Thomas lectures both sides of the aisle
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- December
- 11
Right now, Isiah Thomas doesn’t have a lot of friends at Madison Square Garden.
And that’s why all of the beat writers reacted suspiciously when Mara Altschuler showed up after the final buzzer with all kinds of vim and vigor. She is a television producer from Manhattan, and says her family’s owned season tickets since before this version of MSG was erected.
Not many people stayed around, but there were a handful of witnesses backing her story up.
“He turned around and told us it was the sixth man’s fault they were missing layups,” said Altschuler, who sat in the second row near midcourt and came to press row afterward to complain. “He told us we should be with the Knicks, not against them.”
And here’s my favorite …
“When the crowd was chanting, ‘Jeff Van Gundy,’ he turned around and said, ‘You kicked him out of town, too,’ ” Altschuler said.
Classic.
I didn’t expect a straight answer, but Thomas put one heck of a spin move on me in the postgame.
“Um, I was just trying to make sure we kept the team together and we stayed focused on what we were doing in trying to win the basketball game,” he said. “Our fans are great, they support us, and they show up and we’re glad they’re here.”
Sort of.
The players are tired of hearing it from the crowd, as well. They are getting desperate for a normal home court advantage, but I’m pretty sure this maneuver is going to backfire.
“Fans are a big part of any team anywhere you go,” Zach Randolph said. “We need the fans. We need support with us even when we’re down.”
Thomas also was accused of saying the Knicks get more support from loyalists who show up in New Jersey and Philadelphia to fuel their passion. I remember hearing boos when he was introduced last week at the IZOD Center, and recall seeing a ‘Fire Isiah’ sign at the Wachovia Center.
It’s alarmingly obvious what has to happen.
When the Knicks were floundering last night, the crowd was chanting and booing. Eddy Curry was even getting blasted. When the Knicks came back, the mood changed in an instant. They got within seven in the fourth quarter and all was forgiven.
Just win and everybody goes home with a smile.
Now, since Thomas got a chance to vent, the fans deserve an opportunity to offer some kind of rebuttal. So go ahead … the floor is open.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 12:40 am by Mike Dougherty.
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This man is an %100 loser and a disgrace to the entire NBA.
Seriously, is anybody not sick of this guy yet?
To say it’s Knicks fans fault is downright infuriating and he should be fired on this altercation alone. Don’t insult us. We’re not stupid. We know what we see and we’re tired of the positive spin Isiah and the Knicks propaganda force down our throats as if everything is OK. I’d gladly accept admitting we stink so we can move forward from there, but now we’re stuck in denial because those idiots in sutis think we’re going places. Wow.
And to completely shoot down any thoughts anybody out there might have about agreeing with Isiah, let me add this: If the Knicks at least lost with dignity and played their hearts out and gave some effort I would gladly cheer for them. We love winning, but we at least want to see some passion while we’re losing. So to hell with Isiah and I hope the Garden faithful stick it to him worse than ever when they play Seattle.
The New York Knicks: Where “are you ****ing kidding me?!” happens.
I’d give Isiah a break. He’s only human, everyone has a breaking point and makes mistakes at the heat of the moment.
Oh shut up torres. You are a known Isiah ball licker. Shutup already.
George, you don’t even know me. I never said it was right for Isiah to blame the fans. I’m just saying that he’s only human. I rather root for the Knicks to turn it around and find a way to make the playoffs than for Isiah to get fired during the middle of the season.
Whoever said the firings need to start with Steve Mills and move down – right on!
Isiah is a joke and MUST GO.
At every Knicks game I’ve ever attended – I scream for “De-fense” starting with the first defensive possession of the game, and don’t stop until everyone else joins in, or the lousy, terrible sound guy plays ‘Green Acres’ or some other crappy tune that isn’t the “De-fense” chant.
Knicks fans want to see a winner, yes. But we demand to see effort. You can’t fake effort and we can tell. At the cost that it takes to get into MSG, we at least deserve that much from the players.
I think there were times LAST year where people were too quick to BOO Stephon. This year though? The entire team has laid a giant egg.
We should BOO louder and call for Isiah’s head louder. Maybe someone who cares will hear.
Mike-
Good work on a reasoned response to this non-event.
So, let me get this straight. Isiah turns around and says a few things to some fans sitting behind the bench. He most likely recognizes the fans since they’ve been sitting there for decades. There is no claim that he speaks to the fans in a harsh, loud, or otherwise disrespectful tone. What he says to the fans is probably true. (If loud, supportive fans can assist a team’s play, you would think that the inverse is true as well.) One of those fans, eager to make herself part of the story, rushes to press row to disseminate as broadly as possible a conversation (really a venting) that Isiah had intended to be limited to a few people. And somehow this brief, minor venting becomes “ISIAH BLAMES THE FANS”.
Jeez. It’s no wonder Isiah feels the need to keep his guard up all the time. You could tell by looking on his face at the postgame press conference that he was mortified that these innocuous comments by him were out there and likely to be national news.
Mike, who in their right mind would want to coach this team and deal with the NY media? I know Phil Jackson has said he would never want to deal with the media here. Who would?
As a point of clarification, Jeff Van Gundy resigned because he saw the writing on the wall. And the Knicks haven’t been over .500 since.
Its is the Knick fans fault..Ive been a knicks fan since i came out the womb..Im 27 now..I used to go to games all the time..But i cant support this mess that they put out.If your a fan boo them when there good boo them when there bad..Let them now that even if we win we are not ok with Thomas there regardless.If u show up and boo when there bad and applaud when there good it just shows that ur ok with this crap on the floor..it makes no sense..Smarten up Knick Fans..Stay booing regardless.I dont want to hear about hes a good talent evaluator..How to get 2 big men that both need the block and cant play defense a good move..
Kinda remember this same conversation about getting rid of Layden. I kinda remembered all the praise Thomas got for fixing Layden’s mess. Of course he made it worse. My opinion is that the Knicks should’ve gave Larry Brown at least 2 years. He’s proven he can turn the ship around in philly and detroit. I don’t remember but I would think in indy and SA many years ago as well.
Isiah should not be fired, he should quit. Dolan is too stupid to know any better but Isiah should, at least have a little decency left in him to acknowledge that he failed. The Knicks have been an embarrassment to the league for far too long.
Isiah getting fired would rid the league of the worst executive of the NBA. He need’s to quit, and walk away with at least a little bit of dignity and respect.
To wait around like he is goes to show how small a person he is. Trying to defend himself against all that he’s dismantled and destroyed shows that he’s nothing other then a petty thief who insists on grabbing one more candle stick when the bag is already full.
There just not a very good team. You have no shot blocker or enforcer. You got two fat guys protecting the paint. It’s just a freaking lay-up/dunking drill for the opposing team. You have inconsistent small forward that gets lit up every night. And two starting guards that don’t play dee.
Eddy needs to get a personal trainer and should be suspended by the team if he doesn’t meet their goals. It’s bad.
Mike,
Who out there that could save us? Which requires the balls to put up with the media, the way Parcells did.
Mase in your face,
JVG probably left more because of Jim Dolan and other management than anything.
Just think, anybody worth a crap has departed during Dolans tenure,whether they were fired or they resigned, i.e. VanGundy, Marv Albert and any other self respecting soul who wasn’t just willing to “sit aound and spin” the way management wanted them to.
I had a dream that Dolan rode the train one day and stood to close to the platform, but than I woke up to reality and realized that he took the helicopter to work!
Shucks.
Clarence Thomas had no clue what he was talking about when he said he was the victim of a high-tech lynching. Isiah now has a pretty good idea of what that is. Stop being sheep and see that you’re being steered.
Free Wilson Chandler
Henry,
If someone came in and did anything in a positive direction,
he or she probably wouldn’t put up much negativity.
Jay Bee,
I’m confused!
Who is lynching Isiah, and who are we being steered by?
I feel bad for Zach. He only alienated his fan base in Portland, not NY. I’m sure he’ll get caught with a bag of weed outside a strip club before the season ends though.
Zach has been trying to mesh his game with Curry, and it is not going well. One or another of them or neither of them put up #s on a given night. It looks like the fans who said we had redundancy in the pivot were right. We also have it at the guard position with Marbury, Crawford, Robinson and at the forward spot with Lee, Jeffries and Balkman.
Isaiah is the guy who constructed this flawed roster. He’s the one who handed out the long term money. He’s the guy who traded two lottery picks for our underachieving center. He’s the guy who has hired 5 coaches in three years. He’s the guy who’s players aren’t motivated enough to hustle. He’s the guy who sexually harassed an employee. He’s the guy who coddled a selfish point guard, savagely turned on him, and then undercut the team by putting him right back in.
He’s got a lot of gall to make that comment to a season ticket holder. It’s enough to make your blood boil.
Mike, you asked Isiah that question? His answer was absolutely hysterical, and then he repeated pretty much the same thing when you tried to clarify.
Isiah has had plenty of time to show the fans some progress. Trading for Francis. Trading for Curry. Trading for Marbury. Signing Jeffries, James and even Q whose starting to look like a shadow of his former self. He’s done ok in drafts but Bynum not Frye was the right pick. I can live with Balkman.
But it also the reported trades Isiah has passed up…Not willing to part with Crawford for Carter and withholding Balkman for Artest…and this is just the GM side.
As a coach Isiah has lost this team. Great inside scoring is easily handled by teams with double teams and Knicks lack the shooters to compliment their strong post play and both Zach and Curry do nothing to help interior defense.
Poorly constructed team, lack of chemistry and trust, and poor effort. It’s rough going for Knick fans.
I am sick of all of this . No other team has to play while being booed at home. I don’t like the state of the Knicks myself. However let’s make sense,making a player angry or apprehensive, will not get us what we want as Knick fans. The beat writers need to stop encouraging the FIRE ISIAH CHANT’S and the BOOING .If your home is on fire would pour gasoline on it because you don’t like? No . The players have expressed that they don’t like the booing so try to respect them too. I don’t have to boo my team and show the world what assholes we are in new York. Losing is bad enough. Dolan who owns the team, has said he is not going to fire Isiah, so shut up the fire Isiah stuff. He may not be the best coach. I quess what I am saying is show wome self respect. We are not the only team that gets blown out. But we are the only fans who react like a wild west lynch mob.
Small correction: To Isaiah’s credit he only hired 4 coaches, including himself, I think. He inherited Chaney, who he disrespected on Letterman.
Mike, if you get a chance please, please ask David Stern if he really counciled MSG to settle. That would be ineteresting to find out.
This court case should close the book on this guy’s career with the team. Sometimes you would rather settle something quietly and not let it get out, but this is different. If he really thinks he’s innocent why would he settle? It’s not like he was going to save the Knicks money by doing it. They settled for the same as the punitive damages award. It was a civil trial, he was not looking at hard time, the money was not even going to come from out of his pocket. Why not fight if you’re “innocent”. This guy is not only a liar, he’s a bad one.
Kwame,
Throw out the Mavs game. We are obviously no match for them… at home. However, the two losses to the Sixers is really beyond belief. I know Steph is down right now, so, by the way, why was he even in Philly and if he’s in Philly, why does he only play 13 minutes. I mean, if you are not ready, just stay home. It’s a wierd decision. But I digress. I’m sorry if Eddy Curry’s feelings are hurt that we’re angry that he averages fewer rebounds than Jason Kidd, but please, box someone out and we’ll stop booing, maybe.
One of the reasons these guys are getting booed is that Isaiah hurt the team by getting many of them. That’s obvious with regard to Mr. Curry. 23 and 33 wins man, come on! I think the fans could take losing if it was Lee and Balkman and Robinson out there. They would be hustling and likeable and maybe a player short of competing, but this isn’t really a rebuilding team is it? Crawford, Curry, Marbury, Randolph… these guys were brought in to compete now, ergo, BOOOOO!
It is actually smart of Isiah to put the focus on himself. The team sucks and he can take the heat. The only other thing he seems to do well is draft some interesting players.
All his trades are a disaster and the his team sucks in so many ways. The mess is the fault of ownership and unfortunately will not get better until the team gets sold. Van Gundy had it right. He quit when he realized he had no where to go.
We had a coach two years ago who coached thru the press which is the wrong thing to do, but tried to get rid of the cancers on this team starting with the legend in his own mind Starbury. Of course our GM backed the players and the coach lost. So the current coach can lie in the bed he made. It is a terrible team with some interesting young talent run by a GM who has Attention Deficit Disorder.
I agree with Isiah. When you get booed harder at home than you do on the road, it makes you second guess everything. Okay they are terrible, but either love and support them or say home and watch the Mavs. If you need to go to a game go to Jersey. If you think booing makes a team play better, I think you’re mistaken. I’ve been a fan long time and I never boo. Last night they didn’t get any calls. I saw Jeffries get fouled and knocked around where the top of his body was moving in one direction and the bottom in another and still no call, but on the other end Dirk gets a call on the next play. People have been booing for months and the results are no better. Now Zach, and David are starting to show the effects of the boos.
How about we boo the refs for not calling the fouls for our guys. They have no pressure to call it fairly. How about showing hostilities to the other teams when they come in our house? It’s easy to kick your team when they are down. But it takes real courage to stand by them when they are doing as bad as our guys are. I can only imagine how Spike Lee felt when Reggie Miller rubbed his nose in it and the fans blamed him for the loss. That’s just stupid. Spike didn’t do anything wrong. Do we have to be afraid to root for our guys, to try and distract the opposing players? Then put away the thunder stick and stop whistling. Reggie is a great player and fortune fell his way that day. Our guys are gun shy now. I saw in the one report where Curry was afraid to make comments about an up coming opponents’ center. He wouldn’t be afraid if we supported him and the team. Give them a break until the all star competition from the boo’s and see if it helps. I pray you do and I pray it does. I also pray for all you true fans. I pray for all of you who just come here to taunt us (no team stays on top or bottom forever). And I pray for my Knicks from the Owners to the towel boys.
BTW If you think the otter teams and their coaches are giggling and laughing at the Knicks (solely), you’re wrong, they are laughing at the fans who keep their feet on the Knicks necks. You boo’er keep them down. Be for real! If you want to show your dissatisfaction, stay away. Money talk boo crap walks in and pays for a ticket. Highest money earning team in the NBA (according to Forbes).
I know I gonna get lit up for my comments but I LOVE my team and gladly so go ahead and get your hate on. Seem that’s what you do best. I may be foolish by many of your accounts, but I am surely no coward! I STAND WITH THE NEW YOUR KNICKS. FOR LIFE!
George,
No disrespect intended by Isiah is a millionaire with more trophies than most could ever dream (team) about. I’m thinking you must be Mr. Washington (a founding father) if you can honestly say,
“This man is an %100 loser and a disgrace to the entire NBA.”
I’m sure he drives his Bentley home to his mansion on a hill and worries about average people like you and I say. Like I said I’m not trying to pick a fight but I don’t think your comment are fair or accurate.
George,
No disrespect intended but Isiah is a millionaire with more trophies than most could ever dream (team) about. I’m thinking you must be Mr. Washington (a founding father) if you can honestly say,
“This man is an %100 loser and a disgrace to the entire NBA.”
I’m sure he drives his Bentley home to his mansion on a hill and worries about what average people like you and I say. Like I said I’m not trying to pick a fight but I don’t think your comment are fair or accurate.
WTF are you talking about? Who cares about how much money he has? Who cares about past achievements? What has he done here? He’s tarnished his legacy, that’s all. He’s done nothing else but tarnish his legacy. If you still love Isiah, good for you. But don’t tell me he’s good because he has money and a ring as a player. That means nothing to me.