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Up Yours, Isiah

Posted by Kevin Arnovitz on Thu, 10/19/06, 02:37pm:

Category: General

Apparently, Isiah went apeshit on Greg Anthony because the latter had the audacity to voice skepticism when the Knicks drafted South Carolina's Renaldo Balkman in the first round:

"Greg Anthony, this so-called former Knick who - with millions of people watching - had the audacity to take me to task on a player that I'm sure he'd never seen before in his life. I'm just glad all of New York doesn't think like Greg Anthony," Thomas said of the ESPN analyst, unavailable for comment.

"The things that he said on draft night . . . I thought he was way, way, way out of bounds. Greg Anthony should never ever be in a position to question myself on anything about basketball, because I do remember the kind of player he was. I'd love to speak to him. I'd love to see him. I thought he was very unfair."

This is a classic corollary of the Joe Morgan/Former Fuckwit Athlete School of Logic. To this day, Morgan refuses even to consider, much less read, Moneyball on the grounds that Michael Lewis never played competitive baseball. Likewise, Greg Anthony has no right to critique Thomas' draft choice (never mind that this is exactly what ESPN pays him to do) because...because the guy was merely a journeyman role player? Look, Anthony may be a douchebag of the highest order, but it's not because he believes that the New York Knicks can't refrain from sticking the fork in the toaster time and time again.

Now, is Anthony out of line because he never saw Balkman play in college?

Well, I froze my ass off watching Balkman play three games in three days up in Anchorage last Thanksgiving (and there was no Isiah Thomas sighting, by the way). You know what? I can offer eyewitness testimony that Renaldo Balkman has no idea where the fuck he's supposed to be on the court at a given moment. He's undersized up front, has no perimeter or even mid-range game, is sloppy with the ball and has a slightly above average defensive game that's not nearly enough to offset aforementioned deficiencies.

But forget about that for a sec. Bottom line, Isiah, is that anyone has the right to question your personnel decisions because a fucking ouija board is capable of assembling a roster that can win 23 games in the Eastern Conference. So who really cares what Greg Anthony's career stat line looks like?

Comments

Steve wrote:

I <b>love</b> this story. I was going to post on it too, but you beat me to it, so I'll just kibitz on your post. I read <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cn...">Marty Burns' account</a> on SI.com, which had a couple more tidbits, like Isiah saying "This is between Greg and I." OK Isiah, I'll ignore the grammar (between Greg and ME, not Greg and I). You said all of this to the MEDIA, and by your own admission have never spoken to Greg Anthony about it. Exactly how is this between you and Greg, other than not at all? Classy as always, Zeke.

I mean, I hate the way they talk during the draft, but they show it LIVE, they have to say something and it takes place in Madison Square F'ing Garden! You draft a guy who's not on anyone's radar - WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THEM TO SAY? They may all be idiots, and Isiah may be smarter (as bad as he has been at trading for talent, he's always done well in the draft) - but just play it cool there, Pony Boy. Best of all, here's Isiah having his "I told you how smart I am" rant AFTER 3 PRE-SEASON GAMES! Oh, well, he's played well in pre-season - I guess that's a good first round pick after all!

And the idea that former players are not allowed to criticize the actions of their teams when they go into the booth is particularly funny. Let's hope Tony Massenburg never becomes an analyst - he's played for every team in the league, and he won't be able to say ANYTHING.

10/19/06 15:24:44