Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said Isiah Thomas will have no influence on him and minimal influence in the organization if Thomas remains in his new role as part-time consultant.
D’Antoni spoke glowingly about team president Donnie Walsh’s two-year stint and defiantly said Thomas could only gain more power if the Knicks falter — and that’s not in the plans.
The NBA likely will rule today on Thomas’ consultant contract and several NBA executives believe the move will be blocked because of the conflict of interest in having a college coach work for an NBA team. Whether that means Thomas chooses to remain at Florida International is unclear. However, it is becoming more and more clear that Thomas has been in Knicks owner James Dolan’s ear for the past two years.
“Donnie’s not going anywhere,” D’Antoni said after Team USA’s practice yesterday at John Jay College in Manhattan. “Donnie’s running the show.”
D’Antoni would not rule out Thomas re-climbing the ranks in the Knicks’ front office, but said he doubted that would happen.
“Anything can happen,” he said. “That means we don’t do our job well and fail. We’re not planning on doing that. We just think he can add something as a consultant, but Donnie is in complete control.”
D’Antoni, a Team USA assistant coach, believes he and Walsh have resuscitated the Knicks after Thomas’ reign as team president and coach. D’Antoni resisted the idea that the Knicks need help and even made a sarcastic remark about the belief that Thomas influenced Amar’e Stoudemire’s signing with the team.
“I think 99 million dollars helped too,” D’Antoni quipped.
D’Antoni said he did not find out about Thomas’ hiring until Friday’s announcement. D’Antoni admitted being upset that the negative publicity of the past few days has detracted from the team’s reasonably solid offseason.
“We’ve come a long way in two years,” D’Antoni said. “Donnie’s done an unbelievable job to get us out of the hole. We’re out, and we’re not going to go back in it. We’re looking for forward for this season, and we’re excited about what we have.”
D’Antoni was surrounded by a larger media contingent yesterday than Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“[Donnie’s] made some unbelievable moves up until now,” D’Antoni said. “We’ve got a nice young team coming in. I hate all the hoopla on the other end. We should be excited about the upcoming season.”
D’Antoni said he has not spoken to Thomas, who is hardly laying low. Thomas attended a posh gala hosted by Gus Johnson last night in Midtown. The MSG broadcaster was celebrating his involvement in the just-released 2011 Madden video game and his new clothing line.
D’Antoni gave few specifics on how Thomas can enhance the franchise.
“What he can offer is he’s a Hall of Famer, top-50 player in the game and has a lot of credibility out there,” D’Antoni said. “And Donnie is very smart in tapping into him when he needs it. There’s not a whole lot else to it. It’s not something that changes what I do, so I’m cool.”
Dolan believes Thomas can aid in recruiting free agents in 2011 and 2012, when Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul become available, respectively.
However, the public-relations damage has been significant, especially with sources saying Walsh opposed Thomas’ hiring.
“I can understand the mindset,” D’Antoni said. “It does get a life of its own. It’s not going to change what Donnie does. If [Thomas] can help us — in certain areas he can — we can use that. There’s no negatives to it other than it created a story for you guys. For us inside the organization, it hasn’t impacted what we’ve done and the positive spin we had in the last couple of months.”
D’Antoni said he did not envision Thomas being hired in an official capacity when Dolan dispatched Thomas to Akron, Ohio, to talk to a member of LeBron James’ inner circle the night before his free-agent decision.
“Everybody was on board,” D’Antoni said. “LeBron was slipping away. Does anybody get inside his inner circle? We just tried everybody. Everybody did what they could, tried their contacts and nothing really worked. It’s one of 10 things we tried.”