There are a million reasons why the Knicks hiring Isiah Thomas as a consultant would be a bad idea for them. Fortunately for Knicks fans, it would probably be illegal for the Knicks to hire Thomas under league rules. CBS’ Ken Berger has the facts:
The Knicks, sources say, are going to have a very difficult time getting this hire past NBA officials. Not because it’s a stupid idea, but because it’s probably against league rules.
The NBA Constitution and By-Laws include very strict prohibitions against team employees having contact with draft-ineligible players -- i.e., high school prospects and college or international players not yet eligible to be drafted. NBA team officials aren’t even permitted to utter the names of such players, much less coach them, scout them, or comment about them in press conferences.
Seeing as Thomas is the head basketball coach at Florida International University, it would seem to be elementary that such contact is a daily requirement of his day job. Thus, unless the Knicks can pull a fast one on David Stern -- and good luck with that -- sources say it is highly unlikely that the team’s attempt to hire Thomas will pass the smell test, much less the legal one.
If Thomas did get the consulting job without being forced to give up his coaching spot, the consequences would be obvious -- every big-time college coach would have teams knocking down their door to give them a cushy “consulting” job, with the hope that the coaches could convince current and former players to join the NBA franchise that hired them. That would obviously be an unacceptable practice, so hopefully this chapter of the Isiah farce will come to a merciful end fairly soon.
