Coach Zeke. Both Feet Almost Out the Door

If you don't want to read the whole thing, I bolded a couple of statements.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...unhappy_with_knicks_effort_isiah_thomas_.html

Unhappy with Knicks' effort, Isiah Thomas kicks players out of practice

BY FRANK ISOLA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Tuesday, November 20th 2007, 9:52 AM

A desperate Isiah Thomas kicked his entire team out of practice Monday. The Knicks' embattled coach was unhappy with their work habits.

The move comes on the heels of a six-game losing streak and amid increasing speculation that Thomas is on the verge of being fired. According to a source close to the team, Thomas tossed his players off the court at their practice facility in Greenburgh after he became frustrated with their lack of hustle and focus.

The players eventually returned but not until Thomas had made his point. It is unclear if the assistant coaches ran the workout, but the players were in a somber mood when practice ended.

"It is a three-ring circus," said the source. "It's getting worse."

The Knicks are back at the Garden tonight to face the Golden State Warriors before heading back on the road to play in Detroit tomorrow. Tonight's game is the Knicks' first at home since Stephon Marbury was demoted from the starting lineup last week and went AWOL for 24 hours.

It is likely that both Marbury and Thomas will be the target of boos tonight as the Knicks enter the night with a 2-7 record. Marbury attended yesterday's practice but had already left the gym when the media were permitted to enter the room. There are unconfirmed reports that Marbury left quickly after learning that a relative had died.

Marbury should be available tonight and likely will be used as a backup for a fourth straight game. The Knicks' season was thrown into chaos last week when the point guard and Thomas got into a heated argument on the plane to Phoenix after Marbury was informed that he wouldn't start against the Suns.

Marbury returned to New York, only to rejoin the team on Wednesday in Los Angeles, where he played 34 minutes against the Clippers. An unidentified Knick said that Thomas asked the players to vote on whether Marbury should play and even though the team felt unanimously that he should be benched, Thomas put him in anyway.

That decision came on the same day the Daily News reported that Marbury had threatened to go public with unsavory information he claims to have on Thomas. Jamal Crawford, who reportedly was in charge of polling the players, dismissed the idea that the Knicks are a divided group.

"We're good," he said. "There is no turmoil. Teammates get into it on every team. But we haven't had that here."

Yesterday, Thomas reiterated that he would not have changed the way he handled Marbury's demotion and its aftermath. He also repeated that he is not worried about his job security.

The Knicks are 6-22 since Thomas received a contract extension last March, believed to be worth $24 million. He revealed that he had a conversation with Garden chairman James Dolan "the day before yesterday (Saturday)," but he declined to elaborate.

There is a group of players that believes that Thomas is acting like he wants to be fired.

Thomas, however, is smart enough to know that he does not want to fight Dolan for his contract. Dolan refused to pay Larry Brown because he felt that the former coach had violated the team's sacred media policy.

Thomas apparently has learned from history and is careful not to say anything even remotely derogatory about the team, the organization and especially Dolan. But Dolan is upset over the daily leaks concerning the state of his team and likely will hold someone accountable.

 

Henry Abbott's write-up about tonight's game at Truehoop. This, and something else I read, lead me to guess the real question is whether Zeke will be allowed to coach the Detroit game or not. I saw bits and pieces of the Warriors game and it wasn't pretty.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-28-309/You-Don-t-Want-to-be-a-Knick.html

You Don't Want to be a Knick

November 20, 2007 11:38 PM

On my way home from watching the Warriors wax the Knicks.

I can't decide who was the most unhappy person in Madison Square Garden tonight.

* By looks, it's James Dolan, who could barely manage to stay upright as he harrumphed his way through the game in his baseline seat. He's rich! He's powerful! He stars in his own rock band! He owns the fanciest and most expensive toy in the world: the New York Knicks! And he's slumping and morose throughout the game. At one point they handed him what I assume was a box score, and he sneered at it.
* Could by Mardy Collins whose 1/4 assist-to-turnover ratio only begins to tell the tale of how impressively he did not make a case for more minutes. (His misses, turnovers, and fouls compared to his total points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks: 9/3)
* Could be Jared Jeffries, who worked like a dog all summer retooling his game, and now can't get on the court.
* Could be Stephon Marbury, who stood on the floor in the middle of his hometown, in the world's "most famous arena," and was booed every time he touched the ball. In a special treat from his coach he was also given the gift of getting his starting job back on the night Baron Davis was in town to embarrass whomever was starting. Baron Davis (who is an absolute joy to watch) ended up with 31, 7, and 6. If Stephen Jackson had warmed up a little earlier, Davis could have had ten assists or more.
* Could be Isiah Thomas, the person who has to answer for this mess. The man carries himself with a certain poise, which is not easy when the crowd repeatedly chants "fire Isiah!" He said after the game that with the basketball that was being played on the court, fans deserved to yell whatever they wanted.
* Could be Nate Robinson, who appers to play harder than any other Knick, and ended up with an 0-fer.
* In reality, though, gven all of the above, I guess you have to hand the crown to any Knick fan (or these guys) who showed up hoping to be entertained tonight. The mood in that arena was apathetic and sour. Something has got to give.

 

Chris Sheridan was also at the game last night. His write-up on the Daily Dime. I'll be very surprised if Dolan let's Zeke coach the Bulls game at home on Saturday.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-071121

NEW YORK -- We'd go ahead and call it the Mother of All Knicks Debacles, except for one thing.

Nearly a decade of bearing personal witness to the downfall of the New York Knickerbockers has taught us to never label anything "the worst it has ever or could ever be," because recent history has shown us time after head-shaking time that things actually will get worse at Madison Square Garden, that this week's or this month's or this season's new low will not remain a new low for long.

Still, it really was a new low at MSG Tuesday night as the fans chanted "Fire Isiah" more than a half-dozen times during a lifeless 26-point loss to the Golden State Warriors that extended New York's losing streak to seven games.

Taking it all in with a pronounced frown on his face was owner Jim Dolan, who marched straight into Isiah Thomas' office after the game and either did not have the guts, the will or the good sense to do the right thing and fire his head coach and president.

There was such a palpable level of tension in the hallway beneath the stands, you half-expected Isiah to walk out of his office with a pink slip in his hand -- especially after watching Dolan slump and slouch through one of the most humiliating nights his team has ever had in its own building. But Thomas instead walked down the hallway with his head still held high, made his way through the back corridor to the interview room and placed the blame for this latest loss squarely on his own shoulders.

"You never want to see this kind of display of basketball. That's on me -- on my desk," he said, sounding ever more like a man who might actually want to be fired.

Thomas shot a sharp look at a Knicks PR official when he cut off the interview, then stopped as he got up and made sure everyone heard him one last time: "That was not the players' fault. This one is on me tonight."

The Knicks take their traveling freak show on the road to Detroit on Wednesday, and it'll be the 30th game since Dolan made the first of his two monumental missteps of 2008 (failing to settle the Anucha Browne Sanders case was the other) and gave Thomas a long-term extension.

The Knicks record in the 29 games thus far? How 'bout 6-23.

"We're not headed in the right direction right now, that's for sure," David Lee said afterward in a home locker room where the collective mood of the players was best described as one of self-disgust.

Might this lead to something bad happening?

"Something bad already happened -- 20,000 people just said 'Fire the Coach,'" Jamal Crawford replied.

The crowd began booing the Knicks even before the opening tip, and Stephon Marbury heard it in the opening moments of the game every single time he touched the ball. The first "Fire Isiah" chant rang out half-heartedly from the seats upstairs late in the second quarter with the Knicks trailing by 11 and well on their way to accumulating 29 turnovers, a shocking display of carelessness that more than negated their 52-36 rebounding edge.

The chant resurfaced throughout the second half, reaching its pinnacle late in the fourth quarter despite the building being half-empty by then.

Staying till the end and taking it all in from a courtside seat was Charles Oakley, who was slighted by the classless Knicks by not having his face shown on the center scoreboard during a timeout, as is the custom for visiting dignitaries and celebrities. (It reeked of the Knicks wanting to avoid having Oakley receive a standing ovation, which quickly could have morphed into an anti-Isiah or anti-Dolan chant).

Oakley, however, was not the biggest VIP guest of the night.

That honor was reserved for either commissioner David Stern, who watched the game from a skybox high atop the arena, or his main guest, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, who attended with numerous other foreign dignitaries. Gotta hand it to the Knicks. When they come up with an epic stink job, they do it in front of some of the most important people in the world. (The U.N. is now expected to pass a unanimous resolution Wednesday ridiculing the Knicks).

"This was about as difficult of a loss as I've had in coaching since I've been here," said Thomas, who said the fans were "right" to boo the team and call for his firing. "What they saw tonight, if I paid money to see this game, I'd be upset, too."

It is hard to fathom how much longer Dolan, who has not spoken publicly regarding the Knicks since giving Thomas the extension back in March, can remain in a state of denial about the shape of his team under Thomas' leadership.

It'll be a huge blow to Dolan's ego to admit the Thomas extension was a mistake, but the only wise move he can make at this point is to listen to the fans, bring in the dynamite and begin the purge by firing Isiah. But since that is the only wise move Dolan can make to assuage his customers, we warn you that he might not do it. The man's track record in nearly a decade of exerting control over the family toy has included a sustained string of bad decisions, from the Patrick Ewing trade to the Marv Albert firing to the Anucha-related humiliation he put the franchise through on the eve of training camp.

Still, the body language on display throughout the night from both Dolan and MSG executive Steve Mills clearly indicated they were experiencing an almost unprecedented level of humiliation for which someone is eventually going to pay.

That someone seems bound to be Thomas, unless Dolan does what Dolan always does -- make the wrong decision. And if that's the case, we're going to be hearing a few more of those "Fire Isiah" chants -- not to mention undoubtedly recalculating our definition of a new low -- as this already humiliating Knicks season trudges forward.

Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Chris, click here.