The New York Times-20080124-Thomas Has No Comment On Brown-s Spying Charge

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Thomas Has No Comment On Brown's Spying Charge

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Larry Brown crept ever so slightly back into the Knicks' consciousness this week with a mildly provocative two-sentence quotation that hinted at the franchise's paranoid culture.

Brown told Philadelphia magazine that he was spied on by Knicks staffers during his disastrous 23-59 run as coach in 2005-6. He said Madison Square Garden was inhospitable.

When the comments were relayed Wednesday to Isiah Thomas -- whose tensions with Brown hastened his dismissal -- Thomas responded with predictable restraint. He ignored Brown's grievances, praised Brown's achievements and said nothing that could upset team ownership and thus put him in the same spot that Brown was in two years ago.

I think with Coach, he had a great career and we respect him, Thomas, the Knicks' coach and team president, said of Brown. And things just didn't work out.

That was about as forthcoming as Thomas was willing to be. Following the lead of the team's public-relations department, Thomas declined to address the spying accusations. Asked if he ever felt spied on, Thomas said, simply, No.

As Thomas spoke, a public-relations official stood a few feet to his left, monitoring every word, standard Garden policy.

Since replacing Brown on the bench -- at the order of the Garden chairman, James L. Dolan -- Thomas has carefully adhered to company strictures. He rarely criticizes his players in public. He conducts interviews only in the presence of a public-relations official. He rarely strays from Garden talking points.

But in recent months, Thomas has become much more like Brown than he would probably care to admit. The Knicks reached the season's mathematical midpoint with a 13-28 record, one win fewer than Brown had at the same point two years ago. That, however, is only the most obvious similarity.

In his day-to-day actions, Thomas has nearly mimicked Brown, whom he once viewed as a mentor.

Thomas and Brown alienated point guard Stephon Marbury (although Thomas, unlike Brown, refrained from trading insults publicly). Marbury cut short his season under Brown, missing the final 11 games because of a sore knee. Marbury could miss the rest of this season after having ankle surgery -- a decision that Thomas said was Marbury's alone.

Brown changed his starting lineup with almost comical frequency and set an N.B.A. record with 42 combinations. Thomas has used only 12 lineups so far, but he too has made some curious choices.

Brown, harking back to his collegiate days, made a habit of starting players in their hometowns. Trevor Ariza started a game in Los Angeles. David Lee -- born in St. Louis -- started a game in Orlando, because he played at the University of Florida.

Thomas's moves, while not quite as unusual, have similarly sown confusion in the locker room.

Mardy Collins -- who is regarded as neither a point guard nor a starter -- started at point guard when Thomas benched Marbury in mid-November. Collins has hardly played since, even with Marbury out of action.

Last season, Thomas started Jerome James -- the plodding backup center -- for 10 straight games at power forward. Thomas said the team needed James's defense. James averaged 6.5 minutes during that 10-game run.

Under Brown, the Knicks won six straight games when Lee became a starter; two weeks later, Lee fell out of the regular rotation. Thomas spent last summer promoting Nate Robinson as his sixth man; for three weeks in December, Robinson fell out of the regular rotation.

Brown buried Ariza -- an energetic, athletic young swingman -- on the bench for unknown reasons. Thomas buried Renaldo Balkman -- an energetic, athletic young swingman -- on the bench for unknown reasons.

Occasionally, Thomas has even sounded like Brown. Brown once bemoaned Marbury's deficiencies (without naming him) by saying, We don't recognize changed defenses, time and score -- the responsibilities of a point guard. When Thomas benched Marbury in November, he said he needed a point guard who would understand the bonus situation, understand time, clock, shot-clock management, game situation, foul situation, timeout situation.

When Dolan fired Brown in June 2006, he said it was for cause and accused Brown of various transgressions -- including attempts to negotiate trades without authorization. So far, Thomas has not attempted to make a deal behind his own back.

The Knicks initially withheld the $41 million owed to Brown, but later paid him $18.5 million in an arbitration settlement.

Some day, Thomas will probably be fired, too. Thomas could be the next one fighting to claim the money left on his contract. In that regard, he seems to have learned from Brown's mistakes.

When reporters pressed Thomas about Brown's recent comments Wednesday, Thomas stuck to the Garden script.

I don't think we need to revisit any of that, he said.

REBOUNDS

Mockery of the Knicks is not confined to New York. Mike Dunleavy, the coach of the struggling Los Angeles Clippers, cited the Knicks as an example of how not to build a team. I would only make deals to help our future -- anything else is suicide, Dunleavy told Los Angeles reporters. Anything else, and you become the New York Knicks. Now if you want to do that and take on big contracts and long-term deals to potentially hit a home run or get some kind of turnaround, that's not the direction I would go as a businessman or if I owned the team.