By Geoff Walter / SNY.tv

 

As anyone who is a fairly consistent reader of this column can attest, I am not a fan of Isiah Thomas. Yes, last season he did better Larry Brown's miserable record from the previous year, but Thomas has not gotten the intense production needed to win games consistently, much less get the Knicks to the playoffs at any time in his three-years plus as general manager. At least when Thomas took over Brown's duties as head coach, the focus was, for the time being, off their public feud and on the court where it belonged. Now the focus is not only off the court, but in the courtroom, and the responsibility largely rests on Thomas' shoulders again.

 

I personally cannot believe that this sexual harassment case hasn't been settled already. Don't the Knicks, much less the NBA, have enough black eyes and negative publicity already? Let's just take a step back for a moment and look at this situation objectively. There was chaos when Brown and Isiah were both in the employ of the Knicks -- the team was a laughingstock. Brown is long gone, having (quietly) settled his contract disputes out of court, yet there's another lawsuit against the Garden & Co., and the team is playing only marginally better. The only thing that changed was Brown's payroll status. Isiah is still there, and so is Stephon Marbury, one of the star witnesses and an alleged perpetrator himself. Let us not forget too, that the other tenants of the Garden, the Rangers, have had their own troubles in this area of late.

 

Maybe the problem wasn't with Brown. Maybe it was someone else who's still there. As both president of the team and its head coach, Thomas wields a ton of power and has been unchecked since Brown's departure. He's also been endorsed by owner James Dolan via a new multi-year deal. Power unchecked can let its wielder run wild, much like weeds in a garden. Sexual harassment can be one of the results of such abuse. Maybe now it will finally be time to clean out the Garden, at whatever the cost.

 

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