Syfo-Dyas
01-07-2008, 12:25 PM
How do you like this open letter to Isiah from Marc Berman of the NY
Post:
Dear Isiah: You are a smart man and you know in your heart it is time
to leave the bench and “go upstairs," as your former Pistons coach
Chuck Daly suggested to me in an interview a couple of weeks ago.
Talk About It On Berman's Blog
This is a time for contemplation as you visited family yesterday as
Team Titanic II docks at Lake Michigan for a couple of days before
resuming the nightmare tomorrow night in Chicago.
This isn't the same banal “Fire Isiah" plea. Knicks owner James Dolan
doesn't want to eat your contract so soon after the holidays, so soon
after March's insane extension, so he's not firing you today. But you
know better. You know you've lost the team. You know your
decision-making is completely clouded at this point - a coach caught
up in trying to make a GM's move look good.
Pat Riley did it twice in Miami and there's no one you respect more in
this game than him.
This is not suggesting you quit and lose your $24 million. Just
convince Dolan it is best to give the coaching reigns to Herb Williams
or even to your buddy Mark Aguirre and see if a new voice on the bench
and new slant at things can remove the Knicks from their hopeless,
ruined state.
The team is 8-24 - already 16 games below .500, as many games below as
last season's final mark of 33-49. If you continue to coach, I
guarantee Larry Brown's 23-59 club will outdo your 2007-2008 mental
misfits.
A person connected to the squad says you don't teach defense during
practices. It shows.
It is time for you to hit the road, put on your presidency cap, scout
some college games. Watch O.J. Mayo and Derrick Rose perform. You
actually get to keep your lottery pick this year after two straight
drafts of gift-wrapping them to your sweet home, Chicago. Whether you
actually make the pick is Dolan's call, but you have to earn your
money somehow.
You are better off away from the team. It is painful to talk to you
after each loss. There is nothing to ask you anymore to make sense of
this collapse and you've run out of things to say. You actually
blurted out something about needing some “breaks and luck" Saturday
night in Houston. You had been great copy till this point, with a
local TV station last week putting together a montage of your greatest
hits. But the championship guarantee speech about leaving “a legacy,
an imprint, a blueprint" was the last bullet in your holster.
The worst part of all this is I like what you stand for. You did some
classy things, made the players wear a suit and tie to and from the
arena, on the plane rides. You still wear prominently the blue Autism
Speaks pin. You were a great player, a Hall-of-Famer.
You deserve better than having to continue to coach a group that has
quit on you. You deserve better than having to hear “Fire Isiah"
chants at the Garden and on the road. Maybe if you are on the road
scouting, those chants stop and the Garden will be kinder to Herb's
team.
There is talent on the roster and maybe a good team is buried
somewhere. But you can't find it. Maybe Williams can. Maybe Rick
Carlisle can. You did not come to New York four years ago to coach,
you can tell Dolan. You came to manage and assemble. And if you think
there's a worthy core group, beg Dolan to let someone else coach it.
You had the chance to be an actual coach Saturday night in Houston,
build on the progress made in San Antonio, and you blew it. You
started Zach Randolph because the president in you does not want to
admit the trade is a disaster, that the Eddy Curry/Randolph tandem
can't work.
The Knicks laid an egg. Randolph put us his usual big numbers in a big
loss. Portland knows how that goes. Randolph committed six turnovers.
He had 22 rebounds, maybe because he doesn't guard anybody. Randolph
should be made a 15-to-20 minute scoring guy off the bench. Curry
would love that.
The new coach also must permanently bench Quentin Richardson, who has
become the worst player in the NBA. Perhaps Thomas is scared to mess
with Richardson, a South Side Chicago guy who battled him on the bench
in Charlotte.
Isiah, if you really love the Knicks as you say, do the right thing,
move off the bench and see what happens. You can always come back.
Post:
Dear Isiah: You are a smart man and you know in your heart it is time
to leave the bench and “go upstairs," as your former Pistons coach
Chuck Daly suggested to me in an interview a couple of weeks ago.
Talk About It On Berman's Blog
This is a time for contemplation as you visited family yesterday as
Team Titanic II docks at Lake Michigan for a couple of days before
resuming the nightmare tomorrow night in Chicago.
This isn't the same banal “Fire Isiah" plea. Knicks owner James Dolan
doesn't want to eat your contract so soon after the holidays, so soon
after March's insane extension, so he's not firing you today. But you
know better. You know you've lost the team. You know your
decision-making is completely clouded at this point - a coach caught
up in trying to make a GM's move look good.
Pat Riley did it twice in Miami and there's no one you respect more in
this game than him.
This is not suggesting you quit and lose your $24 million. Just
convince Dolan it is best to give the coaching reigns to Herb Williams
or even to your buddy Mark Aguirre and see if a new voice on the bench
and new slant at things can remove the Knicks from their hopeless,
ruined state.
The team is 8-24 - already 16 games below .500, as many games below as
last season's final mark of 33-49. If you continue to coach, I
guarantee Larry Brown's 23-59 club will outdo your 2007-2008 mental
misfits.
A person connected to the squad says you don't teach defense during
practices. It shows.
It is time for you to hit the road, put on your presidency cap, scout
some college games. Watch O.J. Mayo and Derrick Rose perform. You
actually get to keep your lottery pick this year after two straight
drafts of gift-wrapping them to your sweet home, Chicago. Whether you
actually make the pick is Dolan's call, but you have to earn your
money somehow.
You are better off away from the team. It is painful to talk to you
after each loss. There is nothing to ask you anymore to make sense of
this collapse and you've run out of things to say. You actually
blurted out something about needing some “breaks and luck" Saturday
night in Houston. You had been great copy till this point, with a
local TV station last week putting together a montage of your greatest
hits. But the championship guarantee speech about leaving “a legacy,
an imprint, a blueprint" was the last bullet in your holster.
The worst part of all this is I like what you stand for. You did some
classy things, made the players wear a suit and tie to and from the
arena, on the plane rides. You still wear prominently the blue Autism
Speaks pin. You were a great player, a Hall-of-Famer.
You deserve better than having to continue to coach a group that has
quit on you. You deserve better than having to hear “Fire Isiah"
chants at the Garden and on the road. Maybe if you are on the road
scouting, those chants stop and the Garden will be kinder to Herb's
team.
There is talent on the roster and maybe a good team is buried
somewhere. But you can't find it. Maybe Williams can. Maybe Rick
Carlisle can. You did not come to New York four years ago to coach,
you can tell Dolan. You came to manage and assemble. And if you think
there's a worthy core group, beg Dolan to let someone else coach it.
You had the chance to be an actual coach Saturday night in Houston,
build on the progress made in San Antonio, and you blew it. You
started Zach Randolph because the president in you does not want to
admit the trade is a disaster, that the Eddy Curry/Randolph tandem
can't work.
The Knicks laid an egg. Randolph put us his usual big numbers in a big
loss. Portland knows how that goes. Randolph committed six turnovers.
He had 22 rebounds, maybe because he doesn't guard anybody. Randolph
should be made a 15-to-20 minute scoring guy off the bench. Curry
would love that.
The new coach also must permanently bench Quentin Richardson, who has
become the worst player in the NBA. Perhaps Thomas is scared to mess
with Richardson, a South Side Chicago guy who battled him on the bench
in Charlotte.
Isiah, if you really love the Knicks as you say, do the right thing,
move off the bench and see what happens. You can always come back.