Every so often I get an e-mail from a disgruntled Knicks fan that elicites a chuckle, and since we don’t have a lot to do between now and the end of the week, I decided to grant George Caballero a public forum to display a clever rant.

I laughed.

This works best when read in the voice of MSG chairman James Dolan, since it happens to be a completely unauthorized statement. Enjoy.

Now that we’ve clinched another trip to Secaucus, New Jersey, I have several important announcements.First, the rumors are true.  We are tanking.  In fact, we’ve been tanking since the day I hired Isiah.  Zeke’s too modest to tell you this, but we have the NBA’s third-worst winning percentage since he took over.  Congratulations to the Hawks and Bobcats for outdoing Isiah at a tiny fraction of the cost and humiliation.

Second, Donnie Walsh has agreed to be our President and General Manager.  Once he passes his physical, the deal will become official.  Yes, anyone who agrees to work for me must first have his head examined.  Hiring Donnie will allow Isiah to concentrate on coaching.  Isiah tried to warn me that doing four jobs, President, General Manager, Head Coach, and Spin Doctor, with all the traffic on the Henry Hudson Parkway, would be too much, even for a man as great as Isiah.

Did you know that Isiah grew up on the West Side of Chicago?  Or was it the South Side?  Sorry, Zeke, you’ve only told this story 82 times.  Yes, growing up, Isiah had to walk 10 miles through the snow, barefoot, just to reach the nearest soup kitchen.  And look at him now!  He could buy that soup kitchen with just the money he spends on dry cleaning. 

And Isiah might buy a soup kitchen, because he believes in giving back to the community.  His favorite charities include the Phoenix Suns, the Luxury Tax Foundation, and the Anucha Browne Settlement Society.  And he recently donated an unprotected 2010 lottery pick to the Utah Jazz.

I must be going now.  Sorry, I have no time for questions.  Commissioner Stern has asked me to personally oversee the NBA’s expansion into Europe.  My flight to Kazakhstan leaves in an hour.

When the laughter dies down, George will probably get his own file in the MSG security office. He actually signed the first e-mail James L. Dolan, but it didn’t fool me because it was missing the nifty little close we get on all official correspondence from that neck of the woods. It goes a little something like this:

The information transmitted in this email and any of its attachments is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain Cablevision, Madison Square Garden, or any of their affiliates and subsidiaries proprietary information, which is privileged, confidential, or subject to copyright belonging to Cablevision, Madison Square Garden, or any of their subsidiaries. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you received this in error, please contact the sender immediately and delete and destroy the communication and all of the attachments you have received and all copies thereof.

There haven’t been a lot of days like this in recent years. After the baseball clinics and soccer games were complete, I got an opportunity to get reacquainted with my favorite chair. The remote control was in hand the whole time. I might have burned a calorie moving three steps over to the couch.

I clicked between the Spurs and Rockets, and watched a lot of Memphis and Texas and Davidson and Kansas.

During commercials breaks, I checked on the Knicks in Atlanta, which isn’t a bad way to watch these meaningless games. For the first three quarters, they actually played like a team with nothing to lose. We haven’t seen that before. Did anyone see Randolph Morris?

I believe he’s played all of 29 minutes in the last four games.

Anyway, since the NCAA tournament has provided such a welcome distraction, tell us who impressed you the most? And we can probably skip over Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose. Let’s think in terms of players who might be available in June five picks into the draft.

Did you like C.J. Mayo or D.J. Augustin?

Make a list, we need to do something to pass time.

It seems like ages, but does anybody remember how the Knicks played last season? There was urgency. There were comebacks. A lot of players were actually concerned about the ultimatum hanging over the head of Isiah Thomas on the sidelines.

Eddy Curry even jumped on the soap box.

He wanted no part of a Knicks team that didn’t include Thomas. While the comments hardly inspired James Dolan to come up with a contract extension, it was a nice gesture.

And this season?

“It’s a tough situation,” Curry said of Thomas’ predicament. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

The shrug-the-shoulders attitude shows up in between the lines. In the locker room, as well. Not once this season did I get a sense that anybody in uniform was concerend they might get somebody fired.

And every single player has Thomas to thank for the oversized paycheck. So much for loyalty.

Let’s see, the Knicks should be taxiing down a runway at Westchester Country Airport right now, embarking upon a quirky escape from the spotlight. Over the next eight days, this circus will visit Toronto, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Memphis and New Orleans.

How is anybody supposed to pack for that junket?

I know. I know. Isiah Thomas should pack lightly. With every twist and turn comes another punch line. He managed to slip away unnoticed today because the Knicks did not have an official practice. The order left on the board after yesterday’s game was shots and lifts, 1 p.m.

Nice work if you can get it.

A lot of difficult lessons are being learned right now, but despite all of the rhetoric about rolling up sleeves and loving the game and working harder than anybody else, there’s not a lot getting done in terms of teaching. Practice doesn’t have to be three hours long. There’s no sense in going overboard and getting somebody hurt.

But why not come in and watch film so the young players can see why Miami forced overtime?

That is a team in need of more than a high lottery pick. Seriously. Blake Ahearn? But the Heat are well ahead of the Knicks in that they have Dwyane Wade in place.

Nobody in the organization is ready to announce the Donnie Walsh Era, so there’s a pretty good chance we are going to be waiting until the end of the season. I find it hard to believe James Dolan would hint to anyone he prefers to keep Isiah Thomas on the sidelines.

I’m not a fan of throwing bodies overboard, but it’s not good for business.

Dolan isn’t going to sell a lot of season-ticket plans unless he clears a path for Walsh in the coming weeks. Forcing the departing Pacers CEO to fire Thomas might be a deal-breaker.

We’re still waiting for definitive answers.

Isiah Thomas conducted the quickest shoot-around of the season, then fielded questions. He didn’t exactly shed any light on what’s becoming an incredibly awkward situation.

“Honestly, I just think that this comes with the territory,” he said of the reports that Donnie Walsh is coming. “I think because we’re here in New York, it’s magnified significantly. However, I think it’s pretty safe to say in every other city and every other losing team, this stuff is being talked about. It comes with the territory and it does come when you have a losing season such as the one we’ve had.”

All of the reports still indicate the changeover will wait until the end of the season, which just happened to end in Indiana.

We should probably remain open to all of the possibilities until somebody wants to spell out the situation on the record. It seems logical that Walsh is going to be making all of the basketball decisions regardless of title. Hopefully, ownership is going to remove all barriers. Somebody with those credentials shouldn’t have to ask for permission.

Jim Dolan needs to become a Yes Man.

And there’s probably a chance Thomas will be retained in the front office. Keeping him on the sidelines allows the fans to moan and groan all the way into next season. Making a change, buys needed good will. Thomas could be the general manager or director of personnel, whatever keeps him away from the public eye.

Thomas is still talking like he’s going to be around when this nightmare season officially ends, but he’s never once claimed his role is going to remain the same. We heard a little more of that this morning.

“Um, let’s say I haven’t been in this position a lot over my career, but if you stick around long enough, you’re bound to have a couple of these and you bounce back,” Thomas said. “You’re not on top all the time and you’re not on the bottom all the time. You knuckle up and you fight your way out of it. We’ll be OK.”

I was driving around the other day when I noticed a rare piece of Knicks memorabilia for sale.

Latrell Sprewell is selling his Purchase estate, and for $5 million you can enjoy more than 9,000 square feet of luxury. I’m not sure if he’s throwing in the recording studio. There is plenty of garage parking, though. Good schools are nearby, and the local police know the place intimately. Taxes run an estimated $75,000 per year.

Now we know Sprewell was indeed struggling to feed his family.

The neighborhood is pretty nice. You might see Isiah Thomas, Stephon Marbury and Quentin Richardson speeding down Purchase Street on the way to practice. They all live in a nearby development.

I’m beginning to sense Donnie Walsh isn’t rushing to catch a plane.

We keep seeing reports that he’s agreed to preside over basketball operations here, but nobody is going on the record with that information. There’s a good chance we might be in a holding pattern until the end of the season, and we can sit down and have a lengthy discussion at that point.

I stole that line from Isiah Thomas.

He keeps talking like he’s going to be here for an extended postmortem. Does anybody else have a feeling that’s going to  occur along the side of Old Saw Mill River Road?

Larry Brown is laughing, trust me.

So is Don Chaney who conducted shoot-around despite persistent speculation he was done a few year ago, reported for work later in the day and was sent back into a wicked snow storm along with assistants Lon Kruger and Brendan Malone, whose family was involved in a weather-related car accident on the way home that evening.

There’s a John Lennon song that keeps playing in my head this week, Instant Karma. (I prefer U2’s cover, by the way).

Walsh isn’t known to be a guy who steps on toes. He probably doesn’t feel comfortable signing on until somebody here informs Thomas clear and evident progress is in the eye of the beholder. It might require a huge leap of faith for James Dolan, whose loyalty often results in strange decisions.

How much did Allan Houston get?

Brian Wilson escaped the magnetic pull of his Svengali, and maybe Dolan can, too.

Canceling practice might be a sign Thomas is done with this organization. He’s running out of healthy bodies, still there was no reason not to at least show up to review film. They are supposed to be developing players for the future? It seems like Thomas needed a day to collect his thoughts.

Maybe he’ll go off in the morning at shoot-around. I’m sure there will be a large audience. Well talk more then. In the meantime, speculate away.

We’re not likely to get a response today from Isiah Thomas.

To keep the masses at bay, the Knicks have cancelled this morning’s practice. God knows the actual scrimmage time isn’t doing a lot of good anyway. So we’ll spend the day working the phones and piece a story together.

In the mean time, here’s a what if to consider …

What if Thomas realized he would never get another job in the league unless this mess gets cleaned up? What if he went to Knicks owner Jim Dolan and asked for help? What if he’s the person who suggested getting Donnie Walsh, a trusted friend?

It’s a pretty good plan that buys time if nothing else. Of course, it’s just speculation and sets up an ugly divorce if things don’t work out in short order.Should the organization bring Thomas back as head coach, nobody is going to have more than five minutes of patience if the Knicks struggle again next season.

Anyway, chime in on the details we know so far.  

There is a report on ESPN that states Donnie Walsh is expected to sign on with the Knicks are season’s end.

It’s a three-year deal worth $15 million to come in when the season ends and preside over basketball operations here, according to the report. Right now, the Knicks are not commenting on the late-breaking information.

There was some whispering in the locker room after tonight’s loss.

“I have no thoughts on it,” Jamal Crawford said of the report. “I don’t want to speculate. I want to be here with Isiah.”

We don’t know what any of this means for Isiah Thomas, who’s been making all of the decisions since Dec. 23, 2003. He seems to like Donnie Walsh, but you can imagine how awkward this situation might become if another change is not made in short order.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Donnie Walsh is not talking about the next stop, but he’s already received a number of compliments from those who benefitted from his tenure.

Consider them job references.

“He’s the best in the business,” Nets television analyst Mark Jackson said. “I played 17 years and two guys really stand out in my mind,, Dave Checketts and Donnie Walsh. (They) were far and away the absolute two best I’ve ever been around. Donnie is a great basketball mind. He knows what he’s doing. He’s a guy that understands the game and most importantly, he’s a quality, quality man.”

“Donnie was a good, straight up dude,” Fred Jones said. “He’s a good guy. He’s in a position of power in this league and you respect those guys.”

“He’s had a great career,” Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said. “He’s one of the best who’s ever done it. I wish him great success. He’s someone that I respect tremendously. He gave me my first coaching job and I truly do like him as a persons. He’s done a lot for the game.”

Jackson indicated he’s not been contacted by the Knicks about taking a job on the sidelines or in the front office.

“It’s all speculation,” he said. “There’s no job here. I have a job to do and I’m doing it tonight calling Nets games, and on the weekend with Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy and I’m having a blast.”

Jackson admitted he’s always had ambitions to be a player, announcer, coach or general manager. Hint. Hint.

A few minutes earlier, Thomas bristled when asked whether there’s reason to believe Walsh is going to end up in New York.

“I don’t have an answer to your inappropriate question,” he said. “I don’t comment on my job status, and I’m sure not going to comment on anything Donnie chooses to do or not do.”