Go ahead, laugh
-
- April
- 9
Believe it or not, Donnie Walsh still hasn’t crossed paths with Isiah Thomas.
There’s a lull in the conversation.
Walsh headed back to Indiana over the weekend to clean out his office. He received a proper send off on Monday, and spent yesterday undergoing a complete physical to satisfy terms of the contract. Walsh is letting Thomas finish out the season, and he expects to have a long talk before the finale next Wednesday at Indiana.
There is no timetable for a final decision.
“You can say I have an open mind as far as any conversation I’m going to have,” Walsh said. “I still don’t think we’ve played well. There’s a lot of things I want to talk about. So it’s not totally open, like I’m saying, ‘This has all been great, what do you want to talk about?’ I think there’s a lot to talk out with everybody.â€
Thomas was almost loopy before the game.
“I’m on the job and I look forward to making it better,” he said. “Our job and our goal is to one day win a championship here, and I have every intention of being a part of that process.”
Wait, it gets better.
“New York is a unique situation in it’s own right and it brings unique problems, but that’s why we’re here to iron these things out and work them out and continue moving,” Thomas said. “The last championship here that was won was 1973 and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done and there’s work that has been done and there’s more that we’ll continue to do. You just don’t jump up and win championships. New York has threatened to win a couple of times, but you’ve never really won and I want to win it and everything we’re trying to do here is build it so one day we can win a championship.
“I was laughed at in Detroit when I was talking this way and a couple of years later, after putting in the work, eventually we did it. I have extreme confidence that we’ll get it done here. You can mock and laugh along the way because that’s how it goes when you’re on the bottom and you’re trying to get to the top, but I’m extremely confident that we will get to the top as a Knick organization. We will deliver something that one day everyone will be proud of. Again, you haven’t been proud here since ‘73. So we’ve got our work cut out and I intend to stick it through and stick it out. It’s a tough place and you deliver tough blows, but my job is to take it, and to keep moving, and to move through it. I’ve won in this league several times, and I intend to win more times than that. Say what you want and do what you want, but one day you’ll be asking me how’d it feel when I was sitting here, and I’ll tell you how I felt, then I’ll talk to you about the championships hopefully we’ll deliver for you.”
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on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 7:20 pm by Mike Dougherty.
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as a knicks fan my entire life, I’ve gone from not caring about Isiah at all, to rooting for him when he took over the Knicks, to hating this douchebag with all of my heart.
he’s ruining the only positive thing we can take from all this losing, a top-caliber draft pick.
for what, to save his ass?
now we’re looking at landing another channing frye. great.
to win three in a row at this time of year, in a 56-loss season, I hope walsh cleans house, and I mean really cleans house, because this is horse manure right here.
“Again, you haven’t been proud here since ‘73. So we’ve got our work cut out and I intend to stick it through and stick it out.” – wow now Isiah is just plain crazy?
All knicks fans were proud of the teams that laid it all out on the floor every night – the knicks of 90’s – the ewing era – for isiah to say some ish like that – i think we need to call up the mailman and have him deliver another elbow to Isiah’s face!
I hate to say it, but Isiah has a point about Knicks fans, and even the organization, having a total focus on only winning championships representing success. Here is the evidence:
(1) Watch the Summer of 94 special on MSG. It points out that even those terrific Knicks teams of the 90s were never judged on their own but were found lacking when compared to the ancient championship teams. I remember this. The 90s teams were always being criticized for not playing the elegant, passing, graceful game of the sainted Frazier/Reed years.
(2) Patrick was always criticized, even mocked, for failing to win a championship. Yes, we appreciate him now but he was other than beloved at the time. This is no exaggeration, but he even thought he might get booed when he first came back in a Sonics uniform. Sure, it didn’t happen then but he got booed a lot while he was playing through pain, etc., for the Knicks. Yes, we’re proud in hindsight, but we treated him like crap when he was here.
(3) Other than Ewing (and very belatedly, Dick McGuire), the Knicks do not retire any numbers for players unless they won a championship. You’re telling me Houston or Starks or Oakley doesn’t deserve it as much as Dick Barnett or even Earl Monroe?
Yes, we realize now that we should have been prouder than, but Isiah has more of a point than most would care to admit.
I concur with Mark…..JVGundy and the rest of his overreaching Knicks at his time, were in pain and mocked by its own people.
The Knicks need some ‘frozen envelope’ help anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TgJE7C5wiU
Go to 5:20 of this clip and watch as Stern maneuvers to pick up a certain envelope.
Can lightning strike twice?