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Isiah Thomas is Owed an Apology

Isiah Thomas NY Knicks

July 20, 2010 – Kevin Burke

By now you’ve probably heard the reports circulating around the humid New York air that disgraced former New York Knicks General Manager, Isiah Thomas, is being considered again by the club for the very same role. The very same role that he was fired from. The very same role that he has become a punch line for. There is a huge misconception about Isiah Thomas’ tenure as GM of the Knicks. One that has gone on for far too long. This news of his possible (and probably unlikely) return to Manhattan finally provides me with the opportunity to set the record straight for “Zeke.”

In sports, the GM of a team has two core objectives in his job description. The first one is to improve the team’s roster.  Secondly, it is to put the best possible coach in place to direct this roster that you have assembled (if you have the type of control that Isiah was afforded).  There are some other extraneous responsibilities, but what I have outlined are definitely atop the list.

Isiah Thomas was hired as GM of the Knicks on December 22, 2003. He inherited the following roster: Othella Harrington, Kurt Thomas, a hobbled Allan Houston, Howard Eisley, Michael Doleac, Clearance Weatherspoon, Lee Nailon, Shandon Anderson, Charlie Ward, Lavar Postell and Frank Williams to name a few. In no time, he eventually transformed that roster to Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson, Eddy Curry (Granted, his salary has proven to be bigger than what he is worth, but people fail to realize that Curry was 20 and 9 for the Knicks in his best year there), Zach Randolph, Jalen Rose and Steve Francis. Not to mentioned that he drafted guys like David Lee, Nate Robinson, Trevor Ariza and Channing Frye. Maybe it’s me, but the post-Isiah roster is clearly better than the pre-Isiah roster. Clearly. Objective #1 of improving the roster: successful.

The head coach of the Knicks when Isiah arrived was Don Chaney. “Who?” I said, Don Chaney. Who did Isiah replace him with? Only the winningest coach in the history of the NBA at that time, Lenny Wilkens. Nothing too serious. But, the Knicks still weren’t successful under Wilkens. Who did Isiah get to  eventually man the sidelines for the orange and blue after Wilkens, you ask? Oh, nobody. Just Larry Brown.  The same Larry Brown who just led the Detroit Pistons to an NBA Championship and the crown jewel of NBA head coaches at the time.

(I apologize, but I’m about to go off on a tangent, as I tend to do occasionally. But please stay with me). The roster that Larry Brown had was a very solid one: Marbury, Crawford, Richardson, Lee and Curry. As well as a descent bench. Larry Brown coached the Knicks to a 23-59 record, which was tied for a franchise worse, and he was completely absolved of any culpability. He walked away as the victim which still disgusts me to this day.  He signed a 5-year, $50M deal to coach the Knicks. He was only there for one season and got roughly $40M in a buyout.  So basically, he coached a team to the worst record in franchise history and was rewarded with $40M for one year. I was going to bring up the fact that he would also routinely call out his players to the media, rather than keep it in-house like he should, but I’m not going to even go down that road. Larry Brown did more harm to the Knicks that year than Isiah did, but nobody talks about Larry Brown.(Again, my humblest apologies. I’m back now).

Where was I? Oh yeah. Objective #2 of improving the coaching situation: successful.

Isiah improved the roster and the coaching situation, but the team still wasn’t successful. How can that all be his fault? His critics love to harp on the fact that he overpaid for guys. In certain cases, yes, he did but at the time it didn’t prohibit them for acquiring anyone that they had their eye on. It wasn’t until Donnie Walsh took over and forfeited 2 seasons that we realized just how many hefty salaries he had acquired. But, he wasn’t planning for 2010 like Walsh was. He was planning for then.

In hindsight, Eddy Curry’s salary is obviously way too high, and he also overpaid for Jerome James at $30M for 5-years. But James just came off a pretty impressive playoff run (for his standards) the year before for the SuperSonics, and had many GMs across the league taking a look at him.

Isiah was definitely not an angel during his time in New York. The Anucha Browne Sanders harassment case, where she was awarded $11.6M in punitive damages, is evidence of that. But he became a punch line when he largely accomplished his two primary objectives in his job. It became cool to talk bad about Isiah. It became a part of pop-culture. I was personally at a Knicks game when Isiah eventually took over as head coach, and the Knicks were up comfortably in the 4th quarter in a game against the Nets that they ultimately won. Then there came the “fire Isiah” chants in the closing moments of the game. That’s when I realized that many people don’t even know why they don’t like him.

I say that Isiah, the head coach at Florida International University, is owed an apology because the fact that he is even considered for the GM job with the Knicks means that people within the organization realize that the job he did in New York wasn’t nearly as bad as it is perceived and the hate that he has received as a result isn’t warranted. If what he did was so bad, they never would’ve sent him to Akron to try to recruit LeBron a few weeks ago, nor would they still be in communication with him. Current GM, Donnie Walsh is 70 years old and has been going through health problems of late. That is why there is even speculation that a new GM is needed.  Isiah is most guilty for acquiring high salary guys. Donnie Walsh threw away 2 seasons by getting rid of those salaries in anticipation of a guy who never came. Which is worse?

If you’re looking for your everyday, predictable basketball talk, then go somewhere else, because Kevin Burke of The Kevin Burke Project brings provocative, thought provoking content about basketball as only he can. Kevin also hosts The Hoop Doctors weekly podcast show, which you can subscribe too for free on iTunes.

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Comments

  • Marlowe Mason

    This was a great article! Isiah has always gotten a bum wrap when all he wanted was to be the best and do his best. He did that as a kid growing up in Chicago and he did the same as a player in Detroit; his best! I for one, am tired of hearing and reading how one of the NBA’s greatest players is basically a bum. Glad to see another perspective, a real perspective on “Zeke”! Thanks!

    • Jeff

      @Marlowe Mason, i’m with Marlowe. Great article Kev. Thing that bugs me the most about the Thomas bashing was that it hit an all time high after that whole sexual harrassment debacle. It all sounded a little fishy to me. GM’s should be judged based on their transactions not on accusations made about them.

      In the case of Zeke I think we can’t forget that he was under pressure from an owner to get talent at any price, regardless of what the fiscally responsible thing was to do. That is a bad recipe.

      • http://www.thekevinburkeproject.com Kevin Burke

        @Jeff,
        Agreed. The Anucha Browne Sanders situation was an accusation. It’s not like he admitted anything. Good point as well that Dolan was willing to open up his wallet.

        • gbaked

          @Kevin Burke, An accusation that he was found guilty of.

          I am all for innocent until proven guilty… but he was proved guilty.

        • http://www.perfectpractice.net Coaching Youth Basketball

          @gbaked, not true.

          There aren’t any court documents stating that Isiah Thomas is guilty of any of those charges.

          They don’t exist. The Knicks settled and Isiah had no negative findings with regard to sexual harassment.

          There’s a great degree of difference difference between the court of public opinion and the truth.

    • http://www.thekevinburkeproject.com Kevin Burke

      @Marlowe Mason,
      I definitely feel that people jump on Isiah simply just because everyone else is.

  • OpenThink

    great effort but, sorry, have to disagree with a lot here…
    the roster isiah put together sucked — marbury, curry, et al…are you kidding? marbury had never been on a team that didn’t significantly improve once he left. curry — ludicrously overpaid and never showed any indication he was committed to professional basketball (before or during his time w/knicks). as a gm, he completely f***ked up the salary cap situation — a key part of any gm’s role: curry’s contract, jerome james (incredibly, yes, jerome james), marbury, etc. other guys he got — steve francis, jalen rose, many others — were long past their days as good players and either complete failures or locker room disasters.

    yes, he definitely drafted a few good players but absolutely no difference makers, none that had any meaningful impact on the team’s bottom line (wins/losses).
    totally agree…larry brown was a disgrace. but also think brown deservedly caught a lot of flack from ny media on this. he coached the team into the ground — but it was a team w/out good players however you look at it.

    as for apologies…thomas is the walking embodiment of a narcissistic slime. he’s left enemies and gutted friends everywhere he’s been. totally tanked the cba, screwed over the owners to whom he’d made tons of promises. the detroit pistons wanted nothing to do with him — even though he was their star player. and, while with the knicks, never took responsibility and had the good fortune of working for an owner that remarkably was possibly as slimey and incompetent as he…

    oh yeah, and thomas sexually harrassed colleagues and created a culture in which others (including team members, e.g., marbury) did as well…or worse.

    other than that, thomas was fantastic and all of ny is looking forward to his return as gm and president of the knicks…

    • http://www.thekevinburkeproject.com Kevin Burke

      @OpenThink,
      It was too good to be true. 2 Isiah supporters, without an Isiah hater. Glad you could make it. The roster that he put together didn’t suck. They weren’t exactly the 72-10 Bulls, but they didn’t suck. I’ll assume you actually watched Knicks games during this time and didn’t just watch SportsCenter to get your take on the Knicks – because they loved to sensationalize anything bad going on with the Knicks. However, it is inarguable that the roster was vastly improved. That means he succeeded.

      Regarding the salary cap, again, who were they saving up for? Nobody. So there wasn’t really a pressing reason watch what they were spending. And besides, Dolan was cool with it.

      Glad we agreed on Larry Brown. What a waste he was.

      And by the way, Jordan couldn’t get a job with the Bulls either. Nor could Ewing with the Knicks. So it’s not just an Isiah thing.

      He sexually harrassed colleagues? Really? How’d you find this out? Did he tell you that?

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  • Aceface

    People are jumpy for the simple fact that he did not properly do his job. He gave up the right to swap lottery picks and a third first round for eddy Curry, a player with a heart condition that no other team was willing to risk. To exacerbate the problem he handed out enormous contracts to both eddy curry and jamal crawford. Just when Eddy Curry started to justify the trade and average 19.6 points on his way to a near all star berth, Isaiah undercuts him by acquiring another post player in Zach Randolph. The mere mention of a sexual harassment suit for such a high ranking member of the Knicks brings shame to the franchise and cannot be understated. Arguably the best player brought in under Thomas’ tenure was Stephon Marbury and even Marbury refused to play for THomas. In his final season as coach, THomas overruled a team vote against Marbury playing and started him anyway. Weeks later after THomas benched marbury again, Marbury announced that there was no way he would tolerate it because he has “a lot of stuff” on Thomas. So tell me, how is a man who fractures his lockerroom and is blackmailed by his own players deserving of an apology. You are right the collection of talent was not bad, but they had he no plan in place and eventually none of the pieces fit together. Before you write trash like this again make sure you actually have something to go off.

  • Alex

    You’re forgetting one little issue. All of Isiahs off the courts antics that included a nice sexual harassment lawsuit (funny you chose to ignore that – Kevin Burke – for someone who seems to consider himself a Knicks expert I am surprised you missed that episode). The seedy details of that as well as his other off the court headaches brought constant embarrassment to the organization.

    Beyond that, however, the GM is responsible for putting the team on the court and he had a penchant for adding players other GMs were all too eager to toss and who did not add up together. Sub .500 records for an entire decade is enough of a testament to the futility Isiah brought to the garden. You can blame his situation on others, but, Walsh was dealt his own crummy hand, and within two years he helped transform the organization.

    What Isiah does have is an extremely good eye for draft talent. Hire him and put him in charge of the draft. But keep him away from everything else.

  • LT

    “He sexually harrassed colleagues? Really? How’d you find this out? Did he tell you that?”

    A jury convicted MSG of creating an environment that allowed sexual harrassment — by Isiah Thomas!

    You’re disgusting.

  • Andrew

    Are you serious? Do we have to list out all the bad moves he made. We still didn’t have a first round pick in this past draft because of the Marbury trade. Even in Curry’s “good” year when he averaged 19 and 7 (btw 7 rbs a game for your center is awful) he played no defense and turned the ball over 3.6 times a game while averaging less than 1 assist a game. Did you really try to defend the Jerome James signing because he had a pretty good playoff run (aka 1 round where his team lost)? Is the article trying to be funny? Also I’m pretty sure his primary objective is to win and he never did that!

    Also for all of his great drafting he took Balkman over Rondo.

    Isiah built his team like a fantasy team never worried about chemistry or defense and that’s why his teams stunk. They were a bunch of me first highly paid under achievers.

    Kevin Burke you owe everybody who read this article an apology. I hope you don’t believe this and it was just a desperate attempt to get people to come to this website.

  • Sufjan

    Reading something as stupid as this article always makes me feel a little bit better about myself as a person.

    Thank you

  • Jim

    “However, it is inarguable that the roster was vastly improved. That means he succeeded.”

    Are you insane? So if a GM takes over a horrific team, and makes them LESS horrific, he’s a success? Thats the measurement we should use? How about build a winner? Nothing more pathetic than an Thomas backer.

  • Jim

    “If what he did was so bad, they never would’ve sent him to Akron to try to recruit LeBron a few weeks ago, nor would they still be in communication with him.”

    So you think Dolan is a reliable judge of what is and isn’t good? He’s kept Glen Sather around for a decade with no results. The only person more inept than Thomas IS DOLAN – and that’s your proof that Thomas is qualified!?!?

    I dont know who you are, but I have to think you’re some sort of intern? Contest winner? What a pathetic waste of internet space.

  • http://www.thekevinburkeproject.com Kevin Burke

    @gbaked,
    Yes I’m aware of that. Thanks for the breaking news. Does the fact that Thomas and other garden officials still deny this mean anything? My point is that nobody knows what really happened or did not happen.

  • Wowow

    Best part of this whole thing is that once Burke got proved for the fraud he is he decided to stop replying to the posters only vaguely to gbaked. Nice job but next time write about something your knowledgeable in.

  • john gilcher

    Any other owner would have FIRED isiah longggg before Dolan did. Lenny Wilkens and Larry Brown couldnt get the job done with this roster so he then gave Isiah the chance to coach his own mess. Look at the Marbury and Curry contracts. Randolph, Q Rich … the mistakes go on and on.
    I will say this – ISIAH has an eye for talent and def has a good rep with this generation of NBA players and should be kept aboard for help in those areas only. He has been given enough chances to be included in the decision making loop otherwise.

  • bNo

    shut the fuck up, burke

  • Kellian1

    Let’s overlook the fact he used a mid level exception to sign Vin Baker
    Traded Kurt Thomas
    Signed Jared Jeffries to a CRAZY deal when the guy averaged 4.1 pts a game and was no Ron Artest on defense
    Jerome James – 5 years 30 million? Really?

    And how many lottery picks have we missed out on? Stephan Trade (which we finally got done paying for in 2010) the Eddie Curry trade.

    The Eddie Curry trade ended up losing us the 2nd overall pick in the draft which ended up being Lamarcus Alrdrige not to mention we had to swap 6 for 23 as well in that trade the next year and who did that end up being…Joakim Noah.

    BTW Curry’s best year was 06-07 19.5 and 7 rebounds far from 20-9. He played 1 full season for us in 5 years and THAT is what we gave up? Yeah great trade.

    You sight Ariza….ok great…he traded him and the expiring contract on Penny for Steve Francis so we had a backcourt of Marbury and Francis. He was the only guy on the planet that thought that was going to work.

    Jamal Crawford/Jerome Williams trade which allowed the bulls to improve as we gave them 4 expiring contracts

    We fired Larry Brown after 1 season….1 season. Everyone must have forgot his first year in San Antonio he won 21 games then the next win 56. But that’s ok why give him year 2 that’s crazy talk right?

    The ONLY thing the man did right was draft David Lee and Nate. That was it.

    The idea that ANY knicks fan owes him and apology is just insane.

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  • terrible

    so, he accomplished his job of hiring coaches…. but u say the coaches he hired werent any good

    and he improved the roster…. but your point for that includes eddy curry, stephon marbury, and steve francis

    ummmm…. you showcased everything that is wrong with blog culture in one post…. don’t write about isiah’s knicks when you clearly never even watched one of their dreadful games

  • http://www.perfectpractice.net Coaching Youth Basketball

    People never cease to amaze me in their response to Isiah Thomas. He isnt owed an apology and I doubt he’d accept one since he underperformed.
    But…New York’s response to Isiah was one of the most disproportionately negative things I’ve ever seen in sports…calling it ‘mindless’ or comparing it to a herd mentality is not only an accurate observation, it’s painfully obvious.
    As far as basketball goes, anybody who says the Knicks were good when he got there is delusional or stupid or both. New Yorkers hated Scott Layden, The team was WAY over the cap, and the big salaries belonged to washed up vets like Sprewell and Houston whose only achievement – making the Finals as an 8 seed – could be more accurately described as an accident caused by the player’s strike. Isiah’s biggest mistake as GM was believing that his leadership would be enough to get guys like Marbury or Randolph to ever actually play to their potential. He made nearly every trades to get any TALENT he could get with no cap space and gambled that he could teach them how to be winners…that is a good quality in a HS or College coaches…it doesn’t work in the NBA and definitely not with Stephon Marbury.

    Joakim Noah’s best year was 10.7 and 11 – not as good as Curry’s best year. And while I DO agree that Noah is better than Curry…If I told you that your unborn child is a better person than you people probably wont agree with me until it actually happens. Isiah didnt trade Noah for Curry..he traded a pick for the talent he could get under the cap. Jerome James and Vin Baker…neither move was good. Neither was unordinary in the NBA either…bigs like Jon Koncack, Jim McIlvaine, & Shawn Kemp routinely get bloated contracts. And if he hadn’t made those trades, everybody in New york would be complaining that he was satisfied with Eddy Curry as his only big man.

    Here’s the thing. Isiah Thomas life was built around fighting. I respect him even more after his tenure with the Knicks than I did before. Any other human being would have quit under those circumstances. And Nobody else would want to come back to an organization under those circumstances. But Isiah Thomas is A Fighter, and he doesn’t quit. It got him 2 titles in the Jordan Bird, and Magic era. If It made him a favorite enemy to Magic, Jordan and most fans. It also made him a winner. He’ll always be a lightning rod to sports fans for a myriad of complex reasons. And the mindless herd will probably always respond mindlessly. Which is why I don’t think he’ll get an apology anytime soon/

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