End Of An Error

On April 18th, Knicks fans throughout the country (if there are any left) finally had reason to rejoice. The day of reckoning had finally arrived. The Isiah Thomas error, erm… era, had come to end. New team president Donnie Walsh announced that Isiah’s tenure as head coach of the organization was over. This barely two weeks after he had replaced Isiah as team president. Excellent! Isiah Thomas is no longer a member of the Knicks organization!

What’s that you say? He’s still with the team in some capacity? Surely you jest! It was announced that Thomas would remain with the team in an as yet determined capacity. All that is known is that he will report directly to Donnie Walsh. Oh, right, we know one other thing too. ESPN reported yesterday that Isiah Thomas is barred from having any contact at all with any player on the team.

Does anything about this seem odd to you? Who was the last head coach, in any sport, fired for cause to remain with the team in any capacity? I’m not talking about a Billy Martin here, who was fired and rehired more times than we can remember. It makes absolutely no sense. There are only two possible scenarios. Fellow Official Scorer Josh feels that this makes perfect pragmatic sense from a business perspective. You put Isiah in any important meeting you have, and this exchange becomes commonplace:

Donnie Walsh: Isiah, we have two options; ABC or XYZ, what do you think would be the better move?
Isiah Thomas: ABC.
Donnie Walsh: Excellent, XYZ it is, lets take lunch. Chinese or Deli?
Isiah Thomas: Chinese.
Donnie Walsh: Carnegie Deli then.

I agree that this would be an intelligent way to run the organization, but it seemed unlikely to me. I stand by my original theory; in fact I think this seals it. Three weeks ago, I presented the theory that Isiah Thomas has some sort of blackmail material on team owner James Dolan. Doesn’t this just prove that theory? Tell me you aren’t one hundred percent sure that this conversation happened behind closed doors somewhere:

James Dolan: Listen, Isiah, I can’t keep you on as head coach, we’ll go bankrupt.
Isiah Thomas: I understand, but if you fire me outright, you know what happens…
James Dolan: Yea, I know, I’ll find something less high profile for you within the organization.

Think about it. Have you ever been fired for gross incompetence? Did you then get another job within the company? Have you ever fired someone for gross incompetence? Did you then give them a different job within the company? NO! I really want to know what this blackmail material is, don’t you?