Isiah Thomas seems hell bent on single-handedly destroying the New York Knicks.Watching the team he put together fumbled their way to 23 wins, second  in the league, he fired his latest enemy, Larry Brown.

That’s 23 wins on a team with a shared payroll of $126 million. For those of you out there who are not math majors, that comes out to about $5.5 million per win. We would have to verify the history books and check with with Allen Greenspan, however those numbers add up to  to the 2005 New York Knicks being the biggest failure in professional sports history. At least the ill fated 2006 Kansas City Royals have a minor-league budget.

Subsequently sacking head coach Brown a week ago, Knicks’ owner Charles Dolan publicly put Thomas on notice, informing his new coach, and the world, that the hall-of-fame point guard had one season to turn things around in Gotham or the Knickerbockers would fire up the search engine for a new coach.

With the words, “and with the 20th pick, the New York Knicks – the air being sucked out of Madison Square Garden – opted for Renaldo Balkman from the University of South Carolina.”

The commish then added, “Renaldo is not here,” to which ESPN’s Dan Patrick dryly responded, “And it’s most likely a good thing.”

From Astoria to SoHo, you could almost hear the collective query, “Who?”

Subsequently a minute of perplexity, the boos, almost perplexed groans of agony, began to rain down from the public in attendance at the Garden. Still Knick Superfan #1, Spike Lee, could only laugh and shake his head. In the supreme stadium in America, Isiah Thomas turned his traveling roadshow of tragedy into theater of the meaningless.

The ESPN analysts seemed away from confused, yet the always-boisterous motor mouth and New York native, Stephen A. Smith, seemed nonplussed to the point of being speechless. Now, that’s a feat.

The pick even left generally-diplomatic Jay Bilas perplexed, flanking on angry.

“This to me is a stunner, I’m stunned. This is a second-round player. Nobody else would have taken him in the first round,” he said.

Apparently Thomas does not work under the rule of standard perception. He insisted before the draft that he saw Balkman as a blend between Dennis Rodman and Ron Artest. One can only assume that he meant the long-haired kid from South Carolina who averaged less than 10pts. a game last year was a inconsistent defender and a danger on the boards and not a player who might charge into the stands after a fan or emerge in a wedding dress on the cover of a national magazine.

Thomas, with one year to turn the moribund Knicks around, does not noticeably feel the pressure, management proposed to apply with its public announcement. He took a risk on a guy nobody had on their board. He made a move that looked in the direction of the prospect. However when your prospect has already been given a shelf-life pending results, you need to make your team better without delay.

And he had the opportunity. When David Stern came to the podium to announce the latest Knicks’ debacle, stand-out point guard Marcus Williams of Connecticut was still on the board, as was Rajon Rondo, P.J. Tucker, David Noel you get the picture.

Maybe Thomas did not appreciate the stress that came from upstairs. Maybe he decided to stare boldly into the face of reason and blink. Hard. Or maybe he is just not a good general manager.  destroying the Toronto Raptors, ruining the CBA, getting run from Indiana by Larry Legend, insulting and sucking the life from one of the game’s finest coaches, maybe Isiah just does not know what he is doing.

For years, although people have doubted his aptitude to run a team or make yet one salary cap decisions, however he has been recognized for having an eye for talent. He drafted Damon Stoudamire in 1995 and Tracy McGrady in 97. So, maybe Thomas really has found a diamond in the rough. He better hope so; if not, he better hope the Mets or Yankees win the World Series to divert the city from what threatens to be a very bleak winter, and probably Thomas’ last, in New York City.

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Written By: Patrick Adams