Knicks Begin Coaching Search

You could almost say Isiah Thomas left his coaching position with the New York Knicks quietly. I mean after years of frustration in and around the Garden, mostly influenced by Zeke himself, who would have thought that everything would happen rather quickly and actually cleanly so far. But I think I will speak for all New York Knicks fans if I say that Isiah Thomas is the past and it's time to move on (even if he'll likely will stick somehow within the franchise). Newly aquired president of basketball operations Donnie Walsh has started his search for a new coach yesterday. By selecting his first candidate he demonstrated a great deal of something that has been missing for years in the Knicks organization: Class.

Walsh didn't start with some big name from out of town. No, he looked right around the corner of his office and gave the first job interview to long time Knicks assistant coach Herb Williams. The 50-year old owns a spot on New York's bench for five years and has gone through some of the more troublesome times of the organization. He has filled in numerous times as an interim coach, too. Throughout his tenure in New York, earlier in his career as a player and recently as a coach, he has been nothing short of a class act and has always been respected around the league and in the locker room. Even if Walsh doesn't really plan to hire Herb Williams, giving him a chance to interview means paying a guy respect who deserves just that. It's proving that a new culture has arrived at Madison Square Garden where mostly scandals and other ugly stories reigned the newspapers in recent years. Walsh is setting a tone early and you have to like what you see from the new boss in town. The coaching search will continue in the next few days and weeks and it seems like former Knicks point guard and rookie of the year Mark Jackson is a leading candidate for the job. We'll see what happens but just by giving Herb Williams the first interview for the head coaching job Donnie Walsh has already made a great move...