Mike D’Antoni’s exit shows the Knicks are as much of a mess as ever

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The Knicks had gone 2-8 since Carmelo Anthony’s return from an injury, losing the last six in a row to fall out of a playoff spot. Something had to give.

According to NationalPost.com
Everybody, hold off on your trade rumours. The NBA world now focuses its eyes on New York City. Mike D’Antoni has resigned as coach of the New York Knicks. Assistant Mike Woodson takes over. The Knicks had gone 2-8 since Carmelo Anthony’s return from an injury, losing the last six in a row to fall out of a playoff spot. Something had to give.

Let’s hold off on the comparisons between the Knicks and Toronto Maple Leafs (self-proclaimed centres of their respective sports, a promising start that seemed destined to end a long period of losing submarined by a complete unraveling and, now, a coach that has lost his job) and look at the state of the Knicks. In short: what a fascinating mess.

This story will unfold over the next few days — the New York media will make sure of that — but the first report, from Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski, laid out the following facts: owner James Dolan was a key figure in the decision, as he did not agree with D’Antoni on the direction of the team; Tyson Chandler, Amar’e Stoudemire, Baron Davis and Jeremy Lin are not happy about the decision; and D’Antoni and Anthony had frequently clashed since the forward arrived in New York in February 2011 — a trade that was reportedly orchestrated primarily by Dolan over the protestations of others.

Based on that, anybody can see there were three principle figures involved here: Dolan, Anthony and D’Antoni, and it was two against one. Not that Anthony necessarily campaigned for D’Antoni’s exit, but his butting heads with the coach indicated this was not going to be a happy marriage. D’Antoni’s offence required the ball in the hands of the point guard; Woodson’s will call for plenty of isolation plays. (Cut to Joe Johnson nodding).

Everybody will take their sides here, with most taking D’Antoni’s. It is true that once Anthony arrived, he never had much of a chance. Anthony was armed with a three-year, US$65-million contract to play for a coach whose whole ethos is contradicted by his presence. The move caused D’Antoni’s chief ally within the organization, team president Donnie Walsh, to step down.

It is impossible to say how this will work out. It seems a borderline crazy move to commit to one of your team’s players at the expense of all of the others, unless that one player is LeBron James and that team is his former Cleveland Cavaliers. The Knicks have some very good players beyond Anthony, who, yes, is very good himself.

The takeout here, however, is that Dolan remains and forever will be an awful owner. He sat by while Isiah Thomas torched the franchise, rightfully hired Donnie Walsh to clear out some of Thomas’s mistakes, and when the lure of resurrecting the team was not enough to lure LeBron James, Walsh started to take power back from Walsh. Say what you want about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, but at least he has the guts to list himself as the general manager.

Posted in: Basketball,Knicks,Mike D'Antoni