Only Isiah Thomas can screw up his own re-hiring

LeBron James will not be playing for the home team at Madison Square Garden this season. Neither will Dwyane Wade, nor even Joe Johnson. Still, the Knicks did manage to make two moves this offseason that turned heads in the NBA.

The first transaction, signing forward Amar’e Stoudemire, was a backup plan necessary move for the Knicks as they try to propel themselves back to basketball relevance. It was the second act that was superfluous and, well, head-scratchingly stupid.

But like it or not, Isiah’s back.

Or so we thought. Leave it up to Isiah Thomas to mess up his own hiring, creating a PR disaster for the Knicks before he even had a chance to set foot back in the MSG executive offices.

Yes, that Isiah. Isiah Thomas. When those two words are uttered in a sentence to Knicks fans, no matter what the context, there is an involuntary gag reflex that resonates throughout their body. (Believe me, just writing his name three times like that was not easy to do. I just ate!)

According to ESPN.com, Thomas would have been serving as a consultant to Knicks president Donnie Walsh. Walsh, for his part, was none too thrilled with the move.

When the Knicks finally got rid of Thomas after the 2008 season concluded, it was celebrated as the purging of a poison, and a fresh start for the franchise. However, somewhere in between Mike D’Antoni — Thomas’ replacement as coach — getting hired and the Knicks missing out on James and his coveted cohorts this summer, Knicks president James Dolan decided it would a good idea to bring Thomas back on board.

Want awful personnel decisions made on an everyday basis? Want an embarrassing sexual harassment scandal to distract the team from trying to win basketball games? How about all of the above? The Knicks and Thomas just can’t get enough.

Maybe it is a match made in heaven: basketball’s richest and most puzzling franchise teaming up with one of the NBA’s greatest players and shadiest personalities. The longer the Knicks try to run their organization like a circus the longer it will be before they are taken seriously.

Ten years ago, it would be hard to imagine a player like James not being lured to New York to continue his career. The Knicks were a perennial Eastern Conference power throughout the 1990’s with one of the most loyal fan bases in all of sports. They had just come off a surprise Finals appearance in 1999, where they gave the Spurs a run for their money before San Antonio won the first of several titles. Besides, it was Madison Square Garden and the Big Apple, where stars just naturally shone brighter.

Since then, the Knicks have had exactly one playoff game win. Stephon Marbury came in weird, and left even weirder. Zach Randolph came and left equally grumpily. Eddy Curry and his gigantic contract put a nearly irreparable burden on the franchise. And Thomas did his delinquent thing, and did it well.

It’s no wonder the NBA’s best and brightest players want no part of the Garden, the once-venerable building rendered little more than a ruin. As long as Thomas remains in some capacity with the Knicks, the shadow that has lingered over them for the past decade will persist.

One needs to look no further than Thomas’ final year in New York to see just how low he sunk while with the Knicks. After a season of “listless and dreadful basketball, a tawdry lawsuit and unending chants from fans demanding his dismissal”, Isiah was told not to let the Garden door hit him in the rear on his way out. Rehiring somebody after that is beyond inexplicable. Yet somehow, the Knicks think attempting to rehire him is how to build a winner.

And the Knicks wonder why players like James and Wade won’t consider playing in New York.

Here’s to another season of rebuilding in midtown Manhattan. Hey, maybe now even Marbury will come back to run the point and team up with Stoudemire. At this point, as crazy as it may sound, it is probably common sense for the Knickerbockers.