PHILADELPHIA – Isiah Thomas should trade the whole damn roster at today’s 3 p.m. deadline, including himself, after the Knicks nauseated all of New York last night in hitting a new low.
Today – we pray – is Thomas’ final trading deadline as chief of the Knicks.
Thomas’ jokers fell behind by a shocking 36 points at halftime to the mediocre Sixers and lost by 40 points, 124-84, in a rock-bottom, sickening showing at Wachovia Center that on its own should warrant his dismissal today at 3:01 p.m.
Interestingly, Garden president Steve Mills is on this Washington-Philadelphia road trip without owner James Dolan, who has not traveled with the team this season and apparently wants to stay as far away from this stink as possible.
With 1:30 left to the nightmare, a handful of Knicks’ fans in the Philadelphia arena began a healthy “Fire Isiah” chant – a sound not heard at the Garden recently from their indifferent fan base.
Talk about bad timing for Thomas, who is trying to shop his players. They all played like zombies in falling behind by 48 points, 103-57, on the opening possession of the fourth.
“Maybe guys minds were elsewhere with the trade deadline coming up,” Thomas said. “We couldn’t make the pass from A to B.”
With Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph getting back on defense at a turtle-slow pace, the Sixers ran off 34 fastbreak points in the half, capitalizing on 17 Knicks turnovers.
Curry, who scored 12 points in 24 minutes but had three turnovers, admitted the speculation of his departure today has worn him out. His Philadelphia-based agent, Leon Rose, was on hand last night to try to calm him.
“Anytime there’s so much talk of relocating, it’s bigger than just a player going to another team,” said Curry, who had his driving layup blocked at Samuel Dalembert at the first-quarter buzzer in one of last night’s lowest moments. “It definitely weighs on people, including myself. It’s a tough thing for me to deal with.”
Said Jamal Crawford, who committed four turnovers, “A lot of people will be at east one way or another Friday.”
The Knicks (16-38) were down 40 1:16 into the second half as the Sixers set season-highs in four categories and an arena high for first-half points in forging ahead by a mind-boggling 72-36 at intermission and a season-high in points.
The Sixers led 37-17 after one quarter, shooting 68 percent. The Sixers posted an incredible 14 first-half steals. With 5:40 left in the half, the lead ballooned to 58-28 after Rodney Carney stole the ball from Quentin Richardson (three turnovers, 1-of-5 from the field).
Asked if he ever considered skipping the meaningless game to head to New York yesterday to join general manager Glen Grunwald in fielding trade calls, the Knicks president/coach smiled, went speechless for more than 10 seconds and did not answer the question.
The trade values of Curry and Randolph have fallen so sharply it would seem difficult to make a major trade involving them that makes sense. You couldn’t trade Curry today for a dozen chocolate-frosted donuts.
*
Though Walt Frazier said on the air the incident showed “a lack of leadership,” Thomas said the Randolph-Nate Robinson water-towel tiff was fine by him, because it resulted in a franchise-record 23 overtime points in the Knicks 113-100 victory.
“Whatever happened, I hope it happens again because we scored 23 points in overtime,” Thomas said, jokingly. “Whatever fire was lit, light it again and keep it going.”
Sixers 124 Knicks 84