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Walsh's addition to Knicks only brings questions

Ken Berger

March 26, 2008

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As usual, there are far more questions than answers about the Knicks as they do what they do best: Turn what is supposed to be a cleansing, franchise-shaping experience into a circus.

If Donnie Walsh is coming here to save the day, who is he saving? Who is he purging? Will he hire a general manager and coach, or adopt the incumbent?

This is only the beginning.

For every spasm of intelligence that reverberates in Jim Dolan's body, there is an equal and opposite reaction: malfeasance.

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Hire a Hall of Fame coach, renowned egomaniac, serial job-skipper and habitual yapper named Larry Brown, but remove his vocal chords and authority and place him second in the pecking order to Isiah Thomas.

When that doesn't work, put Thomas on notice, but after one day in playoff contention, award him with a four-year contract extension that ironically could end in one of Thomas' favorite pastimes as team president. A buyout.

Now Dolan apparently has decided who will become the next formerly respected basketball figure to have his reputation buried deep under Madison Square Garden, somewhere near the Earth's core.

Respected front-office sources and others involved in the basketball business doubted seriously in the past week that Walsh, 67, would actually land in New York. Which, of course, is as good a reason as any for it to happen. With Dolan, figure out what needs to be done and bet the mortgage he'll do the opposite.

Walsh is a CEO type who oversaw all aspects of the Pacers. So if he has that role with the Knicks, there would be no more need for MSG Sports president Steve Mills. Is Mills gone? Good question.

There would be a need for a day-to-day GM to work under Walsh's tutelage. Who that is will make all the difference. After all, it did in Indiana.

"There is no question that he's capable," one person involved in the league said of Walsh yesterday. "I don't think anybody can begin to dispute that. But it depends on how this will affect the organization."

What's scary is that Dolan may want to extract a few more buckets of sweat from Thomas' brow before he lets him go. According to Rick Carlisle, who replaced Thomas as coach under Walsh and Larry Bird with the Pacers, Walsh would be happy to show Dolan how to do that. Walsh is in communication with Thomas, Carlisle said, because he doesn't want to be perceived as cutting Isiah's legs out.

"It's very possible that Donnie Walsh comes into the situation as the ultimate decision-maker and keeps a lot of the same people beneath him - in this case, a guy like Isiah, who worked for him before and they had success in Indiana," Carlisle said.

So in other words, another quick fix. But what about Walsh? Why him?

If it was the six trips to the Eastern Conference finals, OK. If it was drafting Reggie Miller and Rik Smits, that was two decades ago. It couldn't be what has happened to the Pacers since the infamous Detroit brawl in 2004, because the franchise is in shambles. Attendance is dismal, and if you can't draw a crowd for basketball in Indiana, you have to wonder.

If Walsh thought he had a mess in Indiana, wait until he gets a load of the group that occasionally wanders onto the practice floor in Greenburgh. If he gets a three-year deal, Walsh could be a lame duck by the time things get better.

One NBA executive offered this prescription for whoever gets the job: 1) "You can't keep Stephon Marbury," he said, and 2) "You tell Eddy Curry, 'Get your fat -- in shape or you're not playing a -- game."

And those will be the easy ones.

Walsh hired big names to work for him in Indiana, and his team rebuilt and made the playoffs at the same time with Thomas as coach. Dolan must be drunk with the possibilities of another presto-chango, snap-your-fingers makeover. Pass the lipstick, Jimmy. The pig's ready for a fresh coat.