The Donnie Walsh Bait & Switch

The New York Daily News has reporters following Donnie Walsh around like pararazzi chasing a panty-less Britney Spears.

He's considering leaving the Pacers, they say... He doesn't like sharing responsibility with Larry Bird... Bird doesn't think the power-sharing arrangement in Indiana is working either.

Yadda yadda yadda.

And today, via ESPN.com, we have the kicker. Bird isn't sure he'll be back as Pacers president next season.

Doesn't this all seem a bit strange?

If Walsh is leaving, why would Bird be leaving too? Unless all this talk with the Knicks is simply Walsh's way of saying "you can have Larry Legend... or you can have me. Oh, and FYI... when I was running the show, we were actually pretty good."

Like maybe... just maybe... ol' Donnie Walsh is using an extended flirtation with Jim Dolan to drive out a rival and win back control of the Pacers.

Marbury to Drop Dime?

Stephon Marbury has dished out 6,317 assists in his thirteen-and-change NBA seasons. But it sounds like the next dime he drops could prove to be the most significant.

For those who have been living under a rock for the last 24 hours and/or those who get all their sports news from this blog (bless your little hearts) I'll re-set the scene:

At some point during the Knicks' charter flight to Phoenix, Isiah Thomas revealed that Marbury and Eddy Curry would be pulled from the starting lineup for Tuesday's game against the Suns.

(It's unclear what Zeke's motivation was... he might have been attempting to light a fire under his team by benching two of the biggest names he's acquired for the Knicks. Or he might have been playing matchups, thinking that Mardy Collins and David Lee would have a better chance of slowing Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire. But that's a basketball discussion, and basketball has remarkably little to do with what's going on with the New York Knicks.)

Marbury was... nonplussed by the news, and reportedly responded by saying:

"Isiah has to start me. I've got so much (stuff) on Isiah and he knows it. He thinks he can (get) me. But I'll (get) him first. You have no idea what I know."

Read the whole sordid tale in today's New York Daily News.

Now, here's where the story gets interesting... I'm certainly not a Madison Square Garden insider, but I have an idea what Steph might know. After all:

• Marbury was a defense witness in the sexual harassment suit filed by Anucha Browne Sanders against Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden
• He testified in open court to having sex in a car with a Knicks intern. The intern also testified that the sex was consensual... though it is worth noting that she also received a nice promotion from the MSG organization
  
• Several of Marbury's family members also work at The Garden and played roles in the Browne Sanders trial

In other words, Steph is in a position to know about -- and to air out -- a lot of really filthy laundry relating to a case that has already cost Jimmy Dolan $11 million bucks. He almost certainly has information that could be damaging to Dolan's pending appeal of that award -- and might even know that Thomas or Dolan or others weren't 100% forthcoming at the trial.

Could we be looking at perjury charges on top of the lawsuit?

Would that be the final straw that would inspire David Stern to intervene, as he did with the Cavaliers under Ted Stepien's ownership?

But wait, there's more.

Marbury was also reportedly responsible for running several prominent members of the Knick organization -- from Larry Brown to Keith Van Horn to Steve Francis -- out of town. Though revelations of that nature probably wouldn't pack the same legal punch, they probably aren't the sorts of details that Dolan and Thomas would prefer to see in Mike Lupica's column.

Conspiracy theorists take note... maybe this is the reason Thomas has repeatedly said Marbury will be welcomed back if and when he returns to the team. Maybe he can't afford not to.

And maybe, just maybe, the next dime Marbury drops will be the one that brings down the entire Knick organization.

Knicks Knation

The New York Daily News -- my newspaper of choice for all things Knicks (and Nets, and Yankees, Jets... etc.) has launched a new Knicks blog, written by beat writer Frank Isola. Check out his first post, which offers a succinct and unique insider's perspective on the decline and fall of the Larry Brown era.

It's easy, at this point, to look at the Dolan/Thomas/Brown relationship as doomed from the start, and to explain last year's 23-win season as the product of a brutal power struggle between coach and GM. The problem is, Knick fans want someone to blame.

Some blame Brown, and have wildly optimistic views on the 2006-07 season.

Some blame Thomas, and can't wait for the axe to fall.

Some, like our MySpace buddy Sell the Knicks, lay all the blame at Jim Dolan's feet.

Me? I look at it this way:

Let's say you own a fish tank. You see five really pretty fish at the pet store, buy them, and put them in your tank. One by one, they die... one of them is a salt-water fish, and you have a fresh water tank. One of them is a predator. One of them needs higher water temperature. The one thing they have in common is that they're totally incompatible.

So who's to blame?

Not the fish. The nimrod who put 'em all in the same tank.

So if you want an explanation of the Three Mile Island caliber 23-win meltdown of the Knicks, riddle me this: who made the decision to hire Larry Brown to coach Stephon Marbury just weeks after Brown tried to have Marbury cut from the Olympic team?

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Larry Brown and Jalen Rose now join the ever-expanding list of people who are being paid millions of dollars not to work for the New York Knicks. The buyout of Brown's contract was reportedly finalized yesterday for somewhere north of $30 million. Rose's buyout is probably worth around $15 million.

So how much are the Knicks paying people to stay away?

• Larry Brown: ~$30 million (possibly as much as $52, but unlike James Dolan, we'll be conservative with the money)
• Jalen Rose: $15 million
• Maurice Taylor: ~$9 million
• Allan Houston: $20 million
• Jerome Williams: $6 million
• Shandon Anderson: $8 million

For those keeping score, that's $88 million dollars Cablevision is paying out so those six guys won't be associated with the Knicks.

Attention Mr. Dolan -- I don't work for the Knicks. How do I hitch a ride on this gravy train? I guarantee, I'll come even cheaper than the junkyard dog. Give me $500k, and I won't show up for a single practice.

Potentially, the best Knicks news in a LOOOOONG time

You'll need an MBA to really decipher most of what's going on in this story from Blogging Stocks. Here's the "I was an English major" summary:

• The Dolans are trying buy up shares of Cablevision and make the company private.
• Some shareholders and other financial-analyst types think the current shareholders might get a better deal by splitting up the company assets -- like, say, the Knicks -- and selling each to the highest bidder.
• There's also conjecture that Time Warner's cable division could get involved.

What does all this mean? Possibly nothing. The Dolan family has a huge controlling interest in the company, and they're unlikely to give that up without a great deal of kicking and screaming. But, for the first time in forever, it does seem like a real possibility. And ask any Knick fan -- like my man "Sell the Knicks" -- Isiah Thomas has been bad, but the root of the Knicks' problems is in the executive suite.