It is chic, and sometimes justified, to rip on Isiah Thomas in his career as an NBA executive.

Now, I know Isiah earns a lot of his eminity. Some people can't reconcil the Two Zekes. Psychology isn't my field, but from where I sit, Isiah wears The Mask well - I'm talking DuBois, not Jim Carey.  Outside, we get the baby-faced, doe-eyed face, soft voice with the Jell-O pudding smile. Inside, he's straight Michael Corelone. Grow up the way Thomas did, and you better have it.

That core, that life cred makes him able to relate to a Stephon Marbury. Kind of hard to pull nonsense of a man who's won two title on the court. Pity parties won't work on a brother who escaped a Chicago project (and on to a NCAA, two NBA titles, and the Hall Of Fame)that made Coney Island look like Disneyworld.

Celtic Nation still hold the "Larry Bird would be just another good player." line against him - and forget that it was Dennis Rodman who actually mouthed the phrase. Some Piston fans still feel that he shanked a great player and teammate in Adrian Dantley, and got him run out of Motown in favor of his lifelong pal Mark Aguirre.

And we won't even get into the whole CBA mess.

Since taking over as the Knicks GM in late 2003, Isiah has presided over 25 trades, five coaches (including himself), gone through moved more bodies than Tony Soprano (and Tony had a 4 year head start), and it has gotten the Knicks... what?

Well, after the Larry Brown "Reign Of Err", the Knicks actually looked like a playoff team at times, winning 33 games - 10 more than the year before under Brown - and holding down a playoff spot deep into March until injuries to Jamal Crawford, Stephon Marbury, and David Lee proved too much to overcome.

Along the way, the astute fan had to take note of something: For all of the Thomas trades and free agent signings that got rightly panned - my personal favorite was signing fat underachiever Jerome James to a 30 million dollar contract based on one good playoff series against a Kings team minus Chris Webber - Isiah's draft picks have been spot-on:

In 2004, he drafted Trevor Ariza late in the first round. Sought after by several teams after his rookie year, he became trade bait in the Francis trade.

2005: A pretty fair windfall. Channing Frye, who turned in a solid rookie season, and possessed enough promise that Portland welcomed him in the Zack Randolph deal. Isiah also plucked Florida's David Lee at number 30, already acknowledged as one of the league's best rebounders, and a big-time "energy" player off the bench. When he isn't being a knucklehead (or winning dunk championships), Nate Robinson has created a niche as a high energy 6th man, a fan favorite who packs a two-guard mentality into a 5-7 frame.

In 2006, well, do I have to remind anyone of Renaldo Balkman? From personal experience, I can tell you that the best part of attending the NBA Draft are are angry Knicks fans, and they absolutely...cut..LOOSE! The experts echoed the fans with universal disbelief and derision.

Then a funny thing happened - Balkman turned out to be a solid NBA player. He brought defense, passion, and reckless abandon to a team in dire need of all of it. The second Knicks pick, Mardy Collins, made it very easy for the Knicks to move Steve Francis (and his cap-strangling contract) on to Portland, which should tell you a lot.  Note that other than Frye, the above mentioned players were drafted at number 20 or later. How many teams can claim even one decent NBA player acquired at similar spot in the draft?

And now that the dust has settled, Isiah can breathe a huge sigh of relief over the Eddy Curry deal. After foolishly not lottery-protecting either first round pick in the deal, it turns out that the Knicks got Curry for Joakim Noah and Ty Thomas. While both young Bulls are promising talents that will defend and run the court, Curry could very well outscore both men this year - combined. Meanwhile, the Bulls are still in dire need of a low-post presence. Curry had a breakout season last year as a low-post scorer - the scarest commodity in the league, almost making up for his criminal lack of rebounding.

Not such a bad deal after all, eh?

Looking back at the trades Thomas has made, Crawford is on the verge of developing into a prime-time scorer. Quinton Richardson will either start at small forward, or be a may be a valued trade chip. The Malik Rose for Nazr Mohammad deal was panned as a big win for the Spurs. Mohammad has since washed out with both the Spurs and Pistons, and Rose is a valued locker room presence, which was why he was acquired in the first place.

Francis came over for Ariza, and while that deal never worked for all of the obvious reasons, he did net the Knicks a 20-10 player in Randolph.

Above all else, give Zeke credit for trying. In a league where too many executives are scared to pull the trigger on a trade, Thomas is probably too aggressive. His trades have often been poor, and cap-hostile, but he makes them. And some of them do work, once we get past the Isiah-bashing.

And be honest - whose roster would you rather have right now? The Knicks with Curry, Randolph, Marbury, Lee, et al. or the Larry Bird's Pacers? Or the Celtics or T-Wolves?

How about the Knicks' roster versus the Lakers - sans Kobe Bryant?

Yeah, I thought so.

Now, if Isiah would just stay away from Ron Artest...