So, Where Will He Go Next Year?
James Dolan, ever-prescient owner of the Knicks, has mandated that Isiah Thomas has one year to turn the team around or else he'll suffer the same fate as Larry Brown -- dismissal, followed by ludicrously un-earned settlement package. We could only be so lucky as to get fired like that. Dolan confirmed his confidence in Thomas:
I'm saying this right with Isiah here. This is his team. He made this bed. There's nobody better than him to make this thing go forward.
Well, actually, there are people better than Thomas to turn the Knicks around, but the work it would take to type all the names would bleed into our 4th of July weekend, and we don't want that. Of course, Dolan's parameters of judgement as far as Thomas' coaching job goes are a little vague.
But he has to do that and 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 that this team has made significant progress towards its goal of eventually becoming an NBA championship team. If we can't say that, then Isiah will not be here.
Of eventually becoming an NBA championship team? That gives Thomas the excuse to draft a couple of new shoot-first point guards this year and then explain to Dolan that it takes years for a new team to gel. The owner then went on to admit that hiring Brown was a mistake (we could think of another...), that the coach never had plans to coach beyond last season, and that he was too consumed with doing Isiah's job than his own. Which we totally get because, well, if Isiah were our boss we'd feel the need to mop up his messes as well.
Previously: Futile Future?
