Associated Press is saying the Donnie Walsh annoucement will be tommorrow. There is a Knicks press conference scheduled at 1 PM EST. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...i8vLYF?slug=ap-knicks-walsh&prov=ap&type=lgns New York Knicks set to announce hiring of Walsh on Wednesday By BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer 3 minutes ago NEW YORK (AP)—The New York Knicks will turn their basketball operations over to Donnie Walsh on Wednesday. The Knicks will announce the hiring of Walsh as their new president at a news conference, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the move has not been made official yet. The press conference is at 1 p.m. at Madison Square Garden. Walsh, the longtime Indiana Pacers executive, will replace Isiah Thomas as president. Thomas is also the Knicks’ coach. Thomas’ future remains unclear. He has repeatedly said he expects to be with the Knicks next season, but that likely will be up to Walsh—who hired Thomas to coach the Pacers in 2000. The Knicks fell to 20-54 with a 119-115 overtime loss at Milwaukee on Tuesday. They continue their five-game road trip Wednesday at Memphis. Walsh recently announced he was leaving the Pacers after 24 years with the organization. He joined the Pacers’ front office as general manager in 1986, became team president in 1988 and CEO in 2003. He helped the franchise rise from NBA laughingstock to title contender. Indiana reached the Eastern Conference finals six times and won the Central Division four times during Walsh’s stay as an executive. The Pacers reached the NBA finals in 2000, when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, and had the league’s best record in 2004. “I’ve often, when I needed some basketball advice, he’s on a short list of people that I pick up the phone and call around the league for just basketball matters,” NBA commissioner David Stern said last week. “And he works and works and works.” Walsh has had a lesser role in recent years since the Pacers hired Larry Bird as their president in 2003. Walsh had previously said he wouldn’t reveal any plans about his future until after the season. The Knicks haven’t won a playoff game since Thomas arrived as president in December 2003 and could be headed for the first 60-loss season in franchise history. Still, Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan has remained loyal to Thomas, though he has not spoken to the media since rewarding him with a multiyear contract extension last March. Reports surfaced late last month that Dolan had preliminary talks with Walsh. Negotiations apparently moved quickly, with the Knicks apparently not even interviewing anyone else for the job.
It was entertaining trying to see Isaiah run this legendary organization and try to fix mistake after mistake by taking gambles that never worked out. But hopefully this team will be not so embarrassing anymore. The Pacers are interesting. It's amazing how they have been good for years up until about 2 years ago.And right before then, it seemed they had just collected a bunch of guys that were always in some sort of trouble(Jermaine, Tinsley, Stephen Jackson, Artest). But that team was always good.The Reggie Miller Pacers in the 90's vs the Patrick Ewing Knicks, and Jordan's Bulls were epic games. I hope Walsh does well in NY.
The Pacers were the best team in the East a few years ago right up there with Detriot, but the Malice at the Palace destroyed that team. They had the best record in the East at the time and were a title contender IMO. Ron Ron, O'Neal, and Jackson were suspended for significant chunks of time, then Artest came back and pouted while pursuing a rap career. O'Neal was never right physically. Sometimes an event like the Malice can kill a team's pysche and the only way to overcome that is to blow it up and statrt over. They had no choice but to take back 60 cents on the dollar for their players. I'm acutally suprised O'Neal is there. I thought Walsh did a great job transitioning that team from the Miller\Smits\Davis Bros team to an O'Neal\Artest\Jackson team without prolonged years stuck in draft lottery purgatory. Just dumb luck that it didn't work out.
As much as I love my rockets, I'm actually a somewhat knicks fan too. Ever since JVG's last days through all the coachs they went through and watching the team bury themselves with the salary cap was painful. I think this signing is good for the franchise and the city of new york. Be fun to see if they can somehow bring SOME balance back into that shtty leastern conference.
I wouldn't agree with that. All of their bad situations tended to come from internal problems and problem childs. Walsh helped bring in good (not especially great) talent, but also ignored red flags. It should have been alarming when Reggie Miller, immediately after retiring, slammed the Pacers as a studio analyst, saying they weren't title contenders given the locker room issues. Jamal Tinsley - he's been an injury prone, mediocore production guy his whole career that the Pacer kept hoping would develop into a all-star point. Never going to happen, partly because he's a knucklehead at heart. His current contract should never have happened, but Walsh/Bird often hang onto to guys too long. Jonathan Bender - gave up a still productive Antoinio Davis for him, and held on to him like the Cubs with Prior/Wood. Al Harrington - Too common story of a talented HSer with size that never understood about work ethic. Another guy that Walsh looked at and treated as an all-star despite his never earning it on the court. As a Pacer, he maxed out as a 16-6 guy. Stephen Jackson - absolute headcase who would lead you to transfer if he were a coworker. Ron Artest - no explanation needed. The Palace mayhem happened because the Pacers were loaded with unprofessional and borderline classless children. Not some fluck of bad luck. They've been going downhill for years because Walsh and Bird couldn't bring themselves to blow up an obviously sinking ship, and now they're stuck with a horrible team because of it. Walsh is clearly going to do better than Isiah Thomas. But his uber-loyalty to guys he drafts or trades for can be a big problem, especially when he stays in denial about their character or other red flags. Too many times he's clung to a player wishfully thinking their potential will eventual come about as reality. Jermaine O'Neal might be the only guy that he can say panned out in that regard. Evan
Did anyone hear him on Mike and Mike this morning? I thought he sounded awful and it basically sounded like Isaiah was out even though he never said it.
