Larry Brown Fired/ Isiah Thomas takes over as coach
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Obviously the Knicks are the worst organization in all of sports. Isaiah Thomas should be in jail for the money he is stealing as their GM.
NEW YORK
The New York Knicks fired coach Larry Brown on Thursday, replacing him as coach with president and general manager Isiah Thomas.
Brown's future had been in question since reports surfaced last month that owner James Dolan wanted to buy out his contract. The Knicks finished 23-59, tying the franchise record for losses, in Brown's first season.
On Thursday, Dolan made the switch official.
"Larry has had a long and storied career. We hired him last summer with the expectation that he would be with the Knicks for a long time. Sometimes decisions work and sometimes they don't," Dolan said. "After careful consideration, despite the best intentions from everyone involved, this current structure did not work for us last season and I did not think it was going to improve next season."
Thomas, who joined the Knicks as president and general manager on Dec. 22, 2003, previously served as a head coach with the Indiana Pacers for three seasons from 2000-01 through 2002-03. His Pacers teams were 131-115 record, making the playoffs in each of his three seasons.
"No one in our organization is happy with last season and we all accept responsibility for our performance," Thomas said. "This has been a difficult time for the entire organization and our fans. Today begins the 2006-07 season for the Knicks, and I strongly believe we are on the right track to take major steps in our rebuilding process to achieve our goal of being one of the premier teams in the NBA."
Buying out Brown, who signed a deal with the Knicks amid much hoopla last July, taking over what he then called a "dream job," could cost the team as much as $40 million.
Brown wanted the team to overhaul the roster that Thomas had assembled and feuded openly with star Stephon Marbury.
The coach perplexed his players and eventually lost their support by constantly switching lineups and rotations, never quite settling on any set combination over the course of the 82-game season. His penchant for making thinly veiled criticisms of his players through the media irked his players nearly as much as it bothered the team's corporate owners at Cablevision.
Despite the players' and management's strangely rosy pronouncements on the day after the season ended, all was certainly not well inside the franchise. One of Brown's final moves that left several key people scratching their heads was his use (or non-use) of Steve Francis and Jalen Rose after they were acquired at midseason.
Brown received a $7 million buyout with the Pistons in July 2005 after Detroit owner Bill Davidson also came to the realization that he'd be better off with a different coach. The divorce of the Detroit Pistons and Brown also turned into a bitter breakup.
Source
- ESPN.com
Date
Thu 06/22/06, 7:01 am EST
