Apr 2, 2008 1:38 pm US/Eastern
Knicks Hire Native NYer Donnie Walsh As President
Isiah Thomas' Future Uncertain As Head Coach
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Longtime Indiana Pacers executive Donnie Walsh, will replace Isiah Thomas as Knicks' President.
Ron Hoskins/NBAE/Getty Images
The New York Knicks named native New Yorker Donnie Walsh as the new President, Basketball Operations, today. Walsh, who built the Indiana Pacers into a perennial NBA title contender, said he was excited to be coming home.
Shortly before news of Donnie Walsh's hiring broke, Isiah Thomas was asked if he would have any regrets if his tenure as Knicks coach was ending.
"No, I look back and I look at what we started with and where we're going and I think we have a very bright future," Thomas said Tuesday night.
It will look much brighter Wednesday, when the Knicks turn their basketball operations over to Walsh.
The Knicks announced the hiring of Walsh as their new president at a 1 p.m. news conference at Madison Square Garden.
Walsh, the longtime Indiana Pacers executive, will replace Thomas, who is also the Knicks' coach.
Thomas' future remains unclear. He has repeatedly said he expects to be with the Knicks next season, but that likely will be up to Walsh—who hired Thomas to coach the Pacers in 2000.
The Knicks fell to 20-54 with a 119-115 overtime loss at Milwaukee on Tuesday. They continue their five-game road trip at Memphis on Wednesday.
The 67-year-old Walsh recently announced he was leaving the Pacers after 24 years with the organization. He joined the Pacers' front office as general manager in 1986, became team president in 1988 and CEO in 2003. He helped the franchise rise from NBA laughingstock to title contender.
Indiana reached the Eastern Conference finals six times and won the Central Division four times during Walsh's stay as an executive. The Pacers reached the NBA finals in 2000, when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, and had the league's best record in 2004.
"I've often, when I needed some basketball advice, he's on a short list of people that I pick up the phone and call around the league for just basketball matters," NBA commissioner David Stern said last week. "And he works and works and works."
He'll have plenty of work to do in New York, where the Knicks are finishing their seventh straight losing season and won't be easily fixed, because they have a number of players whose high salaries make them difficult to trade.
The Knicks haven't won a playoff game since Thomas arrived as president in December 2003 and could be headed for the first 60-loss season in franchise history. Still, Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan has remained loyal to Thomas, though he has not spoken to the media since rewarding him with a multiyear contract extension last March.
Now Dolan and the Knicks turn to a native New Yorker who has long been one of the NBA's most respected executives. The Pacers made the playoffs in 16 of the past 18 years, though the past three seasons have been littered with losing, personnel changes and off-the-court problems that have damaged the reputation of the franchise.
Walsh had taken a lesser role by then following the Pacers' hiring of Larry Bird as their president in 2003. When he announced he would leave the team after the season, Walsh said he wouldn't reveal any plans about his future until after the season.
Reports had already surfaced that Dolan had preliminary talks with Walsh. Negotiations moved quickly, with the Knicks apparently not even interviewing anyone else for the job.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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