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...

The 2005-06 NBA season started with a marquee coach taking over a young team in transition (I know, it's rebuilding, rebuilding is such a dirty word you know?), featuring a star player with whom our marquee coach had previously clashed. Smart money had a blowup occurring by January, but with the coach getting the team to the postseason.

That Phil Jackson, something else isn't he…oh, you thought I was talking about Larry Brown? Yeah, so did I.

Peeps, I have to get this off my chest before we move on to teams actually doing something this season:

Larry Brown is overrated.

Yes, I said it.

Overrated. Repeat after me, New York Yankee-style:

O-verrr-Rated!

Clap clap clap clap!

I know the conventional wisdom had Larry (also known as Coach Right Way) as one of the all-time greats, especially after the Pistons spanked the Lakers in the 2004 finals. I was one of them. With the benefit of hindsight, we know a few things - that the Pistons were much better than we all thought, and that the Shaq-Kobe feud had torched team chemistry beyond all repair, with Karl Malone’s injury being the final straw.

But after two straight trips to the Finals, LB was known as the guy who wanted his team to play The Right Way. What we all should have asked was why didn’t anyone ask is Greg Popovich, Rick Adelman, or Phil Jackson if they coached The Right Way – especially after Pop outcoached Larry last year in the Finals? Is it possible that the “Right Way” talk went to his head?

Well, the results are in. It’s ugly, and I mean Chris Kaman ugly. The Knicks were a 33 win team last year, and they’d have to run the table to get to 27 this year (I'm thinking 23 wins tops).

Worse, they have no freakin’ excuse.

Isiah Thomas may have his weaknesses – ok – a LOT of weaknesses as a GM, but he’s brought in solid young talent with Channing Frye, Eddie Curry, and James Robinson to go with Trevor Ariza and David Lee.  Stephon Marbury has more issues than the New York Times, but only The Big O has averaged 20+ pp and 8 assists as Stephon has done. Throw in Quinton Richardson and Jamal Crawford and .500 should have been a lock.

Instead we get the unholy mess that is the Knicks, and now Brown recently whined that the players are “tuning him out”. Brother Larry, human beings have an annoying tendency to do that when they constantly get barraged with noise. Note to Coach RightWay, when you constantly run down your players in the press, it becomes noise. Isn’t it telling that Brown has gotten little public support from anyone? Even given Marbury’s obvious problems playing team ball?

Does Kevin Garnett really want to come into this zoo?

Out here on the Left Coast, Phil Jackson gets mixed reviews, but you don’t hear him and Kobe killing each other. Granted, the Lakers have fewer youngsters than the Knicks, but Smush Parker (who wasn't even in the league last year) and Kwame Brown have made solid strides this season – especially Kwame in the last month since Chris Mihm was injured.

Kwame Brown? The same Kwame who was sent home by the Wizards last year – even when they lost his replacement to injury in the playoffs? Lamar Odom is finally playing three good games in a row. The Lakers look like they’ll win 44-45 games – in a tougher conference - and will almost certainly make the playoffs.

Kobe is getting along publicly with Phil, AFTER Phil hammers him in a book. (I grant you that if Coach allows you to put up 35 shots a game, you shouldn't have a problem getting along with anyone.) Yet even the most ardent Kobe-basher has to concede that Kobe has made more of a committment to team ball, even while scoring a pace unseen since Jordan in 1987.

Meanwhile, Coach RightWay and Starbury have gone to the mattresses. No surprise, Larry Brown hasn't met a point guard he ever got along with. No surprise, since Larry was trashing Marbury at the Olympics. This is the same guy who couldn't appreciate Mark Jackson (only Number Two on the all-time assist list) until he traded him away, and then had to trade back to get him. Which coach would you rather have?

Given LB’s history, the Knicks will almost certainly rebound. Somehow, Thomas will move Marbury or Francis (although if a superstar doesn’t come back in the deal, they shouldn’t do it), and Brown will feel safer. The young players will mature, and Larry will be the hero.

But not to this writer.

Honestly, I’m hoping Step and Right Way stay together. Life has been boring since Kobe and Shaq have made up (kindasorta). A good blood feud is necessary in sports. And the potential of Stephon going Sprewell on Little Larry is just too good to pass up.

Meanwhile, a maturing Laker team is peaking going into the post-season.

Score a big one for the Zen Master.