Carroll Dawson is Retiring

I have no comment that can improve upon this photo.

When it comes to professional sports, the job that any average jerk will tell you that he could do better is general manager. This is a natural thing to do. As fans we want to believe that we're the final piece that could make a difference for our teams. But, players and coaches tend to have an actual background in sports. People like us, we don't have a background in sports. We have a background in eating and watching sports on TV. So, being a GM becomes the daydream. What does the boom in fantasy sports leagues represent, other than a desire to call the shots?

But, a look around any professional sports league demonstrates that not very many people are good at managing a team. And, as easy as pointing and clicking players around seems, being a real GM involves so much more. You have to have an incredibly perceptive eye for pro talent. You need a shrewd sense of finance and long term budgeting. You must differentiate between a time to be patient and a time to demand results. You're forced to manage some of the largest egos in the world. And this just scratches the surface. We think of the rare few in this profession that do it well as geniuses. Well, right along with the Theo Epsteins and the Bill Bellichicks of the world, I believe there's another name to consider: Carroll Dawson.

You probably have no idea who he is. But, he's been leading the Houston Rockets for 26 years. When he steps down after this season, he'll have 4 division titles, 4 conference titles, and two championships to his credit. More importantly for the fans of Houston, he'll leave his team healthy and with a powerful and well balanced roster. Dawson has had an incredible track record when it comes to recognizing talent and taking risks: Hakeem Olajuwon, Sam Cassell, and Yao Ming are demonstrations of this. He has also been skilled at efficiently fixing mistakes and moving the team in the right direction. And, if you dispute this one, I have two words for you: Steve Francis. But, perhaps most importantly, Carroll Dawson knows how to spend money.

The quickest way to hurt your team long term is to spend their money foolishly. The best player available is not necessarily the best player for your team. High performing squads are rife with guys that aren't dominant. They simply do a few things very well, and have a coach that puts them in the position to do them. A good GM looks for players like that. Bad GMs treat their jobs like fantasy sports and look for the biggest names and highest risk. Here's an example: the Houston Rockets currently pay four players more than $5 million a year. The New York Knicks? Eight players. Unless there's some new kind of eight on eight basketball that I'm not aware of, that's a whole lot of money for splinter duty. In fact, he's paying over $7 million for Malik Rose. Malik Rose! That's not even beginning to consider the people who don't play for the Knicks that Isiah Thomas cuts checks to every month.

Truly, there's no better point of contrast to emphasize Carroll Dawson's superb record than Isiah Thomas. It only took Isiah a couple years to run the CBA straight out of existence, and a couple more to turn the New York Knicks into a flaming car crash. Dawson has been in Houston for two and a half decades and things are still humming along nicely. So, when he steps down after this year, be grateful, Rockets fans. The next Thomas or McHale may be waiting for you around the corner. Let's hope not.

The New York Knicks are Totally Fixed

When I was sitting down to put together some thoughts for this post, I realized how often I've talked about Isiah Thomas and the bizarre situation in New York. I'm not a Knicks fan. I'm just fascinated by how bad things have gotten. What would it take to make a regime change happen? It seemed that this would be the season where Isiah would finally end up unemployed. Then, maybe, the abused and overwhelmed Knick loyalists could move on.

Well, it doesn't look like that's going to be happening any time soon. In a stunning turn of events, Thomas has been given a multi-year contract extension as both coach and general manager. Admittedly, compared to last season, there has been a turnaround. Starbury has miraculously ceased to implode, Eddy Curry has started trying, Jamal Crawford has been huge, and David Lee has provided some excellent energy off the bench. They're in the hunt for the playoffs, and have rallied their way through tough injuries.

Still, this decision making seems, at best, extremely premature. Dolan had previously been firm that he would make no decision until after the season, which seemed like a logical idea. What changed? Wouldn't it make sense to take stock of the season as a whole, playoffs included? And even if you like the dynamic between Isiah and his players, why retain him as GM? Even if he is able to be effective as a coach, there's no question he's a complete disaster when it comes to personnel.

I should be eating more crow here. Isiah Thomas has managed to string together some wins, and he deserves credit for doing so. But, I can't help but feeling a palatable sense of dread when I consider the future of the franchise. Maybe I'll be completely proven wrong, and things will work out beautifully. But, I think Knicks fans have gotten a reminder. Isiah Thomas is a symptom, and James Dolan is the disease.

Tim Hardaway Opposes Your Gay Agenda

When John Amaechi came out, it became inevitable that someone was going to say something stupid. Shavlik Randolph, Steven Hunter, and others made some ignorant comments. Nothing particularly strong or hateful, just middle-school insecurity. I should be encouraged by this. Hell, it'd be great to think that everyone in pro sports was ready to accept the idea of a gay teammate. I'm sure most athletes have played with homosexuals during their careers, but a world where jocks felt free to be out in public would be very different. Still, there was a small part of myself that couldn't wait for the NBA's Carl Everett, whoever he might be, to stick his foot in his mouth. You know, to use a public platform to declare his opposition to the gay/dinosaur invasion. To take a stand against John Amaechi and his vile plans to subvert pro basketball with the collaboration of Fagosaurus Rex.

Tim Hardaway may not have taken it that far, but he got his sneakers pretty well planted in his throat. On Dan Le Batard's radio show, the former Warriors and Heat star made a series of inflammatory comments when asked how he'd react to having a gay teammate. When the host gave him an opportunity to soften his stance, Hardaway refused, proudly labelling himself a homophobe. Tim didn't stop there, using a later interview to claim that his feelings were shared by many NBA players, and that he'd hate a gay family member too. How incredibly sad. Amaechi got it right when he responded that Hardaway's comments weren't the problem. The fact is, he's probably speaking for a lot people. Most are probably just too smart to blow endorsement and other employment opportunities for the sake of getting their opinion out there.

Now we get to the strange part. The object of so much of my ire up until this point, Isiah Thomas, has been the gold standard in responding to this situation:

We're a diverse society. We preach acceptance. We're proud of our diversity. No matter what your sexual preference might be, there's an acceptance and a tolerance level that should be accepted everywhere. No one should be excluded. Sports has always been a testing ground for what society will or won't accept. We accept and we embrace diversity. If we're not tolerant, we'll become tolerant...If it's in my locker room, we won't have a problem with it. I can't speak for somebody else's locker room, but if it's in mine, we won't have a problem. I'll make damn sure there's no problem.

Wow. I feel so conflicted! This is like when I started to see Kobe like something other than a total ball hog. I don't know how to feel. Isiah Thomas said and did the right thing, and came off as genunine when he did it? Where exactly do I go from here? Say what you want about Isiah, I know I have, but he's not a homophobe. So, to review, he's a terrible GM, an iffy coach, a bad businessman, a serial groper, a baby seal clubber, but not a homophobe.

Isiah Thomas is Bulletproof.

Keep your chin up, Zeke. John's proud of you!

Note: George Karl hit the nail on the head. I really hope someone decides this absurd situation is worth appealing

David Stern decided that he's on a roll from all the crappy decisions he's made lately, and handed out suspensions for the incident at MSG. The terms ranged from fifteen games to one, Carmelo Anthony receiving the worst of it. This isn't the part that I have a problem with. Melo ran up to a situation that was already bad, but settliing, and made it much worse by throwing a sucker punch. I might not have made it for so many games, but the message is clear: don't escalate things. That's not a bad point to get across.

The issue I have is the glaring omission from the list: Isiah Lord Thomas III. (I looked it up, that's really his name. Kind of awesome, don't you think?) It would stand to logic that someone in a leadership role who precipitated the conflict would be punished. Stern didn't seem to think so, saying that he only relied on "definitive information" when handing out punishment. Well, Isiah's caught on tape issuing warnings to players. And, he also followed that up with some absurdly smarmy post game comments on how Collins did the logical thing. So yeah, you're right David, not definitive at all. Good thing Stern doesn't run the NCAA or John Chaney would still have a job at Temple.

Some are going to say that the $500,000 fine levied at the Knicks and the Nuggets sends the message. I don't buy it. James Dolan and Isiah Thomas clearly have no concept of money. Hell, they're currently paying Jalen Rose millions not to play basketball for them. $500,000 is minor figures. I tried to convince himself that David Stern would be so incensed by this incident going down in his backyard that he'd drop the hammer. No such luck. Isiah Thomas continues to make New York into a bad joke, and everyone suffers but him.

Isiah Thomas is Unstoppably Incompetent

There's an old story. It's about an explorer and a rattlesnake. One day, the explorer is travelling through the wilderness, and he comes upon a rattlesnake trapped underneath a rock. The snake begs him to move the rock and set him free. The explorer knows better and tells the snake, well If I do that, you'll just bite me. But the snake promises that he won't. He tells him that he'll die otherwise. The explorer feels guilty, and moves the rock. As soon as the snake is set free, he bites him. At first the explorer is mad, but then he realizes that he's only mad at himself. The snake was just doing what was in his nature. Snakes bite people.

I feel like I just got bit. A few days ago I defended Isiah Thomas, talking about how if his boss wasn't willing to fire him, faulting him for his behavior was pointless. I went so far as to say that I was "through blaming him". After what he did at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, I am back to being actively angry at him. The Denver Nuggets were giving a heavy thrashing to the Knicks and it bothered Isiah. He felt like George Karl was running up the score. So, he (idiotically) warned Carmelo Anthony to stay out of the paint, and got caught on tape doing it. A couple plays later, JR Smith was on a breakaway, and so Knick Mardy Collins wrapped and tossed him to the ground. Tempers flared, and a fight broke out. Carmelo (stupidly) rushed in late and hit Collins in the jaw, escalating the situation further. Now Denver will be without the NBA's leading scorer for a while and we're back to the NBA being perceived as a league of thugs.

Isiah looked culpable enough already, but his post game comments drove home the role he played:

I just said to him, 'You're up 19 with a minute and a half to go. You and Camby really shouldn't be in the game right now.' We had surrendered. And those guys shouldn't have been in the game at that time. They were sticking it to us pretty good. They were having their way with us pretty good. I think J.R. Smith had just made one dunk where he reverses it and spins in the air. I thought that Mardy didn't want to have our home crowd see that again and he fouled him.

Well, Isiah, I think someone on the bench whose name starts with I and ends with siah Thomas told Mardy that he should stop the bleeding. You know what might have been better than orchestrating a play where someone could have ended up seriously hurt? NOT BEING A TERRIBLE COACH. If you don't like losing by large margins, then be angry at yourself for building a disaster of a roster. Work on your players to play better defense. You think George Karl is a poor sport for keeping his stars in? Understandable. But don't pretend putting a hit on the Nuggets is justifiable. Live with the fact that you suck.

Now, to dispel the perception that the NBA is the most gangsta of leagues, here is a video of strapping young lads engaged in sportsmanlike conduct:

Is Isiah Thomas Fired Yet?

Isiah Thomas ruined the CBA. Isiah Thomas was fired from the Pacers. Isiah Thomas made the Knick payroll the highest in the league. Isiah Thomas beat a disabled child to death with his own wheelchair. Isiah Thomas gave away a top pick to get a player with a heart defect. Isiah Thomas thought the new version of the Omen was better. Isiah Thomas is being sued for sexual harassment. Isiah Thomas traded to get two of the most cancerous point guards in the game. Isiah Thomas kicked a puppy. Isiah Thomas undermined a Hall of Fame coach who'd waited his whole life to lead New York. Isiah Thomas still has a job.

Many of the statements listed above are not true. However, the fact remains: Isiah Thomas has gutted the Knicks. Attendance is abysmal, and New York is often booed during home games. He is unequivocally a failure. But, I am through blaming him. Let's consider a hypothetical situation. You take a job, and you're given a position in management. Within your first three years, things don't go well. Revenues are down, and you spend above your budget on employees that don't produce results. You're widely disliked by customers, and you can't get along with a manager who's brought profits to other companies. On top of that, you grope the receptionist. What would you expect? To be fired. If you weren't, who would it be on? Your boss.

Knick fans should stop being angry at Isiah. He's an easy target, but the person who has created this situation is James Dolan. This has occured to me before, but it crystallized when I listened to Dolan give Isiah his latest vote of confidence. Thomas has been begging to be fired for a couple years now. The situation with Larry Brown established that he can not win in New York. And, lest we forget, Dolan is not exactly famous for being a winner. He gave Allen Houston $100 million when the closest offer was about $25 million less. He gutted a Knick team that saw the finals in '99. They haven't won a playoff series since 2000. It's easy to get mad at Isiah, because you can't fire an owner. But he's not the real problem. When Isiah Thomas leaves, the Knicks will not be fixed. Can David Stern force a sale?

EDIT: I have been pointed towards this equally critical post on Dolan that colors in his incompetence with some working experience at Cablevision.