Saturday, April 19, 2008

END OF AN ERA (FINALLY!)

Donnie Walsh has finally done what Jim Dolan should have done months ago, remove Isiah Thomas from his head coaching position. The bad news, Thomas will still be employed by Dolan and the Knicks in some sort of untitled advisory role. However, Walsh said during his conference-call announcement that Thomas will not be charge of the draft as was speculated. Even though Walsh did say "I will be in contact with Isiah a lot, I value Isiah's knowledge of the game and I value his opinion so I would use him as a resource". He later mentioned, "There will be nobody reporting to Isiah." Thomas will report to Walsh directly.

To me, this sounds like Walsh was just being polite publicly. Thomas has been fired without receiving a pink-slip. Even if he had been outright fired, Dolan would still owe him the full amount of his contract. Thomas would also be able to try and find another job elsewhere (insert gut-busting laughter here) and collect both paychecks, move on from this disgrace (Larry Brown), rebuild his reputation, etc. With Zeke still "employed" by the Knicks, it seems more like he's been fittingly banished to purgatory.

Getting rid if Isiah was the easy part for Walsh. Picking a new coach before June's draft will be the hard part. Mention Mark Jackson to Walsh, and you can hear the excitement in his voice when he says, "I know he's one of the smartest guys who ever played for us at Indiana. He's always been a guy I think who could make a really fine head coach."

With the team going into rebuilding mode for the next couple of years, this is the perfect time to bring in a coach with no prior expierence. Let Jackson learn on the job. If he proves he's a quality coach, great. If not, replace him when we're in a position to contend after gaining cap-space (D-Wade). It's not like Jackson can do any worse than Thomas did.

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