The New York Knicks fired coach Larry Brown on Thursday, replacing him as coach with president and general manager Isiah Thomas. In Brown's one season in New York, the Knicks stumbled to a 23-59 record -- second worst in the NBA and matching the most losses in club history. His coaching status had been in limbo for months, and reports surfaced in May that owner James Dolan was looking to buy out Brown's contract. It was at about that time that Brown called himself a "dead man walking" because of the uncertainty. 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. 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. ... 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," Thomas said. 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 coached the Detroit Pistons to the NBA title in the 2003-04 season. He missed 17 games the following year with the Pistons because of hip replacement surgery. That led to a bladder problem that required surgery. Brown received a $7 million buyout with the Pistons in July 2005 in a bitter breakup with Detroit owner Bill Davidson also came to the realization that he'd be better off with a different coach.
Now when Isaiah wins 10 games, can we FINALLY get rid of him?
Dustbuster
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Think they can win 10 games???
Is
aiah.The Knicks head management=
You know how playoff teams have the numbers 1-16 on the space between the scorer's table so they can cross off a number with each playoff win, counting down the number of wins left before they take the championship? The Knicks could do the reverse of this and count upward, hopefully making it to 16 wins by the time the season is over.
I wanna know how long will their futility will last. 5 years? 10 years??
Shit is foul. Larry Brown inherited a trash team and they expected a complete turnaround in one season.
Sometimes you gotta go low to get high.They brought in wrong cats to compound the situation. It takes 3 yrs to change a bad NBA Team culture. I'm a little biased 'cause the Pacers have been playoff bound for a long time since he overhauled the franchise. Isiah is a players coach, but his xx and 00 are trash.
I'd call them a success if they make it to the playoffs in the next 3 years.
Chi-Town can't seem to put it together though. If they don't pick someone to anchor the middle, they're toast no matter who they pick.
Do y'all consider the two first round picks of Curry(now gone) and Chandler to be total busts??
Don't feel too bad.....Dallas once used two first round picks to take Uwe Blab and Bill Wennington
Not yet--aren't they still both under 25? Give 'em a couple of years before they earn the Chris Antsley/Fredrick Weiss awards.
Chandler isn't the answer in the middle??
When the Mav's picked Chris Antsey they asked coach Don Nelson what they saw in him and he said "He's the fastest 7 footer I've ever seen "...I knew we were in trouble right then and there!!
Don Nelson's a weird coach. Wasn't he responsible for drafting Chris Washburn, one of the biggest busts in NBA history?
NEW YORK -- Isiah Thomas has one year to turn around the New York 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 Monday. "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," he said. "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 last Thursday and replacing him with Thomas, the team president and general manager.
He acknowledged that the team "made a mistake" hiring Brown.
Thomas assembled the roster that went 23-59, tying the franchise record for losses in a season. And though Dolan said the Knicks are still rebuilding, he wants to see results next season.