Larry Brown Axed

[Dwight Schrute]

NEW YORK -- Larry Brown is no longer the NBA's dead man walking. His "dream job" as coach of the New York Knicks (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/clubhouse?team=nyk) is over, finally ending what may have been the most drawn-out firing in sports history.

The Knicks put Brown out of his coaching misery Thursday, ending weeks of uncertainty by firing the Hall of Fame coach and replacing him with Thomas, the team president and general manager.
Brown has four years and a reported $40 million left on his deal, but may have to fight to see all of it. The Knicks are expected to claim they're not obligated to pay the full contract.
"I won't discuss the contract terms with anybody," said Joe Glass, Brown's longtime agent. "The contract stands on its own two feet."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2496106

Wow. Just wow. The Knicks seem to be the most poorly organized franchise in the NBA. Isiah is a terrible manager and a decent coach. In the meantime, The Knicks just fired one of the best coaches in the game. This is almost as bad as IU hiring Kelvin Sampson. At least his coaching abilities were an upgrade.

[m0fats]

Dwight Schrute wrote: Isiah is a terrible manager and a decent coach.


You're being generous. Baaaad move by a baaaad ball club.

[Caveman Catfan]

This is ugly:

Knicks say Brown violated team rules

NEW YORK -- The Knicks contend Larry Brown broke Madison Square Garden policy with his roadside interviews.

The Knicks fired Brown on Thursday. He had a reported $40 million left on his contract, but the Knicks say the Hall of Fame coach is not entitled to all of it because of his disregard for team policy.

Madison Square Garden policy specifies that any interviews must be done with a public relations official present, The Associated Press reported.



Uh, why did the Knicks avoid enforcing this contract provision during the season???? This is just a mere pretext for firing Brown and trying to get out of paying him all of his contract value. I hope Brown sticks it to the Knicks!

[DCWildcat]

Woody Paige mentioned something about him coming back to Davidson to coach.

I laughed at that.

[Dwight Schrute]

The Knicks are by far the worst managed ball club in the NBA. I'm sure a McDonald's manager could run this ball club more intelligently. It seems the Knicks had an over-inflated view of themselves to begin with, and thought Larry Brown was the only thing they were missing. Little did they realize he was probably the only competent one in the organization.

This sucks for Larry Brown. He's one of the best in the game at any level, and is a decent guy who has won everywhere he's been. Isiah Thomas needs to go. I wouldn't trust the guy to manage anything.

[boomdaddy]

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/14909402.htm



The owner states that Thomas needs to win or he is gone. Being GM and coach is too much for most to undertake. Riley pulled it off. But, he stated that he might retire. Thomas is much younger and should have the energy to pull it off. The negative is that if he is fired, the new coach is stuck with the player contracts that the old coach/gm made. One only has to look at the bone head trades and contracts that Pitino made as the Celtics gm, trading away a starting pg and signing a long term (starter pay) contract on a 7' bench warmer.

[Doug Hardin]

I'll have to stick up for Isiah a little here. Just a little.

Isiah is a decent judge of talent. David Lee, Channing Frye, and Nate Robinson all look like solid NBA players. You're doing a great job as a GM if you have three picks in one draft and don't whiff on any of them.

Everyone talks about how Isiah has ruined the Knicks' salary cap flexibility for the foreseeable future. And yes, he has. But the myth that you get cap space and sign a big-name free agent is, well, just a myth. Since players can get more years and more money if they re-sign with their original team, no one ever changes teams. Chris Bosh just agreed to a long, max-out extension with the Raptors, who are also one of the worst teams in the league. Since the new CBA went into effect, Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady are the only megastars that have changed teams via free agency, and even McGrady wasn't megastar "T-Mac" yet. Mostly in free agency you can get B-level guys like Larry Hughes, Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson, or Lamar Odom. These are players that solid players, but not worth a max-out contract (if they were worth one, their original team would have locked them up).

The best way to get a superstar player is to have a lot of expiring contracts and trade for a disgruntled star. That's how the Nets got Vince Carter and how the Warriors got Baron Davis. So under this model of team improvement, Isiah's got plenty of expiring contracts he could trade for say, Garnett, if he blows up and demands a trade.

And as far as coaching goes, Isiah is one of the worst in the league. Remember, he took the 2003 Pacers to barely-over-.500 record, where they lost to Boston in the first round. The following year, Rick Carlisle took over and led essentially the same teamto a 60-win season, a #1 seed in the East, and to the Eastern Conference Finals.