solve the Knicks’ Problems

May 14

Posted by kit in 2008 NBA Playoffs, Amare Stoudemire, Atlanta Hawks, basketball, Big Dance, Boston Celtics, Derrick Rose, Detroit Pistons, Donnie Walsh, Eddy Curry, Isiah Thomas, Jamal Crawford, Knicks Problems, Leandro Barbosa, Madison Square Garden, Memphis, Miami Heat, Mike D'Antoni, NBA, New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns, Playoffs, Shaquille O'Neal, Shawn Marion, Stephon Marbury, Stephon Marbury Trade, Steve Nash, Uncategorized | No Comments

Donnie Walsh made his first bad decision yesterday when he decided to hire Mike D’Antoni as head coach of the New York Knicks. D’Antoni, who left the Phoenix Suns, failed yet again this season to get into the finals, despite having one of the most talented teams in basketball. Despite this failure, Donnie Walsh and the 23-59 Knicks (2nd to last in the Eastern conference) thinks that D’Antoni will solve the numerous problems the Knicks face this upcoming season. This is what D’Antoni had to say about his future with the Knicks,

We want to win a championship. I know all the components you have to have. You have to have great offense and great defense.

What the Knicks really needed was a defensive-minded coach to help their awful performance on defense this and the past several seasons. D’Antoni created one of the most effective run and gun offenses over in Phoenix, yet still failed to make it past the Western Conference Finals. As they say, “Defense Wins Championships.” How is bringing an offensive minded coach to a young, immature team going to help?

Stephon Marbury

The Knicks are one of the youngest teams in the league and their inexperience was shown last season when, despite having the highest payroll in basketball, they could not make the playoffs of one of the worst Eastern Conferences to date. The 8th seeded Atlanta Hawks were 8 games under .500 but still found themselves an astonishing 14 games ahead of the lowly Knicks. With useless defenders like Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, and Stephon Marbury on the team how does D’Antoni expect to fix this team. Crawford is in the game strictly for offense, which is so sparatic and inconsistent that there is really no need for him to take minutes away from less talented but more consistent players. Eddy Curry is awful on defense and can’t even block spam from his e-mail. Marbury, a.k.a Starbury, has been anything but a star. Someone needs to bury this star six feet under so that New York doesn’t have to deal with his cry-baby attitude.

The only thing that D’Antoni and the Knicks can hope for is to win the lottery. The draft lottery that is. If they can capture a solid position in which they can get Memphis guard Derrick Rose they may have a chance in the future. But that may take several seasons for D’Antoni to develop a team around a young guard. Something that he did well with Phoenix and Steve Nash, but was never done well enough to win a championship.

D'Antoni Knicks

D’Antoni has no idea what he’s getting into. This team ruined the character of one of the most talented and successful players of all time in Isiah Thomas. Sure D’Antoni has won coach of the year in 04-05. Sure he has led the Suns to 54 wins or more in the past 4 seasons. Sure he has a .608 winning percentage in the past 6 seasons. But where’s the ring Mike? No where. You know why? Because he had Shaquille O’Neal, Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash, Leandro Barbosa, and Grant Hill on his team and still failed to win. Because he couldn’t handle the ego of Shawn Marion, whose ego would be overshadowed tenfold in New York. And finally because he is 26-25 in the playoffs. A .500 team may get into the playoffs but they will never win the playoffs playing .500.

By Sean Connolly

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Isiah Thomas Removed as Knicks Coach

Apr 18

Posted by kit in basketball | 1 Comment

Breaking News, excerpted form the NYTimes

The Isiah Thomas era officially ended Friday, and a major Knicks rebuilding project is now underway.
Barton Silverman/The New York Times
Isiah Thomas had a .341 winning percentage as the Knicks coach.
N.B.A.

Donnie Walsh, who two weeks ago replaced Thomas as the team president, removed Thomas as head coach, but said he will remain with the team, but will have no title and no direct reports.

“I value Isiah’s knowledge of the game and his opinion,” said Walsh in a conference call Friday afternoon. “I will use him as a resource. He will be reporting to me.”

Walsh said that James L. Dolan, the Madison Square Garden chairman who stripped Thomas of the team presidency on April 2 in favor of Walsh, had no input in the decision.

Since being hired, Walsh, the Pacers president who hired Thomas to coach Indiana in 2000, had promised not to make a hasty decision on Thomas, but the outcome seemed inevitable in light of Thomas’s poor record.

Thomas posted a 56-108 record in two seasons as head coach. His.341 winning percentage ranks him among the bottom five coaches in franchise history. They went just 23-59 this season.

The Knicks opened the season with playoff aspirations after acquiring forward Zach Randolph last June, but they were quickly doused when Thomas clashed with Stephon Marbury, the starting point guard. Thomas threatened to remove Marbury from the starting lineup in early November, and Marbury responded by leaving the team for a day, skipping a game in Phoenix. When Marbury returned, Thomas let him play right away, over the objections of other players.

The team’s morale sunk, and their record along with it. The Knicks lost eight straight games, then hit an all-time low when they were routed 104-59 by the Boston Celtics on Nov. 29.

Thomas, who became team president in December 2003, never wanted to coach the team. But Dolan ordered him to the bench in June 2006, after firing Coach Larry Brown, who went 23-59 in his one season on the bench.

Under Thomas’s leadership, the Knicks’ payroll ballooned without any clear progress on the court. In his first season as president, the Knicks won 39 games and made the playoffs but were swept by the Nets in the first round. Over the last four seasons, the Knicks have won 33, 23, 33 and 23 games.

Thomas and the Garden were also found liable for sexual harassment last fall.

Anucha Browne Sanders, a former Knicks executive, sued Thomas for sexual harassment and received $11.5 million in damages.

Thomas’s reign was characterized by a series of risky moves for expensive, often aging players, from Penny Hardaway to Maurice Taylor to Jalen Rose to Steve Francis. He also gambled on Marbury, a former All-Star with a spotty record.

Mike Nizza contributed reporting: LINK

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NEW YORK NIX

Mar 23

Posted by kit in Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Bob Loscutof, Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Frank Isola, Frank Ramsay, Isiah Thomas, James Dolan, Kenny Sears, Kevin Garnett, Los Angeles Lakers, Madison Square Garden, Marty Glickman, New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns, Ray Allen, Richie Guerin, San Antonio Spurs, Stephon Marbury, Sweetwater Clifton | 6 Comments

It’s Sunday morning and I have a few hours before I plunk myself in front of the TV for CBS’ continuing coverage of the Men’s NCAA tournament. It was sad to see Michael Beasley go the way of O. J. Mayo, but as always there were some great games.

But that’s not what I’m writing about today. I was in Tune Street yesterday – our great local music & electronics store – and overhead a New York Knick’s fan share his agony.

What got me was this: “Here am I at home, paying $170 for NBA League Pass just to stick with my beloved Knicks, and I’m yelling at the TV: ‘Fire Isiah!’ I’m like screaming at the television set as if I paid the big bucks at the Garden. And of course I know the dude can’t hear me but I can’t help myself.”

isiahsuzyallmannyt.jpg

Knick coach Isiah Thomas – Photo Suzy Allman/New York Times

I felt for the guy and in return for my not mentioning his name, he agreed to talk more. If you love B-ball and you understand the joy and pain of rooting, you may appreciate this. He’s an older guy and started by telling me some of his history:

“I grew up in the Bronx before the games were on TV and listened to every Knicks game on the radio. Sweetwater Clifton, Richie Guerin, Kenny Sears … and in those days if you were going to high school in the city you had a G.O. discount card which got you into the Garden for 50 cents, up in the top most section of the balcony.

“In those days the NBA played doubleheaders, so if you loved basketball there was no better place than the old Garden. You get a Nedicks hot dog and an Orange Julius and head in for hours of great b-ball.

“The team that killed us was the Celtics – they manhandled the Knicks with Russell and Cousy and Frank Ramsay and they had this goon of a guy Jim Loscutof who literally would throw the Knicks around. Of course they played the best team basketball around too, but we hated them.

cousyvknicksphoto-by-wm-c-greene.jpg

Bob Cousy vs. The Knicks – Photo: William C. Greene

“So you can imagine what it feels like now all these years later to watch the Celtics steal Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett and out together a gem of a team while Isiah crashes and burns the Knicks.

kevingarnett.jpg

Kevin Garnett – Celtic Saviour

“We’re talking absolute agony. I gotta pray the Pistons take them out or whoever wins the West – Phoenix or San Antonio or even the Lakers!”

That, folks, is what rooting is all about. This guy is already hoping the Knicks blow every game left so they have a shot at Derrick Rose.

Even the New York City sportswriters are dripping with anger at what has happened to one of the most storied franchises in pro basketball. Frank Isola, the beat writer at the New York Daily News wrote about why he hates this version of the New York Knicks:

• The team I grew up rooting for has become a running joke.
• Few in the organization care about the team’s history.
• Patrick Ewing doesn’t work for them.
• They have had seven straight losing seasons.
• James Dolan once said that “the worst year yet” was 1999; yes the year they reached the NBA Finals.
• Isiah Thomas thinks he’s doing a great job.
• Stephon Marbury thinks he’s done nothing wrong.
• They don’t play defense.
• They ripped out the Marty Glickman radio booth for the sake of the almighty dollar.
• Few of the players have earned the fat contracts they’ve received.
• They are 19-48 in an Eastern Conference that except for three teams – Boston, Detroit and Cleveland – has to be the worst ever. How can the Knicks not even be in playoff contention in mid-March?
• Yes, I must confess, I hate the Knicks. These Knicks.

Mark Berman of the New York Post reported on the Knicks’ embarrassing lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves this way:
“The Knicks fell behind 42-24 after one quarter, with the Wolves converting 17 of 23 shots for a 73.9 percentage in setting their franchise high for most points in the opening stanza.
The Knicks might as well have taken the charter plane home then with their 50th loss in the bag.
Yes, it’s now 19-50. Mindboggling.
Ten fastbreak points to zero for the Knicks in the first 12 minutes.
‘The first quarter was a nightmare,’ Isiah Thomas said afterward.
No. The season – and the last four years – have been a nightmare. Thirteen games to go. And counting.”

Now add the fact that the Celtics are playing great basketball with a terrific chance to win the NBA title and you get a better idea why just about every New York Knicks’ fan from New York City to Los Angeles are having a hard time sleeping.

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