Knicks turn to Thomas

New York fires president Layden after 10-18 start, opts for Isiah

? In a change of leadership that almost no one at Madison Square Garden saw coming, Scott Layden was fired Monday as president of the New York Knicks and was replaced by Isiah Thomas.

The move comes after New York missed the playoffs the past two seasons with a roster largely assembled by Layden. The Knicks are 10-18 this season, and recent speculation centered on coach Don Chaney possibly losing his job.

Instead, the man forced out was Layden, who joined the Knicks in the summer of 1999 after they were coming off an appearance in the NBA Finals.

“I don’t think there’s any question that everybody is underperforming. Just look at our record,” said James Dolan, the chairman of the team’s corporate owner, Cablevision. “This is the thing we could do right now to most help the team. That’s the bottom line of it.”

Thomas has been out of the NBA since being fired over the summer by the Indiana Pacers, where he was the coach for three seasons. He received a phone call Friday from Dolan and Garden president Steve Mills, then spent Saturday meeting with them.

He was introduced at a press conference in the same Garden restaurant where Layden made his first public appearance as the Knicks’ general manager 41/2 years ago.

“We’ve got players and coaches probably a little bit unsure of what’s going on,” Thomas said, “and my job is to come here and calm the waters.”

That could be a tough task after Thomas emphasized in several recent interviews that his desire was to return to coaching. That might not bode well for Chaney, who has been coaching the Knicks throughout their decline into insignificance.

Thomas said everyone in the organization would be evaluated, providing no assurances to anyone. Chaney did not speak to reporters after practice Monday morning.

Isiah Thomas, the new president of the New York Knicks, holds a basketball during a news conference. Scott Layden was fired Monday as president of the Knicks, and Thomas was hired to replace him. Thomas met with the media Monday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Thomas’ first look at his new team will come tonight when former Knick Latrell Sprewell and the Minnesota Timberwolves visit New York.

The task confronting Thomas is a difficult one, whether he tries to tinker with or overhaul an underachieving roster with the league’s highest payroll. The contracts of Allan Houston, Keith Van Horn, Howard Eisley and Shandon Anderson will take up almost all of the team’s salary-cap space for the next three seasons.

Layden’s last major move was the four-team trade that sent Sprewell to Minnesota and brought Van Horn to New York.