Saturday, August 07, 2010
GadZOOKS!! ZEKE is Back!!
Isiah Thomas is back in the employ of the New York Knicks Front Office. Huh? Kind of anyway. OK...we're not going to over react are we? Maybe. Let's see what we're working with here.
Many teams found their Path towards Displeasure with Stephan Marbury a rather short one. Zeke traded to get him. He brought him to Broadway and decided to build around him. Zeke also hired Larry Brown to a five year deal to be coach of this Knick team. The short version is Zeke allowed Marbury to circumvent every step of the chain of command starting with Brown. Marbury went to Zeke direct. There was no Brown for Stephon. There was an Intern in the back of an Escalade though. (DOH!). Brown was powerless against Marbury's self-absorption and disregard for proper channels. What drove Coach Brown more insane than anything was Marbury's reluctance to adhere to Brown's system. Coach Larry Brown was fired after one year and the Knicks ate a lot off money on that contract.
Remember the Continental Basketball Association? Zeke is widely regarded to be the one responsible for driving that League into the ground and having it end up in bankruptcy.
Does anyone even remember the Lenny Wilkens days at this point? I thought so.
Remember when he stepped in as coach? How he had more plays designed for Ms. Sanders than he could muster for the Knick with 7.3 seconds left in the game and no time-outs? Let's face that fact too...he didn't have any set plays and he just wasn't a good coach at all.
The Sexual Harassment issue? Hmmm. He cost the owner $11 million Dolan Dollars to settle with Ms. Sanders. But he also brought shame to a very proud and long standing stalwart of the NBA.
Continuing along his path of financial mushroom clouds, Zeke traded away any and all our expiring contracts and plunged us into Cap Hell Abyss. There was a window when he had a chance to move the team away from that. But Zeke slammed that window shut and really did a job on this franchise that had ramifications for years to come; as impactful and harmful as Ewing's contract set this organization back initially. I'll cut him a break and not even dissect the Eddie Curry trade and other dubious moves he made, to include torpedoing our lottery pick(s).
There were rumors not to long ago that Donnie Walsh would retire and Zeke would be named the next GM of the Knicks. Then again, I heard that same rumor about Allen Houston. Donnie Walsh said he isn't going anywhere until his contract is up.
Can I, as a Knick fan, have Zeke as my GM, after everything that transpired with Zeke the first time around?
NO! He wielded too much power around here, abused it and drove this franchise into chaos. The Knicks were a moribund organization and a laughing stock under his stewardship.
Because of him I completely became unplugged. I closed my eyes on the NBA. I forgot and the who's who of basketball rosters changed and I found myself literally out of touch with the NBA.. I finally have my interest increasing with steady upticks in curiosity. I'm always a KNICKS fan OK? But I just had to ignore for my own mental sanity.
If he is meant to be a periphery entity behind the scenes at MSG; not seen nor heard ~ if he is here back in Dolan's inner circle to add input on talent evaluation for the draft and otherwise......(*sigh*)...If Dolan must do so...Zeke is good at it, so I guess it's fine because Dolan has this affinity for Zeke that boggles the mind of greater Metropolis.
So the guy drafted well. (Another sigh) Zeke found a lot of talent on the rear end of the first pound selections the Knicks were positioned with. Somehow he drafted firecracker Nate Robinson, David Lee, Trevor Ariza and Channing Frey in slots where your not supposed to get that kind of talent. He drafted other nice names and he's getting the respect for that here.
I just can't have him making that rumor come true by becoming the GM of the Knicks. No.
Mike.BTB
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James Dolan is an idiot. He's bringing Zeke back? Everything Isiah touches turns to crap. He was a great player, that doean't mean he can run a team or coach a team or even consult for a team, whatever that means. Just as you thought the Knicks were taking a step forward with the acquisition of Amare Stoudemire, they take two steps backwards with the rehiring of Isiah Thomas.
ReplyDeleteDB ~ I agree with you one million percent. But us Knick fans keep packing in the Garden and these owners never get it unless it hits them in the pocket. Dolan either loves Zeke like a son or Zeke has Dolan on film or has pictures of Dolan in a very compromising situation!
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