Slam Dunk Central

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This is just my opinion, but if I am 67 years old and fresh from leaving a relatively successful franchise, my next step - notice I said my - would be to work for a franchise that has a good core of players to build upon and as little dysfunction on both the roster and the front office as possible.? Well apparently, Donnie Walsh must either love major challenges or is simply a glutton for punishment.? To recap, Walsh very recently was named president of the New York Knicks.? As such, he has been charged by Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan with turning around a franchise that hasn’t had any true resemblance of success in quite some time.? Walsh also has some major decisions to make in his early tenure.

Firstly, the Isiah Thomas situation.? We already know that Thomas is no longer the president of the Knicks.? That being the case, will Walsh decide to retain Thomas or show him the door?? According to Walsh, he and Thomas have a “good relationship” and plans to talk with Thomas in the near future.? Thomas at one time was the coach of the Indiana Pacers, and he was relatively successful while there.? At that time, current team suit Larry Bird got rid of Thomas; the reasons behind the Thomas firing then can be up for debate, but Thomas proceeded to become coach/president of the Knicks soon after.? That’s where it gets even more interesting.

Thomas, by and large, during his tenure as Knicks president and coach, has been an unqualified failure.? But a lack of effort isn’t one of the reasons.? Consider the things that went down under Thomas’ watch: the lawsuit brought against him and Dolan by the former employee (name escapes me, but I know her last name is Sanders) over at MSG; the lawsuit was lost.? Then there’s the soap drama that is Stephon Marbury; Thomas and he have bickered despite what has been reported throughout the season.? There’s also the matter of coaching the Knicks.? The team has been well south of .500 with Thomas as coach, yet there is this sense of the possibility that Thomas may be retained despite it all.

Walsh claims that he will not get any interference from Dolan while he attempts to correct the sinking ship in New York.? While that may or may not be true, one thing is for certain: Walsh needs to resolve the Thomas situation ASAP.? I get the sense that the Knicks would rather not have Thomas as their coach going into next season, and assuming that’s the case, Walsh would have the unenviable task of finding a competent coach to run the team.? But that’s for another article in the near future.? Walsh has to also make sense of the contracts?on the Knicks’ books, as well.? Marbury is prohibitively expensive, so he seems like the most logical player to go.? And certainly there are others, as well.

Walsh has already stated that he wants to get the Knicks to the playoffs around 2010, but at the same time, ensure that they’re immediately competitive.? At the very least - in my opinion, anyways - they should retain Jamal Crawford and perhaps Zach Randolph.? Marbury’s been a burden for the team not to mention the fact that he has been injured on a somewhat regular basis.? Eddy Curry?? The jury’s still out on him, as it seems that he has underachieved while in the NBA; there’s a reason why the Chicago Bulls got rid of him.? But as I previously stated, Walsh truly has his hands full in righting the Knicks franchise.? But for God’s sake, if you’re 67 years old yet want to take on a challenge, why the Knicks, the Holy Grail of challenges?? It isn’t like there weren’t other jobs that he could have had.? The Milwaukee Bucks job comes to mind immediately, and I’m sure that there are others, too.? All I can say to Walsh is but some TUMS in bulk, and good luck to you - because he definitely will need it.