So, with new GM Donnie Walsh in place, the next step for the Knicks will be deciding on the fate of coach Isiah Tho…
Wait, what? Donnie Walsh isn’t the Knicks GM?
But ESPN said it was a done deal, that Walsh had already agreed to a contract (three years and $15 million, they said).
You guys already know about that, right? After all, ESPN had it on their scorecrawl thing, had it on “SportsCenter,” ESPN News, gave it the full multi-platform treatment. And I even wrote about it yesterday.
Well, actually, I wrote about how ESPN was reporting something that nobody else was reporting, which seemed strange. And even stranger, there was no actual person reporting it, just “ESPN.”
Well, today things are exactly the same. Donnie Walsh hasn’t accepted a job with the Knicks.
OK, one thing did change: ESPN has dropped any mention of it. Their original story is still online, but the same story that was driving traffic for them one day earlier is now, curiously, not even mentioned on their NBA home page. I took this screen shot (above) around noon, and maybe it’s just me, but the Donnie Walsh story appears to have disappeared completely…
So maybe he’s not going to the Knicks anymore? Hey, that would be news for sure. ESPN would be all over that.
And isn’t it news either way right now? Surely something is happening, one way or the other.
• Let’s raise a glass of warm milk for Dikembe Mutombo, who will be honored tonight in Houston. It was supposed to be a retirement party, but now it doesn’t look like Deke’s retiring, which is great news for…pretty much everyone, everywhere. Except for maybe Isiah Thomas, because Deke is still holding a grudge against him for telling him he couldn’t play anymore. Deke’s wife urged him to let it go, and Deke says he has, but after reading his quotes, well, maybe not so much…
“It’s still a wound,” Mutombo said. “My wife and I still talk about it. It’s still a bit sad to see the commissioner coming and all those people coming to celebrate the 17 years of my career and accomplishments and you look back and say that about (four) years ago, I had a guy tell me that I couldn’t play basketball no more, to go to the beach and onto vacation. That’s the same guy who’s losing his job tomorrow.
“I never said nothing (to Thomas),” Mutombo said. “The last time we played at the Garden (Jan. 9), my wife asked me to go shake his hand, to just forgive him. I went and shook his hand and I told him, ‘On behalf of my wife, I want to shake your hand and I forgive you for everything you’ve done to me.'”
“He said, ‘Tell your wife I said thank you so much.’ That was the way to put it behind me.”
But if he’s still talking about it, it isn’t really behind him, is it?
• Anyone catch that play in the second quarter of Hawks/Bulls last night when Drew Gooden got pegged in the face with the ball? Where’s odenized.com when we need it?
• Two TV shows worth watching: “The Hills” and my new favorite show, “Beauty And The Geek.” “The Hills” is the same as it ever was, but it’s still unintentionally hilarious. And “Beauty And The Geek” is one of the more underrated shows on TV. My man Jim is incredible to watch. Give it a shot.
• League Pass becomes worth the cost tonight with Hornets at Cavs, at the early tip time of 7:00 p.m. ESPN has Phoenix at Boston, which should be good, too, but Bron vs. CP3? Unmissable if you’re a basketball fan.
• Great Shaq interview today in the Boston Globe.
• And while I was on the Shaq story, I found this: A few years ago I read that book “Bringing Down The House,” about the card-counters from MIT who go out to Vegas and start raking it in. This weekend a movie drops based on the book, and today’s Boston Globe has an interview with Jane Willis, the woman who was featured in the book as the main guy’s sidekick. She has many vivid memories of her time making bank, including this…
“That’s when there was a lot action going around. After the Tyson-Holyfield fight, shots were fired and there was pandemonium in the casino. Security cameras caught [NBA star] Dominique Wilkins picking up chips off the floor.”
Hey, I’d be picking them up, too.
