Isiah Thomas era: Legal issues
Along with Thomas’ inability to accurately assess and compensate talent as President and his poor performance as Coach of the Knicks, poor personal choices completed the trifecta.
On January 25, 2006, Anucha Browne Sanders filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Isiah Thomas in which James Dolan and Madison Square Garden were also defendants. Although Thomas and Dolan both denied any wrongdoing, the courts didn’t agree and awarded Anucha damages amounting to $11.6 million.
The years of bad contracts, losing records and the revolving-door of coaches was bad enough, but at least those things were limited to basketball ineptitude. The lawsuit only served to make even deeper and more unforgivable to depths the Knicks’ organization had sunk to under James Dolan’s oversight.
It’s safe to say that a savvy owner would want to keep that situation in the past after Thomas moved on from the Knicks’ organization. But at this point, we know there’s simply no rationale under which the word “savvy” can be used to describe Dolan’s ownership of the Knicks. Dolan dug the body out of his own closet not once but twice in the years after the lawsuit was settled.
Isiah Thomas, Knicks’ almost consultant
First, in 2010, Team President Donny Walsh refused Dolan’s request to make Thomas the Knicks’ General Manager so Dolan tried to bring him on as a consultant instead. The position would only serve to formalize a situation that was already a reality as Dolan regularly sought Thomas’ advice.
Lawsuit aside, Thomas had not done more than a mediocre job as Knick’s Head Coach and had made bad decision after bad decision as President. But sure, why not bring him back as GM? Maybe, Dolan had Thomas’ record as a player in the NBA confused with is record as a coach and executive.
Thomas would end up backing out of the consulting contract because of the conflict created by his college coaching position.
Then in 2015 Dolan hired Thomas as President of the WNBA’s New York Liberty. I mean, of course, a guy who was on the losing end of a sexual harassment lawsuit is the perfect pick to be the President of a women’s basketball team. That’s not ill-advised or insensitive at all. And who would possibly care?
Thomas’ tenure with the Liberty ended in February of 2019 when Dolan sold the team.
So many things were so wrong on so many different fronts during Thomas’ time with the New York Knicks, it was a challenge just trying to put it all together in a way that would make sense. I can only imagine how mind-blowingly irritating it must have been to be a fan of the Knicks at the time.
Here, I’ve covered the Thomas era in pretty broad strokes but just this section of the Knicks’ history could have produced a three-part series all on its own. For me though, it’s time to move on.
Stay tuned for part three.