WHEN Isiah Thomas talks, people diss him and polygraphs dismiss him.
Like the last four or five days when every word (as opposed to every other word) emitted by the False Prophet was dishonest.
Let’s examine his most egregious statement, his claim to be against making personnel changes:
“I still feel that when you’re in this type of situation and how far we’ve come even though our record doesn’t show, this is a dangerous time where you as a manager can seriously make a mistake that will set you back another three to four years,” he said. “We just got to hunker down and take our medicine and work through this process.”
“Bow down to the King of Refuse! So, bow down to him if you want. Bow to the King of Slime, the King of Filth, the King of Putrescence.
“Boo! Boo! Rubbish! Filth! Slime! Muck! Boo! Boo!”
Forget for the moment about the Sandman and the lousy job he’s doing; where’s that Ancient Booer from “The Princess Bride” when there’s a need to shout down Buttercup, er, the Knicks’ phony king?
The truth is, contrary to Thomas’ denial when word got out, GM Glen Grunwald initiated a trade call last week to Bucks GM Larry Harris in an effort to trade Zach Randolph.
No hedging, no fudging, no qualifying, no lie.
As far as I can determine, the word got out when Harris called his Trail Blazers counterpart, Kevin Pritchard, to check out Randolph, whom the Knicks acquired from Portland last June on draft night, and someone in their organization leaked it to a reporter for The Oregonian.
By that time, the Bucks had summarily rejected the Knicks’ proposal: Randolph ($13.333 million /$14.666M/$16M/$17.333M) and Renaldo Balkman ($1.280M/$1.369M) for Charlie Villanueva ($2.715M/$3.448M), Bobby Simmons ($9.28M/$9.92M/$10.56M) and Dan Gadzuric ($5.751M/$6.25M/$6.749M/$7.248M); two part-time outside shooters (31 and 30 percent from 3-point range, respectively) seeing inconsistent minutes and an athletic third-string center.
“I would’ve taken that deal in a heartbeat,” an impartial head coach said. “The Bucks are saturated with perimeter shooters who would really thrive if defend ers had to honor an in side game. Zach draws double teams, no two ways about it. “I under stand Zach has a past. I understand his personality, issues and liabilities must be managed. I understand his contract is a major league obligation. But if a good team wants to get someplace, someone must be able to get you to that position. If that someone averages 20 and 10 (actually 16.8 points and 10 rebounds in 31.8 minutes) and it’s more than he’s giving up at the other end, you pull the trigger.”
Obviously, much, if not all of the above made the Bucks too squeamish.
Has Randolph’s distant and recent past (tsk-tsk, his one-game suspension for throwing a headband that inadvertently hit a referee and his insolence aimed at Thomas) turned off the rest of the league? How much is Randolph’s subtraction from the Blazers responsible for their ridiculous recent success? Might there be at least one “good” team willing to take a gamble?
One way or the other, Thomas had to bite his forked tongue when Randolph blew him off after he’d yanked him in the second quarter of the Raptors game. How embarrassing for Thomas when he told assistants to move over so the steamed Randolph could sit next to him – and Randolph kept on trucking and spewing.
This was the day after the news of the attempt to trade him to the Bucks came out. You know damn well Randolph felt singled out by Thomas for the team’s tribulations (though there’s no denying Randolph has plenty of company in that regard, namely Stephon Marbury and Quentin Richardson; as long as James Dolan remains under Thomas’ control he’s not going anywhere) and Eddy Curry’s diminished contribution.
Afterward, Thomas was forced to downplay Randolph’s blatant contempt to the media, discounting it as “frustration” for dropping lower in the Atlantic Division than whale waste.
Most players would’ve been suspended for such a public display of disregard for authority. The fact Thomas didn’t go that route is a clear indicator Randolph continues to be shopped; it’s unwise to devalue an asset any more than it is already.
When the same kind of unpleasantness occurred between Joakim Noah and Bulls assistant Ron Adams, it cost the rookie first-rounder a game’s pay, followed by a unanimous vote by teammates to bench him for another.
It says it all about Thomas, and the disorganization, disharmony and disrespect he weaves, that he would turn his back on his players when they voted to suspend Marbury a game after he went AWOL in Phoenix.
In conclusion, if according to me, the Bucks turned down this deal, “then someone should consider anesthetizing their GM, while Isiah should be brought before the Nuremberg tribunal for crimes against mankind,” Chip Stern e-mails in full rant.
“Put Isiah out of his misery before he trades the Knicks’ 2008 lottery pick! Or gets talked into taking on the earthly remains of Tracy McGrady, half man, half outpatient.”