'Imminent' is a vague word
Merriam-Webster defines it as such: ready to take place; especially : hanging threateningly over one's head; He was in imminent danger of being run over.
(Please, I encourage you to find the irony in the example sentence).
Fixers, we use imminent sometimes to report something that we feel may happen at any moment. It also, however, is used to suggest something may happen between now and when the Book of Revelations come to pass. Or when Isiah Thomas is finally asked to clean out his desk at MSG.
For now I can tell you that Donnie Walsh stayed back in Indianapolis while the Pacers flew to Jersey for tonight's game against the Nets. Larry Bird didn't make the trip, either.
My hunch is this thing won't be officially official until after the season ends. Just a hunch. Of course no one expected the Pacers to annouce anything about Larry Bird's future until after the season, too. The media has a way of forcing things to happen sooner than planned, but I don't expect James Dolan is the type to change his schedule according to media pressure.
Case in point, as some of you Fixers have mentioned in your posts: Larry Brown. That soap opera played out well into the offseason despite countless reports that Brown was on his way out and Brown even calling himself a "dead man walking."
What is it with death and the Knicks job? Isiah also referenced death when he said, "I fight to the death and when I say death I mean die" while talking about his job status.
Both men will rest in peace on a nice soft bed of Cablevision money.
Sure there is reason to believe Isiah might be kept for one more season with Donnie at the helm -- then Dolan can leave it to Donnie to fire him -- but that's mostly fueled by the idea that Dolan is very loyal to Isiah and does not want to cut him loose. If this is the case, then the Knicks are more screwed than anyone has ever imagined.
But let's not debate that now until we know the facts or at least know something more concrete. One step at a time. The guy hasn't even been hired yet...yet.
Remember, Mike Fratello was supposedly a given until the bottom dropped out. It has happened elsewhere, too. Bill Belichick and the Jets comes to mind. Perhaps Walsh is holding out because Dolan wants him to keep Isiah and Donnie doesn't? We don't know.
For now, it appears this is close enough to say imminent. But the vague definition of imminent. Like how death is always imminent. (There's that word again). Or a Jerome James injury is imminent.
If you're looking for a target date, let me suggest May 20th as perhaps the first day Walsh represents the Knicks in a public capacity. That is the day of the NBA draft lottery. If David Stern's optimism suggests anything, perhaps there will be a few weighted ping pong balls in the machine, with a magnet on the Knicks ball.
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Comments (3)
A little Housekeeping...
Trane, I was thinking of you the other night during the Nets game. I think we can safely expand the Knicks Elixer Effect to include players getting well after returning from injury. Here's to you, Nenad Krstic, for your season high in points and playing like Naismith himself, in your return from ACL surgery. The magical fountain of youth and potency again which is a date with the Knicks will always be there.
Good News, Donnie Walsh is reported to be bringing in Michael Jordan to oversee all player acquisitions and development. Can't wait for the Kwame / Curry / Randolph Triple Towers.
In a story on one of the good guys who was able to get out of MSG alive, Motumbo recalls Zeke:
After one season with New York in 2003-04, Mutombo was told by then-general manager and now head coach of the Knicks Isiah Thomas that the day had come, and that blunt message has driven him for the past four years.
Wounded by Thomas
"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.
"I think it helped me a lot. You might not be appreciated by everyone. But you have to fight your own war."
The Knicks traded his rights to Chicago in August 2004 and one month later he came to the Rockets, where he quickly became beloved.
Mutombo clearly demonstrated that he is man, a big man with a heart and has class.
Something that Izuk Thomas will never understand and will never be one.
If you go back in history, The Septic One has belittled, stepped on, and back stabbed so many people, players, coaches, GMs, trainers, etc...
Znake must be placed in front of the Dolan/Stern 'fireing' squad.
All together now:
- preparen;
- apunten;
- FUEGO!!!