Isiah Thomas: Move Over Larry, I'm in Charge [J. Mark English]

Howard Beck, New York Times -

Larry Brown was fired by the Knicks this morning after just one, surprisingly tumultuous season as their head coach. And the team indicated that it did not plan to pay him the more than $40 million left on his contract.

Isiah Thomas, the team's president and general manager, was immediately named as Brown's replacement. James L. Dolan, the chairman of Madison Square Garden, made the decision just before 10 a.m., after a one-hour meeting with Brown, Thomas and Steve Mills, the Garden president.

The decision ends a strange and protracted drama that began in mid-April, when the Knicks concluded their first season under Brown with a 23-59 record, their worst in two decades. It ranked among the worst seasons in Brown's Hall-of-Fame career.

Yet Dolan's disenchantment went far beyond the poor results on the court, and he ultimately fired Brown for a number of other transgressions. The Knicks, contending that Brown violated several provisions of his contract, fired him "for cause," and thus do not intend to pay him the balance of his contract, in excess of $40 million.

Under terms of Brown's contract, a five-year deal, he can appeal the team's decision to withhold his pay. Commissioner David Stern will ultimately decide the issue.

The Knicks hired Brown, with considerable fanfare and optimism, last July. Although they kept expectations modest, team officials figured that Brown, who has won both an N.C.A.A. and N.B.A. championship, would reverse a half decade of failure. Instead, Brown exacerbated the franchise's misery, losing games by the dozen, alienating his players and engaging in a public war of words with Stephon Marbury, the team's star point guard.

Dolan wanted specific assurances from Brown that he would change his behavior, both publicly and privately. When Brown wavered, Dolan decided to fire him.

Neither Brown nor any team officials were available for comment. Dolan and Thomas issued a statement expressing their frustration.

"Larry has had a long and storied career," Dolan said in the statement. "We hired him last summer with the expectation that he would be with the Knicks for a long time. Sometimes, decisions work and sometimes they don't. After careful consideration, despite the best intentions from everyone involved, this current structure did not work for us last season and I did not think it was going to improve next season. I have great personal admiration for Larry, but have concluded that it is best for our franchise if we make this change."

Thomas, who assembled the Knicks' unwieldy roster over the last two and a half years, becomes the Knicks' fifth coach since January 2004. He previously coached the Indiana Pacers from 2000-03, compiling a 131-115 record.