Speculation has swirled for months about who might be the next general manager of the Knicks, and this weekend, it was Donnie Walsh’s turn to be the flavor of the moment.

I’ve generally disregarded the rumor mill: It seems more like a diversion to deflect attention from the horrid play of the Knicks than a harbinger of things to come. But the Walsh rumors were supported by evidence that James Dolan’s private plane had made two visits to Indianapolis, where Walsh works as chief executive officer of the Indiana Pacers, and they are intriguing. On the one hand, he could be just what the Knicks need. On the other, the Pacers’ recent track record rivals the Knicks in ineptitude.

The first thing I liked about the Walsh speculations is that they make sense. Walsh is a native New Yorker and a one time standout player at Fordham Prep. His basketball jones is deep: He passed on a career in law in the city to be an assistant basketball coach at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina. While he hasn’t called a job with the Knicks “a dream,” as his fellow Tar Heel Larry Brown once did, he’s expressed interest working in New York, and his contract with the Pacers is up at the end of the season.

Too many of the other names in the mix seem fanciful to me. Jerry Colangelo is too domineering and too much of a threat to Dolan. In addition, I can’t imagine him leaving USA Basketball just before the Olympics to take on a mess like the Knicks. He came aboard USA basketball after the debacle in the Athens Olympics: I would imagine that, until America wins a gold medal again, he doesn’t consider his work done in that position.

The Nets’ assistant general manager, Kiki Vandeweghe, was speculated to be coming on board with Thomas left in place as coach. But I can’t imagine any GM agreeing to that kind of deal. The idea that Jerry West would come east was good for a couple of laughs, but not for much serious consideration. Lastly, I’m sure former Philadelphia GM Billy King would take the job if offered, but I doubt the Dolans are savvy enough to understand how much of the 76ers’ current success is owed to his moves. They started winning right after he hit the door.

Before moving into the CEO position, Walsh (I’m sure someone will nickname him Donnie Basketball before too long) was GM for 17 years. During that time, he turned the Pacers around. Indiana had been mostly a doormat since moving into the NBA from the ABA in 1976; under Walsh they were consistently good, and occasionally great. In 1987, he made the then-wildly unpopular draft-night decision to pass on local hero Steve Alford, who had just led Indiana University to an NCAA title, in favor of Reggie Miller. Miller will enter the Hall of Fame in few years; Alford’s playing career lasted only a few seasons, mostly as a benchwarmer. What’s also promising is that Walsh wasn’t afraid to tear down what he’d built and start over. But only once did his team hit the kind of depth that the Knicks had in the past.

Contrasting that experience as GM is Walsh’s term as Indiana’s CEO, where he signed off on a series of moves that resulted in the Pacers being built around a collection of combustible personalities such as Ron Artest, Jamaal Tinsley, and Stephen Jackson. The results were promising at first, but then proved disastrous. Now, the team is capped out for the next few years and stuck overpaying mediocre players such as Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy. The Pacers were a playoff fixture for years, but it could be a long time before the postseason comes back to Conseco Fieldhouse.

My assumption — and this is merely an assumption — is that Walsh is eager to return to a GM position to illustrate that he’s learned from the mistakes that he and Larry Bird, his successor as Indiana GM, made with the Pacers. I think he could say of the Knicks’ rebuilding, “this is going to take a couple of years,” and, given his experience, he would be allowed that kind of timetable by Knicks Nation.

The speculation also has Walsh hiring longtime Knicks standout Mark Jackson as the new coach. I like this idea: For Jackson, this is a no-lose situation. If the Knicks play hard for him, it’s a testament to his mettle. If they don’t, well, hey — this bunch quit on Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, too. In other words, it won’t ruin Jackson’s record.

I’m generally against the ideas of GM-hiring and coach-hiring being part of brand building, but in this case, it’s necessary. The Knicks are the new Clippers: Fortifying the brand name will be an important first step toward restoring a winning tradition. Also, unless Walsh and Jackson are much smarter than I already think they are, then it will still be a while before the Knicks are a winning team again. Restoring franchise credibility will have to be the first goal, and hiring them would be one way to achieve that.

mjohnson@nysun.com