The kiss of death. By saying this now, Dolan puts Isiah on the coals during the Knicks first 3 game losing streak next year. What little chance Isiah had of succeeding is gone now. After 20-25 games, the players will already know they are playing for a lame duck coach/GM. Dolan is saying this now to get the press off of himself and on to Isiah. What complete jerk. He must want the Bulls to get Greg Oden. He better make sure Isiah hires an assistant that will be capable of coaching the last 20-30 games next year. His accusation of Larry Brown is pretty wicked, but he might be right. http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/ny-spknix0627,0,2075614.story?coll=ny-top-headlines Dolan's ultimatum and accusation Knicks owner tells Isiah it’s win or else; says Larry planned to coach 1 year BY GREG LOGAN Newsday Staff Writer June 27, 2006 Firing Larry Brown might cost Knicks owner James Dolan the remaining $40 million on Brown's contract, but team president Isiah Thomas, who was ordered by Dolan to take over as coach, will pay with his job if the Knicks don't show "significant improvement" next season. It's Thomas' responsibility to clean up the 23-59 mess made by Brown, whom Dolan yesterday accused of signing a five-year deal worth $50 million with no intention of coaching more than one season. Contacted last night, Brown said, "The only thing I could answer is that I loved the Knicks my whole life, and I care about my coaching career. To say I only wanted to coach one season, that's the furthest thing from the truth. I know what's coming but I don't want to get into a contest with these people." Saying it was impossible to make all the roster changes Brown demanded, Dolan believed it was appropriate for Thomas to coach because he is responsible for every player on the 15-man roster. With Thomas and Madison Square Garden sports operations head Steve Mills sitting at his side during an interview with six Knicks beat writers and The Associated Press yesterday afternoon, Dolan outlined the ultimatum he handed Thomas. "This is his team. He made this bed," Dolan said. "There's nobody better than him to make this thing go forward. "He has one year, one season to do that. At this time next year, Isiah will be with us if we can all sit here and say this team has made significant progress toward its goal of eventually becoming an NBA championship team. If we can't say that, then Isiah will not be here [in any capacity]." Asked to define the standard of success for Thomas, Dolan was vague. "It should be evident progress," he said. "Not debatable progress. Evident progress. I'm not going to put a number on that. Isiah has the full season to do this." Dolan's directive could be a grandstand play to appease fans. But Thomas, who coached Indiana from 2000-03 and made the playoffs all three seasons but did not advance past the first round, said he did not want to hire anyone else. "I'd rather bet on myself," Thomas said. "If my career is in the hands of somebody else, trust is not something that I have a lot of these days. I believe in the players. I believe in what I put together. And we'll make it work." One reason Dolan wanted Thomas to return to the bench is that it won't cost the owner any more money at a time when he stands to pay out $40 million to Brown if NBA commissioner David Stern rules against the Knicks in an arbitration hearing. Reflecting on the misguided coupling of the century, Dolan said, "We made a mistake hiring Larry Brown." The owner outlined a litany of complaints against Brown, including negotiating trades without consulting Thomas, violating the team's media policy and failing to return phone calls from his superiors. Dolan met with Brown Thursday to discuss those problems and offer him a chance to stay on if he agreed to abide by club policy. "It's my contention that Larry never intended to coach the team beyond this season," Dolan said. He cited Brown's failure to comply with policy after repeated warnings as evidence of his intent. Asked if Brown's actions bordered on fraud, Dolan said, "You're not getting that out of me, no way. But I think he came into that meeting, and his frame of mind was that he was not interested in finding a way to coach this team." Dolan and Thomas said Brown had a list of five or six players, including Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and Jerome James, he wanted gone even if it meant buying out their contracts. Mills said it would have cost the Knicks $180 million to buy out the contracts, plus a matching amount in luxury tax. When they met with Brown last week, Dolan said he told them to expect another season like the last one if they refused to make the changes he wanted. "He didn't want to coach the New York Knicks," Dolan said. "He was offered an easy opportunity to move forward with this organization, and he elected not to take it. That tells me he didn't want to do this job."
Everyone is milking this organization for its money, from Isiah, to brown to all the players. Fire everyone and trade away everyone. Get under the cap and start over again.
This reminds me of that movie where whoopie goldberg took over as headcoach of the knicks and had to deal with an owner that was a jerk
The LB soap opera was to me one of the most compelling stories in the NBA along with the Miami Heat winning the NBA championship. I thought the same thing about Brown, that he deliberately mailed in the season to collect his $50M after one season. I don't see how someone with LBs experience could manage a team so badly.
Ugh. I can actually see LB saying the things Dolan said he did. In the end, they're all at fault and never worked in the same page. Too selfish.. LB wanted to do things his own way, even when it's pretty much impossible (getting rid of all the players he wanted to get rid of). Going to the media and having a war of words with Marbury, i mean.. And then Thomas, well, EVERYBODY knows how crappily he put together this team. Complete disregard of the whole 'team' concept. Dolan? Well, he did hire Thomas, so there you go. But I applaud that he's doing this. Giving him an ultimatum to turn the club around in a year. This is the best way to get out of the hole at this point in time.
i think he should have made isaih coach 4 years, so in process he wouldn't lose money from brown. if its true that larry b. only wanted to coach one season and then quit, he is a jerk. he got payed the most in one season.
Yes, you got me there. But I'm guessing that Dolan is somehow in love with Isiah to keep him in the Knicks organization FOR THIS LONG... so much so that anything resembling 'kicking him out' is a good move. ... Then watch the Knicks win 33 games next year and Dolan keeps Isiah as coach
Predictions: 1. If you through Isiah would trade anyone to any body before. . . He will be REALLY trading now. . . I mean hell . . if he is 10-20 Why not tweak the line up .. anyway you want 2. Next year brown returns as Coach/GM Rocket River mark my words. . . all part of the master plan . .to bop the man
maybe isaiah has the support of the players, especially marbury? i wouldn't be surprised to see them winning less than 40 games and make the playoffs next season.
Don't the Bulls have the right to swap picks with the Knicks next year, from the Curry trade? If so, they can't win for losing!
I hope Isiah gets to the playoffs and gets swept so we get to see more years of his awesome player personnel moves.
Anyone see the video of this with Dolan talking and Isiah sitting next to him? Thomas looked a like nervous to me - like the giddyness of winning the power struggle with Brown was immediately taken away with the "you've got one year" warning. See you in a year, Isiah! Evan
I saw it. Did you notice the reporter asked IT what he thought about the one-year predicament? He said he was "ticked-off" about it but that he would "rise to the occasion...." Dolan threw a sneering glance at him. It was funny.
My goodness, Dolan is dumb. I mean, it is comic gold and all, and some poetic justice to boot. But, this is Dolan's business and he's just going to fritter away another season for nothing. The deck was already stacked against Thomas, but now how is possibly going to succeed as a lame-duck? He's at a disadvantage at dealing with his players and with his dealings with other GMs. And, he's given Thomas every motivation to mortgage the Knicks' future to get what wins he can this year (not that he needed any encouragement to mortgage the Knicks' future). Thomas' only hope is that Francis, Marbury and the rest actually like him personally and try their best on the court for his sake.
The Knicks even with the so called bad chemistry, should have been close to .500. I mean didnt the "Great Larry Brown" refuse to play Lebron,Wade and Anthony in the olympics? Larry had the easiest job with a olympics team in some time. He had length, depth and atheletes, yet he didn't press or any other way because he was trying to play the right way to prove a point instead of just winning.
I'm pretty sure Thomas was saying he was ticked off at Larry Brown and the situation he left them in, not about the one year deal.
