Since arriving back with the Knicks, Stephon Marbury has refused to elaborate on his claim that Isiah Thomas gave him permission to bolt Phoenix last Tuesday.
But a friend of Marbury’s now claims Thomas told Marbury during their argument that if he didn’t like his demotion to the bench, he can leave town.
If the accusation is true that Thomas was the first to raise the subject of Marbury leaving the team, it’s no wonder owner James Dolan was thought to be angry at the Knicks coach/president for his bungling of the Marbury crisis. It is no wonder Thomas had told confidants he felt Dolan might fire him on the West Coast trip.
Amidst mounting speculation Thomas could be fired after their 0-4 West Coast trip and his mishandling of Marbury, The Post reported exclusively Sunday that Dolan has no plans of firing Thomas this month, that he is not coaching on a game-to-game basis.
Thomas will be on the bench tomorrow when the 2-7 Knicks, riding a six-game losing streak, come home to a potentially hostile Garden to host the Warriors.Dolan still stands by his decision to give Thomas a new four-year contract last March, still is standing by him during the appeal process from their defeat in federal court on sexual harassment charges.
Dolan showed remarkable patience with coach Don Chaney, prior GM Scott Layden and Rangers president Glen Sather. He’s bent on showing the same reserve with Teflon Thomas.
But the question begs whether Thomas is actually trying to get fired. His crazy decision to remove Marbury from the starting lineup just five games into the season, with the club 2-3, for second-year man Mardy Collins is now a train wreck. Collins was a DNP the first three games when they went 2-1. Collins was their second selection of the first round with the 29th pick in 2006.
Thomas has grown weary of the aggressiveness of the New York media and was a basket case during the preseason, when he often gave barely audible, one-word answers. Nobody has claimed it is easy to work under Dolan, and the pressure of that task is wearing Thomas thin. If Thomas continues to lose hold of his team and is dismissed in January, the Knicks likely would keep senior VP of basketball operations Glen Grunwald as the team’s GM/president and promote assistant Herb Williams to head coach.
Grunwald acts as GM now, running the draft and making calls to other GMs about the availability of players. Grunwald has a better relationship with other GMs than Thomas and engineered the Zach Randolph steal, giving away Steve Francis and first-round bust Channing Frye.
Williams is a no-brainer as successor. He was three days away from being named the permanent head coach in the summer of 2005 before Larry Brown was fired by Detroit.
After Marbury bolted Phoenix, he sent The Post a series of text messages upon arriving in New York, claiming, “I have one thing to say and that’s I got permission to leave. I would never leave my team on my own. What I’m telling you is that I got permission to leave from Isiah. He said that I could go home.”
The “I would never leave my team on my own” section leaves up in the air who brought up the idea first. The Knicks notified Marbury he would be docked a game’s pay – $195,000 – but the Marbury camp is hoping the Knicks don’t go through with it. Marbury will appeal if the Knicks file the paperwork, claiming Thomas told him he could go.
Thomas has said repeatedly when asked if he gave Marbury permission that he would keep that “in-house.”
Thomas had to know the benching would flip out Marbury, so why he did it remains a mystery, even to the Marbury camp.
The Knicks are 0-4 since Marbury has been out of the starting lineup. Marbury has played better defense since the demotion, but appeared shattered in the locker room following the 32-point Denver blowout Saturday. He looked like a shell of himself in his 16-minute, 1-of-6 shooting performance.
Marbury has said all the right things publicly. But a Marbury friend said this is the most trying time of his NBA career and he’s unable to comprehend the move. Thomas admits Marbury had one of his best all-around seasons last year after a shaky November. It is possible that at age 30, Marbury is at a career point where he takes more time to play into the season.