So, Matt Moore from Hardwood Paroxysm sent an eMail to me and Kevin Arnovitz this morning.
We just want you to know that if there's any truth to the Isiah rumors, our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Even though it would be really, really funny.
Seriously, though.
Thoughts and prayers.
Just what I wanted - pity from the other bloggers.
Rather than write 3000 words on the idea of Isiah Thomas being considered for a job with the Clippers, I realized that my feelings were easily enough conveyed by a quick link dump of things I've said in the past about Zeke.
- Dec. 28, 2006 - Isiah and the Knicks
- Nov. 13, 2007 - Who will the Knicks Buy Out Next?
There are myriad other references to my deep, deep loathing of Isiah Thomas, General Manager. Search for 'Isiah' if you want to see them all. The bitter irony is that the most recent reference to 'Isiah' in a Clips Nation story was in the Game Preview of the Celtics game in LA, when Marbury was about to join Boston. I said, no lie, "We got a lot more mileage out of the Isiah Thomas Knicks on this blog. I miss Isiah." I DIDN'T MEAN I WANTED HIM TO JOIN THE CLIPPERS! HELP ME, Flying Spaghetti Monster!
As long as we're in 'Delicious Irony from the Archives' mode, how about this one? According to Chris Sheridan's story on ESPN.com, Sterling's meeting with Isiah was arranged by Mike Dunleavy. Now, I'm not going to say that this proves that MDsr is an evil genius, as some have suggested. But it is... strange, yes? First of all, why does Donald Sterling need anyone else to arrange his meetings? He's an NBA owner - there are only 30 of those (and, truthfully, far fewer when you're talking about one guy owning the club as opposed to an ownership group). He can't get a meeting with Isiah Thomas without MDsr's help? Seriously?
But it was only 14 months ago during the kerfuffle (I'd characterize it as a kerfuffle, although it might have been a flapdoodle, or perhaps even a brouhaha) between MDsr and Sterling that the coach tossed this little nicety to columnist T.J. Simers:
I would only make deals to help our future - anything else is suicide. Anything else and you become the New York Knicks. Now if you want to do that and take on big contracts and long-term deals to potentially hit a home run or get some kind of turnaround, that's not the direction, I would go as a businessman or if I owned the team.
Ouch. Dunleavy had to apologize to Zeke for that one, making up some story about "Oh, I wasn't talking about you - I was talking about Dave Checketts" (hmm, I wonder if Checketts is available).
So flash forward a season, one of Isiah's bad contracts is now MDsr's (let's face it, Zach Randolph is the very definition of 'big contract, potential home run, for some kind of turnaround') and Sterling is meeting with Zeke to ostensibly pair these two together as the Clippers' brain trust. Is the implication that MDsr is 'recommending' Isiah? Is it a joke? Is he trying to make himself look good by comparison?
Is anyone else wondering if somehow ESPN and Bill Simmons are pulling the strings on this whole thing? The Page 2 columns just write themselves if you've got Isiah AND Dunleavy on the Clippers.
It's time now for Citizen Zhiv to explain to us once again his theory: "It can always get worse." We weren't fully prepared to listen before. Now we are.