New York Knicks

Isiah Thomas, who coached the Knicks to one of their worst seasons in franchise history this year, has been fired, the AP reports.

The dismal performance of the New York Knicks has hurt the fan-fueled business of Irish pubs near Madison Square Garden, according to the Sunday Times.  read more »

Today, Donnie Walsh was named the new president of the New York Knicks, which means for the MSG beat reporters who cover the team, the place might feel a little less like hell.

The Times' Howard Beck--who told the Observer in November that covering the Knicks was a "miserable" assignment--just published a story on Mr. Walsh's hiring, and tells us what it means for his cohort:  read more »

The New York Knicks’ decision to hire longtime Pacers’ executive Donnie Walsh to run basketball operations should fill Knicks fans with a mixture of excitement and apprehension.

Fortunately, the team has nowhere to go but up, and the fan base’s wish list is likely smaller than it has ever been. No demands for a championship. Basketball that is merely watchable will be a cause for celebration.

Walsh brings an undeniable record of success with him—while Indiana has not won an NBA title, the Pacers have been to the playoffs all but two seasons with Walsh in the front office since 1989-90.  read more »

Ante up!

Now suddenly everyone is interested in Newsday. The New York Times is reporting that a Manhattan media blockbuster trio is "in discussions" to buy the Melville-based newspaper: Rupert Murdoch, James Dolan and Mort Zuckerman. Sam Zell decides who's the winner.

It sets up a satisfying auction between Mr. Murdoch (Post-owner) and Mr. Zuckerman (Daily News-owner) and Mr. Dolan, who owns MSG, the Knicks, Rangers and Cablevision.  read more »

The fight to revoke the nearly $11 million tax break enjoyed by the owners of Madison Square Garden, who also own the Knicks and the Rangers, is on. Both Michael Bloomberg and Christine Quinn want it gone, as do a number of other politicians. This morning, Councilman Lew Fidler distributed this top 10 list of things the owners can do with the money from the tax break:

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The New York Knicks' media-relations team picked favorites over the weekend.

Three papers--The Times, the Post and Newsday--got the scoop that Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan informed Knicks head coach Isiah Thomas that his job was safe. All three papers attributed the news to the same source ("a high-ranking Garden official"), and included the detail that Mr. Dolan compared Mr. Thomas to once-embattled New York Rangers general manager and coach Glenn Sather. The other two papers that cover the team as a beat, the Daily News and the Bergen Record, missed out...  read more »

Basketball inferno: 4-9 team, Thomas’ harassment, hostile Dolans; reporters claw at exits: News’ Isola exiled, Post’s Vaccaro: ‘A gulag’; Times’ Beck: ‘Beat makes me miserable’; Star-Ledger halts coverage.  read more »

Sure, Isiah should go, but so should almost everyone else.  read more »

This is a team, to put it plainly, that’s built to underachieve.  read more »

MONDAY

Darlene’s back! Well, sort of. It didn't take long for The Big Bang Theory (CBS, 8:30 p.m.) to reunite its star Johnny Galecki with former Roseanne co-star Sara Gilbert. The erstwhile awkward TV lovers have been reunited as … awkward lovers! And just in the nick of time. The show is only several episodes old and the flustered interplay between the two supergeeks and their hot next-door neighbor, Penny, was getting a little stale. This week, they attend Penny’s Halloween party. Let’s hope Dar—ahem—Leslie is there to add a little spice. Halle Berry attempts the same on Inside the Actor’s Studio (Bravo, 8 p.m.). Watch to hear James Lipton exclaim, “Make me feel good.”

TUESDAY

The 47th Democratic National Debate (MSNBC, 9 p.m.) of the 2008 presidential election airs tonight. Will Barack Obama make good on his promise to The Times to hold Hillary’s feet to the flames? Will Hillary show up hungover from a weeklong birthday bender? Will John Edwards appear on stage with his wife in a desperate bid for attention? What will Joe Biden say? What will Dennis Kucinich extract from his pockets? Who knows? Who cares? Brian Williams moderates. (Can’t someone at NBC get him on a show with good ratings?) If you really want to watch something you feel like you’ve seen a million times, check out It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (NBC, 8 p.m.). Or watch the Spurs annihilate the Oden-less Trail Blazers in the NBA season opener (TNT, 8 p.m.).  read more »

It was the New York Knicks with everything to prove in Thursday night’s game against Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv at Madison Square Garden, before an overwhelmingly pro-Maccabi crowd.  read more »

A jury just ruled against Isiah Thomas in the harassment suit filed against him by Anucha Brown Sanders, awarding the former New York Knicks executive $11.6 M. But it's not Mr. Thomas who'll have to pay it:

 

A verdict earlier Tuesday found that New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas had sexually harassed Browne Sanders, subjecting her to unwanted advances and a barrage of verbal insults, but also said he does not have to pay punitive damages.

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When it comes to the sins of Marie Antoinette, everyone has heard about her parties, her clothes, he  read more »

The Knicks were not looking for respect from the Denver Nuggets Dec. 17.  read more »

Nobody ever wants to go on record when talking about James Dolan—but everybody seems to have a sto  read more »

Nobody ever wants to go on record when talking about James Dolan—but everybody seems to have a  read more »

My Stump Speech (And How It Went Over)

Hello! Great to be here in New York City!  read more »

Please allow us a brief sports diversion. Only days after the conclusion of soccer madness, Mayor Bloomberg announced today that that other suburban pastime of netted goals and short shorts will be invading the city: New York has been awarded its first-ever professional lacrosse franchise, thus far unnamed, which will play in Madison Square Garden. (I guess these guys didn't count.)

"The New York City franchise is dedicated to ensuring that every fan has the chance to experience the thrill of a live lacrosse game," said Mr. Bloomberg.

Thrill?

Well, it has to be more fun than watching the Knicks lose.

Lacrosse fans can suggest team names here.

- Jason Horowitz

In his "Hoop du Jour" column in the Sunday Post, Peter Vecsey offers an innovative player-management strategy for the Knicks:

If Channing Frye isn't hurt, in foul trouble, exhausted, unambiguously awful or delusional, he should play every possible minute of every game. Same holds true for Eddy Curry, Stephon Marbury, David Lee, Jamal Crawford, Trevor Ariza and Nate Robinson.

Why didn't the Knicks think of this earlier? Watch for coach Larry Brown to unveil the Vecsey starting lineup soon--accompanied by an innovative box-and-three defense, switching up to a 2-3-2 zone.  read more »

New Yorkers of a certain vintage will remember the night in February 1968, when the “new” Madiso  read more »

"That's cool Harry, right there," yelled Doug Platt from the sidelines. Mr. Platt is a button distributor from Manhattan; his son Harry, properly Harrison, is six years old. And Harry looked nervous.

Larry Brown, the new coach of the New York Knicks, pulled a stern face and signaled for Harry to do his lay-up. "Go Harry! Hoooooo!" yelled dad. The ball, somewhat miraculously, went through the hoop.

More than 200 kids showed up for the basketball clinic in Southampton on Saturday. Mr. Brown, who has reportedly signed the richest coaching contract in NBA history, to the tune of more than $50 million over 10 years, donated approximately $31,000 worth of his time for the clinic.

Also-shows were Knicks front office man and former NBA great Isiah Thomas and Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers. The charity: Hoops 4 Hope, a non-profit that sends shoes and uniforms to schoolchildren in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

"So this is where all my $50 parking tickets go," said a Daily News photographer; he marveled at the airplane hangar-sized area of the SYS Center in Southampton. Housewives jogged around the elevated track along the perimeter; a karate team waited quietly on nearby bleachers.

The coaches circulated among the three different courts leading drills, offering instruction, and leading chants: "1,2,3, Go Knicks!"

Not everyone was concentrating on basketball though. "Some shirts right here fellas, I only have 'larges' though," hawked Jonathan Clarke, aka J'Crue, a DJ for Blaze 101.7. Several youngsters intent on scoring swag skipped out on the official Q&A to peruse the wares. "We're Long Island's first hip-hop and R&B station. So that is big," said Mr. Clarke.

Next to Mr. Clarke sat two teenagers, Laura and Heather. They were handing out free samples of Fuze, a fruit drink, of sorts. Heather poured a shot of a mango drink into a paper cup. "Like, if you wanted to take this instead of a multivitamin, it would give you 100 percent of your daily vitamins and minerals" she said.  read more »

This week, Mr. Brown leaves for California. His own son is off to basketball camp, in fact; Michael Jordan's, in Santa Barbara. —Aaron Clark

Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era, by Gary M. Pomerantz.  read more »

We're glad to see that Anthony's congressional staff can write, and all the better if they're not worrying about being on message.

His former deputy chief of staff, Ben Holzer, penned this opinion piece in Sunday's City Section about his experience at a Knicks home game in early March. Bottom line: "One of the strangest, most disturbing, least satisfying sporting experiences possible."

Not sure how Anthony's allies over at Cablevision, who -- oh yes -- own the Knicks, felt about it.

And now we see that Weiner's legislative director, Marc Dunkelman, has an op-ed in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette lambasting the Democratic Party.  read more »

"We need to begin to follow the rhythms of sermons given in Midwestern churches. We need to dig into what keeps Red America up at night, Dunkleman writes. "We need to make a clear break from the sense of entitlement and prissy idealism that falls flat in the heartland. Let's get tough on juvenile crime, and create a new national program to make sure that delinquent kids are forced to give back to the communities they burden.

"And let's embrace faith, promoting our own version of charitable choice that separates us from those on the far left who see 'Under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance as an imminent threat to American civil liberties."

Wednesday 2nd If March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb , where does the Liger fit in?  read more »

"Political fund-raising in New York hasn't been very inclusive," declared Robert Smith, a voluble ba  read more »

Wednesday 15th The weather outside is frightful, we've had it up to here with Christmas-party Evit  read more »

The good folks at Cablevision have an interesting question: Why should taxpayers shell out up to $60  read more »

Since he first wowed the crowd in the early 80's at Catch a Rising Star, Rick Shapiro has been consi  read more »

Are New Yorkers finally starting to catch on to the fact that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is doing an ou  read more »

In the first week of December, Roger Cohen, then foreign editor of The New York Times , visited the  read more »

In the first week of December, Roger Cohen, then foreign editor of The New York Times , visited the  read more »

New York City has always been home to social clubs which were famously hard to get in to, such as th  read more »

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's The Son , from their own screenplay, takes narrative subjectivity alm  read more »

Joshua Siegel and Laurie StattlerMet: Fall 1998 Engaged: June 15, 2002  read more »

My name is Tim, and I am a father.  read more »

Lauren Ambrose is that redhead from HBO's Six Feet Under-some kind of redhead, clearly, as evidenced  read more »

This past Sunday, Dec. 30, was yet another gruesome night atMadison Square Garden.  read more »

While the playoffs dribble on (sans the New York Knicks), the National Basketball Association is lo  read more »

No one ever thought ofGerard Manley Hopkins as being a with-it kind of guy.  read more »

Apparently, anti-Semitism is no worse than a technical foulwhen it comes to the National Basketball  read more »

Mark Jackson leaned against his massive Ford Expedition on a recent afternoon outside the New York K  read more »

For the first time in its history, The New York Times will publish personal advertisements.  read more »

Back in the Arms of an Old FriendGirlfriend , the 1991 album by Matthew Sweet, is considered by many  read more »

New York was weird, even surreal on March 20, as it turned from winter to spring right in the middle  read more »

The talk shows on sports radio station WFAN are typically testosterone-addled affairs, pitting insec  read more »

Wednesday, March 7Got Rudy Giuliani fever? Haggling for a table at Balthazar?  read more »

A major magazine that I write for every month, and to which I am undyingly and contractually loyal,  read more »

Call it Us (Mostly) Weekly .  read more »

And now Max Frankel has departed The New York Times .  read more »