Former Knicks center Dikembe Mutombo couldn’t say enough nice things about owner James Dolan and Garden prez Steve Mills as they supported his attempts to build more hospitals in Africa.
But when the subject turned to Isiah Thomas, Mutombo stopped in his tracks.
“I have nothing to say about Isiah,” Mutombo told The Post in a telephone interview yesterday. “I don’t want to discuss him. What am I going to say? We haven’t even had a conversation.”
Last Thursday’s finalized Jamal Crawford trade ended a cool relationship between Mutombo and Thomas, who began shopping the 7-2 shotblocker soon after taking over for Scott Layden Dec. 23.
Thomas was unable to move the Layden acquisition at the trading deadline but instead dealt for center Nazr Mohammed to supplant Mutombo as the Knicks’ starting pivot. Thomas felt Mutombo was too old and slow to be a big part of his retooled Knicks.
“It’s very sad. I’m very sad to leave the city of New York,” Mutombo said. “I built a personal relationship with Steve Mills and James Dolan, not just on the basketball court but off it.”
Mutombo, who returned from a family vacation to the south of France Tuesday, is unsure he wants to play for the rebuilding Bulls but won’t retire. He planned to speak to his agent David Falk last night about their strategy. Falk likely will try to force a trade to the Rockets.
“I still feel I have three, four years left in me,” said Mutombo, 38. “A lot of GMs want me on their team. It’s not like Mutombo’s done. My age has nothing to do with what I want to accomplish. I know what it takes to win and that’s one of the things left is winning a championship.”
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Report out of Minnesota stated T’Wolves have shopped Long Island’s Wally Szczerbiak to Knicks for Kurt Thomas. Problem is Knicks need big men . . . Nets plan to announce Ron Mercer signing today.