Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly, who won two championships in De troit with Isiah Thomas as his point guard, said he be lieves the Knicks have quit on their coach, and its time he should leave the bench.
“Maybe its time for him to move up stairs,” Daly told The Post. Thomas is in a dual role as coach/ president.
“I don’t understand what’s going on with their mentality,” Daly added from his home in Jupiter, Fla. before the Knicks tried for one night in a 108-90 victory over the Cavaliers at the Garden. “A lot of places, they don’t like the coach, but they go out and compete. It’s one thing to get beat by 6, 8, 10 points. But to get beat by 25 means you’re kind of quitting. I’d be upset if I was Isiah, too.”
Thomas said Tuesday that if he can’t right the mess in a couple of weeks, it would be fair to ask whether he deserves to fired. He said yesterday he would not recommend to owner James Dolan that he be replaced as coach if he can’t reach the team in the next few weeks.
“I’ve had some good teams and bad teams, coached all over the place – Orlando, New Jersey, Detroit, Denver,” Daly said. “All the teams I’ve ever had, they’ve come to the arena and tried to compete. I don’t know what’s with that team.”
Daly then indicted Thomas for creating this roster.
“It’s a strange mix of personalities and talent,” Daly said. “On paper, it looks like it could compete for the Eastern playoffs. Something’s wrong in the desire to do that.”
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Knicks forward Malik Rose thought he had an agreement with Thomas, that if he wasn’t going to play, he would rather not dress. That way, he could do his full complement of workouts and stay in shape for when he really was needed. But after three straight games of being on the inactive list, Thomas scrapped the agreement. Before last night, Rose dressed three straight games, a DNP in two.
Last night Rose, who would love a trade, got 11 minutes of action.
“I don’t know, I guess Zeke needs me out there,” Rose said. “I’ll help out in any way possible way, if I see something to tell teammates. That’s what he wants on the bench. He wants me in a uniform. I’ll gladly put on a uniform. I asked him to put me on the injured list, and he did. He said he’ll call me when he needs me. He needed me to put a uniform on and I’m ready.