Isiah Thomas: Codename “Persona Non Grata”
Do you remember that “Seinfeld” episode where George Costanza’s employer tries to get him to quit - rather than just fire him? They eventually board up his office so he can’t get into it - but he ends up going in through the air duct, and then (at first calmly) calls the secretary to advise her that if anybody’s looking for him, he (now shouting) “will be in my office!”
George Costanza… meet Isiah Thomas:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3358377
The gist of the story is that new president Donnie Walsh has advised Isiah Thomas that the only two people in the organization he can talk to are BFF Jim Dolan and Walsh himself… and in Walsh’s case, the phone calls will only be going one way (i.e. “Zeke, I’ll call you when I need you - but I have no set circumstances under which I’d need you.”)
Hey, at least Walsh stopped Thomas before Dolan allowed him to do to the Knicks franchise what he did to an entire league (the now-defunct CBA).
April 25th, 2008 at 11:34 am
You really think the Knicks are better off than the CBA? The CBA has been put out of its misery. It no longer suffers. Yet the Knicks must still walk the Earth, bearing the deformities inflicted upon them by Isiah, yet bereft of hope for a better future.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Not so fast, my friend. With Walsh’s new “job description” for Isiah, they do indeed have plenty of reason to hope. He can’t mess it up anymore. Just for starters, they enjoy (substantial) addition by subtraction in their efforts to become an NBA franchise again.
Hmmm… just occurred to me: Maybe Isiah thought that he was still CBA commissioner so that’s why he assembled (and coached) a CBA-cablier team? Nah, who am I kidding? The Knicks wouldn’t have been able to compete with the likes of the Albany Patroons in the old CBA… my bad.
Donnie Walsh is a very good basketball man… a surprisingly solid decision by James Dolan to bring him on. Dolan is clearly willing to spend money - so if Walsh can actually get him to spend it on *good* players, it won’t take long for the Knicks to get back in the swing of things.
Put it this way: The Atlanta Hawks and their 37 wins (.451 win %) made the playoffs this season. The Knicks actually aren’t *that* far away… in the Eastern Conference.
Nope - the CBA were granted no pardon as they sat on death row, and indeed the legal injection was ultimately delivered. Governor Dolan has granted the Knicks a pardon… they have been spared - and they will actually have the opportunity to redeem themselves. Big difference.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Doesn’t that sound like a dream job for many DKEs? I get paid a lot of money, without any responsibility….Hmmm… hang on, going to check Monster.com
April 26th, 2008 at 10:46 am
No kidding, eh? So let me get this straight: I’m brought in to run the operations, and I run it into the ground - and then I get a golden parachute for my efforts? Any one of us can do that! Where do we sign up?!
April 27th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I would have been willing to destroy the Knicks for less than half of Isiah’s salary.