Tall Order: Dolan Gives Thomas One Year To Fix Ailing Knicks
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Isiah Thomas has one year to turn around the Knicks – something Larry Brown couldn’t do.And if Thomas doesn’t, he’ll be gone, too.
“I’m saying this right with Isiah here. This is his team,” Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan said yesterday. “He made this bed. There’s nobody better than him to make this thing go forward. But he has to do that and he has one year, one season to do that. At this time next year Isiah will be with us if we can all sit here and say that this team has made significant progress towards its goal of eventually becoming an NBA championship team. If we can’t say that, then Isiah will not be here.”
The remarks by Dolan were his first since firing Brown as coach Thursday and replacing him with Thomas, the team president and general manager.
Dolan acknowledged that the team “made a mistake” hiring Brown.
Thomas assembled the roster that went 23-59 to tie the franchise record for losses in a season. And though Dolan said the Knicks are still rebuilding, he wants to see results next season.
Dolan wouldn’t say how many wins the Knicks would need, only that he wanted “evident progress, not just debatable progress.”
If he doesn’t see it, he said Thomas would not only be replaced as coach, but would lose all his roles within the organization.
“It’s his ship to steer,” Dolan said, “his ship to make go fast, his ship to crash. His ship.”
Thomas, who was seated to Dolan’s right in a meeting with the team’s beat writers, said he was prepared to work under the deadline, and would not sacrifice his plan to build with young players – the Knicks have two first-round picks in tomorrow’s draft.
“I’ve been in pressure situations before,” Thomas said. “All my life has basically been about pressure and about having to get it done. Just because you say it publicly does not make me afraid of it or shy away from it.We’ve got a job to do, we’ll get it done.”
Dolan said his problems with Brown had less to do with wins and losses then with the Hall of Fame’s coach refusal to go along with his bosses’ wishes.
Brown was fired with four years and $40 million left on his five-year contract.
“Larry never intended to coach this team beyond this season,” Dolan said.
