To anyone following this case, this should not come as a big suprise, Isiah Thomas found guilty of sexual harassment.  Don't get me wrong, I believe portions of what Thomas said about Ms. Sanders, but Isiah never denied that he tried to kiss this married woman and MSG even admitted that they had warned Isiah not to do it again.  Is that sexual harassment?  Probably not, but combine that with her firing and it all looks very su####ious.  If Ms. Sanders was as incompetent as Mr. Dolan would have us believe, then why was she hired in the first place?  Why was she given a $260,000+ salary.  Incompetent people don't rise to positions like that.  Oh wait, maybe they do at Madison Square Garden, after all they did hire Isiah Thomas.  This is the same MSG that hired Larry Brown for a record contract and then fired him only one year in and had to buy out his contract for a reported 18 million.

 

The truth of the matter is that the longer Thomas stays at the helm of the New York Knicks, the longer it will take for a competent coach to rebuild this team.  James Dolan is an even bigger #### than Isiah because he not only gave him another year to win but he gave him a contract extension a third of the way through the year.  I still think Isiah has something on Dolan or else he would have been fired a long time ago.  Whatever it is, it must be pretty juicey.   Thomas has bad judgment when it comes to players in the draft, trading players, and obviously even whether or not a woman is attracted to him. 

The only question now is how much is this going to cost the Knicks' management.

SoCalSportsFan

Let's see, the Knicks fired a HOF coach in favor of a HOF player and exactly where has it gotten them.  They are currently 2-5.  At this rate they will win about 24 games this year and once again miss the playoffs.  This is the team that Isiah built.  He chose these guys, he brought in Steve Francis and kept Stephon Marbury.  He also unloaded Jalen Rose to the unsuspecting Suns, (a horrible move by Phoenix, but I digress), which is the last good player personnel move he will make.  I think Dolan will fire Isiah before the All-Star break, but then again, I would have fired him before lettting Larry Brown go.  Just a few questions that need to be answered though;

Who will Dolan hire?  From the current crop of coaches, I would probably hire Stu Van Gundy.  No one else is really available.

How long before the franchise will turn around?  At this rate, it will take at least 2 years if they are lucky enough to get the lottery pick at draft time.  There should be some real talent this year in the draft and they Knicks need to go with a solid big man in my opinion unless a real star emerges.

Will it possibly get worse before it gets better?  That all depends on how long Isiah stays.  If he is allowed this entire year, it will only get worse.  Be afraid, very afraid.  I somehow think Isiah must have something that he is black mailing Dolan with or surely he would have been fired long ago with the sexual misconduct of an employee on top of his mismanagement of the team.

SoCalSportsFan

Last year when the story broke that Isiah Thomas was being sued for sexual harassment, I immediately went to his defense.  I thought management did the right thing by reserving judgment on the matter and not firing him immediately, but now I have to admit that maybe I was wrong.  Isiah will be found guilty. (However, management should have fired him for his insane trades!)

What makes matters worse is that seeing his choices in personnel, I should have known that his acumen for making smart moves is suspect at best.  He was definitely one of the best point guards of all times and always made the right moves on the court.  But off the court, he has signed the likes of Jalen Rose, Steve Francis, Stephen Marbury, and fired Larry Brown.   Not exactly stellar moves.  Some how he has been able to talk the management into keeping him around for one more year.   A smooth talker he must be, but not smooth enough to convince one Miss Sanders to accept his advances. 

 

Isiah has admitted in court briefs that he did touch Miss Sanders on the shoulder and did try to kiss her on the cheek.  By all definitions of sexual harassment that I am familiar with, then he is guilty.  How many employees do you have that have tried to kiss you on the cheek?  If you are an employee, how many bosses have met you and have any of them tried to kiss you on the cheek?  Something isn’t right here, and my guess is Zeke is going down on this one and I do not mean with Miss Sanders.

 

You would expect a large settlement in a case like this one, but Isiah does not want to settle.  That means if she wins in court, then she will get an even bigger payday.   The information that we have on this case does not look good for Thomas, but after reviewing the picture of Anucha Browne Sanders, I might have to side with Thomas on this one.  Isiah can have his pick of many beautiful women, so why go after Miss Sanders?  He has nothing to gain and everything to lose.  Could it be that she is just after a fat paycheck or is Isiah really that desperate for her?

 

I chalk this one up as just one of his failed personnel moves.  I truly do believe him and the kiss on the cheek is just Thomas.  He is probably just a real touchy feely guy, but somebody please send Thomas to mandatory sexual harassment training before he bankrupts Madison Square Gardens.

 

SoCalSportsFan

Back in January I started writing a series of posts that I called SoCal’s Daily Affirmations.  I have written with that byline three or four times.  The nice part of this format is that I get to address several issues in one post and then dispense my advice to the people I am writing about in the format of an affirmation from Stuart Smalley.  What that really means is that I could not find one topic that I wanted to rant about so I chose four.  Today I am going to tackle Barry Bonds, Pat Riley, Lance Armstrong, and Larry Brown. 

Barry Bonds is still the most feared baseball hitter in the game and also a threat in other ways.  Last night in the game against Oakland, with one out and the bases loaded, Blanton walked Barry with four straight pitches.  The A’s would rather walk in a run than give Barry a shot at a grand slam.  That speaks volumes about how feared his bat still is.  Bonds is still one of the all time greatest players in my book and he proved it again this past week.  He was on ESPN for a web gem earlier, robbing someone of a HR with a great catch over the wall and then last night he steals a base.  Looks like his knee is feeling better which can only mean one thing, he is playing next year.   Watch out Henry Aaron!  I see Bonds at DH next season and becoming the ALL TIME HR holder.   Barry, please repeat after me, "I can hit with power, I can take walks, I make 20+ million a year, and I can still even steal bases; gosh darn it, who cares if people like me!

The NBA season is over and the Miami Heat are the champions.  For those who don’t believe me, I predicted this would happen way back on December 12 when Pat Riley was made the coach of the Heat.  Go back and read my post which did not garner even one comment.   Many felt it was unfair of Riley to force Stu Van Gundy out and replace the coach with himself.  Well the Heat have their championship and Riley another ring so maybe it is time to acknowledge that Pat coming back was a good thing.  I know all the talk about Dwyane Wade being the reason they won is out there, but Riley was the catalyst to this organization winning it all.  He was the architect of this team and he needs to get his due.  Pat repeat after me, "I can still slick what hair I have left back, I know how to coach, I am mentioned in Glory Road, my players like me, and gosh darn it, I can outdance Shaq."

Lance Armstrong admits to taking EPO and other steroids according to his former best friend, Frankie Andreu, (Gee, I wonder why they aren’t best friends anymore!)  Betsy Andreu, Frankie’s wife, also says she heard Lance admit to using steroids as he was talking with one of Armstrong’s cancer doctors back in 1996.  For the record, this should come as no surprise.  Lance will deny and no one will be able to prove it.  It is all hearsay and Lance has provided an affidavit from his doctor saying he did not admit to taking steroids.  Sounds a bit like the Bonds’ case if you ask me.  Leaked grand jury testimony, attorney-client privilege, and doctor-patient relationship are just a few of the so called sources of information, none of which can be verified.  Barry and Lance will never be proven to have taken steroids because of these types of sources of information, but in our hearts we will always know that both of these men took them.  Assuredly, just as Barry took steroids, Lance Armstrong did take EPO, and in my opinion that should not diminish his record seven Tour De France titles.  What Lance did on a bicycle is equal to or even greater than what Babe Ruth did with a bat.  His record  seven wins may stand forever in the cycling world.  And while taking EPO is risky, almost every cycler who is competitive has taken EPO or other designer steroids at sometime during their career.  Armstrong is no exception.  Did he take EPO from 1999-2005, no one knows for sure, but like Barry, Lance can say he has never tested positive for anything.  That should count for something.  Lance repeat after me, "I am the best cyclist to ever live.  I was paid lots of money for riding a bike, date beautiful women, and now get paid huge appearance and endorsement fees.   I will not stress out about steroid allegations that will never be proven.  I beat cancer and gosh darn it, I should be glad that I am alive!"

Larry Brown is out and Isiah Thomas is in as the coach of the New York Knicks.  Dolan is an ####.  Isiah has single-handedly destroyed the Knicks franchise.  He brought in two guards who are not compatible, over paid, and then fired a legend so that he could coach again.  Honestly, if you wanted to coach that badly, you should have just stepped up to the plate and hired yourself last season.   Why bring in Brown for 10 million a year only to fire the guy at the end of the season.  Brown will land on his feet somewhere, Sacramento, and the Knicks are going to pay through the nose for firing him.  Don’t think you will be able to avoid a huge buyout on his contract because of his roadside interviews because any judge or arbitrator will rule in Brown’s favor.    I for one think Brown is one of the top three coaches in the NBA and the Knicks organization fired the wrong guy.  The only positive for Thomas is that the Knicks only won 23 games so anything he does will look better next year which just might give Isiah one more year.   Larry repeat after me, "I have an NBA championship ring, a college championship ring, and one of the best records in all of basketball.  I am glad to be out of NY and I don't know what possessed me to go there in the first place, (10 Million reasons).  I will coach again and when I do it will not be with three of the biggest egos in the NBA, Marbury, Francis, and Thomas.   Gosh darnit, I married well and have enough money that I should enjoy life without all the hassles.  Watch out Hubie!"

SoCalSportsFan

(On a side note, I find it very difficult not to type Isiah as Isaiah, which is the traditional spelling for that name.)