The New York Times is reporting Larry Brown has been dismissed from the Knicks as head coach.
EDIT: BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. ESPN says Isiah is his replacement. Ugh. What?
The New York Knicks fired coach Larry Brown on Thursday, replacing him as coach with president and general manager Isiah Thomas.
"Larry has had a long and storied career. We hired him last summer with the expectation that he would be with the Knicks for a long time. Sometimes decisions work and sometimes they don't," MSG Chairman James L. Dolan said. "After careful consideration, despite the best intentions from everyone involved, this current structure did not work for us last season and I did not think it was going to improve next season."
Thomas, who joined the Knicks as president and general manager on Dec. 22, 2003, previously served as a head coach with the Indiana Pacers for three seasons from 2000-01 through 2002-03. His Pacers teams were 131-115 record, making the playoffs in each of his three seasons.
"No one in our organization is happy with last season and we all accept responsibility for our performance," Thomas said. "This has been a difficult time for the entire organization and our fans. Today begins the 2006-07 season for the Knicks, and I strongly believe we are on the right track to take major steps in our rebuilding process to achieve our goal of being one of the premier teams in the NBA."
BUT, as part of the Eddy Curry trade, the Bulls have the right to swap picks.
I won't shed a tear for LB's exit. He sandbagged it this year, but he managed to steal $50 million from James Dolan so that makes me smile somewhat.
Zeke built this, he thinks it's a winner, force him to prove it. If he's successful, great. If not, it expedites his exit.
I'm extremely jealous of the Heat right now, and coming from a Knicks fan, that means something. To JoshMann and all the other Heat fans: cherish that championship. Love it, hug it, adore it. My team won't even so much as sniff it with the current regime running things.
kedzie.net "Larry Brown is a great coach, but them players... they ain't gettin' it. Mark Jackson used to say the operation was a success but the patient died. The Knicks are DEAD. D-E-E-A-A-D dead." ~ Charles Barkley "Sports are about one thing: players making plays. When you're giving bad players [huge] contracts, you don't know what the hell you're doing."~ Charles Barkley "[Larry Brown being hired to coach the Knicks] is like putting $5,000 rims on a Pontiac Bonneville." ~ Charles Barkley
The Chicago Bulls are on the clock. Mr. Oden, would you like to come to the podium please, Chicago is waiting for you.
This cannot end well for the Knicks. And by not end well, I mean something along the lines of Jonestown. I actually feel kind of bad for Knicks fans, something I would never have guessed I could do after the early/mid 90's.
smark/net attack Advisory System Status is: Elevated (Holds; June 18, 2006) While the switch from Cena to RVD should alleviate some complaints, the inevitability of the belt's return to Cena (note where Summerslam is this year) and the poor initial showing by the new ECW are enough to keep the indicator where it is for now. The pieces are in place, though, especially on RAW, for improvements to be made to the IWC's psyche in the near future.
I am hoping, as a Knicks fan, that we are even WORSE next this coming seaosn than last season. And not because I like LB. I actually thought hiring him was a mistake and am glad he is gone. But because I LOATHE Isiah Thomas. He has ruined this franchise in record time. I want them to fail so moserably next season that the whole world knows how poisonous Isiah is to a franchise and no one ever hires him again. I want to get the #1 pick and have Chicago swap their #25 or worse and take Oden and become a dynasty.
Then, after we get the worst reconrd in NBA history and lose out on the best young big man to come out in a while do i want Isiah (and Dolan) fired and never heard from again. Dismantle the team and start over. It may take a couple of years but once they get moving in the right direction, there aren't too many superstars who would relish the opportunity to bring NY back to prominenece.
Of course, with our luck, Isiah will guide the team to a mediocre 30-35 win season, claim progress, slighlty build on it in year two and implode in year three, all the while killing our Cap space for the next decade.
I hate him. More than any other sports figure out there, I hate Isiah the most.
Well, that's just drunk talk! Sweet, beautiful drunk talk....
Originally posted by JayJayDean"With the first pick, in the 2007 NBA Draft, the New York Knicks select Greg Oden, Ohio State University..."
(They actually DO have a first-round pick next year, right?)
The 2007 draft will be extremely deep if a couple of sophomores to be and expected "one and done" freshmen like Brandan Wright, Thaddeus Young, Oden, and Kevin Durant all declare for the draft after this season.
Thomas is well positioned to pick up OJ Mayo in 2008, however.
University of Kentucky basketball isn't a matter of life and death, it's much more important than that.
I'm extremely jealous of the Heat right now, and coming from a Knicks fan, that means something. To JoshMann and all the other Heat fans: cherish that championship. Love it, hug it, adore it. My team won't even so much as sniff it with the current regime running things.
Dammit, now I feel guilty for thinking that this is now the best NBA Week Ever. Just take a little solace in the fact that I expect a minor protest about Dolan/Isiah this next week at the draft. And by minor, I mean not-so minor.
(edited by JoshMann on 22.6.06 1335)
"I don't know if it's Biscayne Boulevard or where it is, but there is an image in my mind about the symbolic championship parade."
I want them to fail so moserably next season that the whole world knows how poisonous Isiah is to a franchise and no one ever hires him again.
The thing is that if anyone had watched him run the Raptors, they would have known that already. And, even though it's not a franchise, his tenure running the CBA should have been the ultimate kiss of death as well. As far as his coaching ability, just compare the Pacers' performance (regular season and playoffs) with him coaching the team to the performance immediately before and after his tenure.
He was a great player but is as incompetent a coach/executive as he was an analyst. And, even prior to the Knicks' hiring him (which I thought was a joke at the time), there were reams of data pointing this out.
"Teach children that they have great potential because they are human." -Warrior
Basketball is the only sport I know of where the general manager fires the coach and replaces him with himself. Maybe that happens in hockey, too. Very strange, though.
In the real world, WWE believes that no matter what our race, religious creed or ethnic background in America, we all share the common bond of being Americans. American-Arabs are a part of the fabric of America, and they should be embraced by all of us.
It happens every so often in hockey. This year with the Heat, Riley (who has last word in personnel moves) named himself coach and even in baseball Bobby Cox moved from the GM's desk to the dugout-- although he handed the GM keys over to John Sherholtz. These are just the most notable examples.
Also, there's a number of NFL coaches who get personnel say as a power clause.
(edited by JoshMann on 22.6.06 1928)
"I don't know if it's Biscayne Boulevard or where it is, but there is an image in my mind about the symbolic championship parade."
If it makes Knicks fans feel any better (not that the Knicks don't deserve this after being dickheads in the mid-'90s-- that's a little thing we call karma), after a 23-59 season the team can't get much worse than it was last year.
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Originally posted by RudoublesedoublelThomas is well positioned to pick up OJ Mayo in 2008, however.
It is June 2006. You don't think Isiah will have a 'brilliant' idea cross his mind in the next 2 seasons that will allow him to swap that pick? Since the '07 pick is only a flip-flop deal, that means the Ted Stepien rule would not be in effect for '08. Perhaps Maurice Taylor's expiring contract plus the unprotected '08 pick to the Celtics for Raef Lafrentz? He is tall, overpaid, and signed into the next decade. That screams an Isiah target.
Originally posted by ekedolphinIf it makes Knicks fans feel any better (not that the Knicks don't deserve this after being dickheads in the mid-'90s-- that's a little thing we call karma), after a 23-59 season the team can't get much worse than it was last year.
Cause the Pacers weren't dickheads during our feud....yeaaaaa. =)
Simmons had a column about this a few weeks ago, and I enjoyed his take on it: Isiah actually coaching the team is the icing on the cake of crap that he has baked with the Knicks. It's going to be a hilarious debacle, so why not sit back and enjoy the ride?
Note that I think the Knicks are due years of karmic payback for their thuggish ways in the Starks era, and also for the millions of New Yorkers who haven't shut up about the early 70's teams in the last three decades.
"You know what the fellow said: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." --- Harry Lime (Orson Welles) in The Third Man
This story is a few days old, but is still worthy of mention. The Knicks are looking to get Larry Brown on a loophole and get out of paying the money they still owe him.
Since James Dolan became owner of the Knicks and Rangers, Madison Square Garden policy specifies that any interviews must be done with a public relations official present -- with no exceptions, according to a person familiar with the policy, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because this matter has not been resolved.
I can understand that the Knicks are desperate to rid themselves of a major financial burden, but this is going to really come back to bite them. The message this sends to head coaches is, "Come to New York! We'll give you a huge contract, but if you have a bad year, we'll fire you and get you on a loophole so that you get jack squat and there's nothing you can do about it, so tough noogies!" Who in their right mind would want to sign any kind of contract with the Knicks in the future if this kind of thought is prevalent?
This is just horrible, horrible business and it's actually making me feel bad for LARRY BROWN, of all people!
"I'm saying this right with Isiah here. This is his team," Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan said Monday. "He made this bed. There's nobody better than him to make this thing go forward.
"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."
What is it about New York and tyrannical ownership? I mean, I don't think anyone could turn THIS New York Knicks team around in just one year. I mean, even Steinbrenner isn't this bad!
Then again, Isiah's got no one to blame for this Hindenberg but himself.
Who does Dolan report to? When is THAT person(s) going to step in and say that Doln is a BIG part of the problem and should be relieved of HIS duties so he (Dolan) can concentrate on his shitty band?
I was hoping during the Dolan/Thomas "press conference" that some one from Cablevision would walk out on screen and say, "Fuck this, both of you incompetent idiots are fired. And to all you NY Knick and NBA fans out there, I am sorry for the past three years and I promise we will do our best to hire the right GM and coach to lead the Knicks. In keeping with this, we have negotitated an agreement with Kiki Vandeweghe to come in and be the new GM of the Knicks (out walks Kiki) and have hired former Kings coach Rick Adelman to coach the Knicks (out walks Adelman). Our first order of business will be to rid the Knicks of me-first players and malcontents. You all know who you are so we say start pakcing, you wont be here long. After that, we will continue to do our best into putting together the ight collection of hard working players Knick fans deserve. Thank you and again, we apologize for the Dolan/Thomas mockery."
Ah, to dream.....
Well, that's just drunk talk! Sweet, beautiful drunk talk....
And then, of course, the press conference would continue, announcing that the New York Knicks have made the following trades:
- Jamal Crawford and Quentin Richardson to Cleveland for LeBron James and Zydrunas Ilgaustkas - Stephon Marbury and Jalen Rose to Phoenix for Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire - Maurice Taylor and Jerome James to Dallas for Dirk Nowitzki - New York's rights to sign Frederick Weiss to Toronto for the first pick in the 2006 NBA draft
"When they show a clip with Gordon Solie calling a match, anyway they could run a small picture in the corner of the screen of him rolling over in his grave?" - redsoxnation (The W)
The NBA owners approved the proposed move of the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City, 28-2, with Dallas and Portland dissenting. And David Stern had some cold-ass words for those trying to keep the Sonics in Seattle.