Isiah Thomas may have been spurned by the Knicks, but he is not over her. He wants another shot at the relationship.
We kind of knew that, but he misses her more than we thought. And like anyone spurned and wanting back in a relationship, he is a little bit delusional about what really happened. He is convinced that he could have signed LeBron James and maybe Dwyane Wade for the Knicks, despite the fact his teams were more than $50 million over the cap.
But he really does believe it. Look at these quotes from ESPNNewYork.“I want to be on the float and I want to get my ring,” Thomas said.
Asked if he hopes to replace Donnie Walsh whenever the 69-year-old Knicks president retires, Thomas said, “Every single day of the week.
“When I look at my GM/executive record, if I’m evaluated on that, then whoever’s after Donnie, if you’re not talking about some of the top people in the game, I’ll put my draft evaluation record up against anyone’s.”
First off, Thomas is not quite as good at the draft as he thinks he is.
Second, even if you give him the draft that was never the problem, it was the overpriced, ridiculous free agent contracts that hamstrung the franchise. That still do — Eddy Curry is still on the roster.
Third, those terrible free agent contracts would have made it impossible to sign LeBron. It took Walsh two years of shedding salary — two years of the team losing — just to be in a position to go after LeBron.
The Knicks and Isiah were a bad couple. But aren’t those the ones that always get back together?
Thomas wanting back in is not a surprise or really the problem. It’s that owner James Dolan may welcome him back that should scare Knicks fans. Remember he tried to bring Thomas back as a consultant last summer. It backfired, but Dolan wants to help his buddy Thomas. It is rumored he still wants to find a way to bring Thomas back in some capacity.
Hopefully Dolan sees the energy around the rebuilt Knicks, sees what they did in Chicago Thursday night and moves on. But people in bad relationships often just come back and try to make them right. Even despite all of New York yelling “noooooooooooo!”