the wit and wisdom of James Dolan

It may be unfair to bash the Knicks the morning after one of their better recent efforts—though, you know, a win would've been nice—but team chairman James Dolan's comments yesterday (as quoted by Liz Robbins of the N.Y. Times) are nothing short of incredible. It's one thing to give the team's recent struggles a positive spin, but Dolan actually seems to believe, a) that Isiah has a plan and vision, and b) the team is moving in the right direction.

I'll let Dolan speak for himself—though I bolded selected phrases for emphasis:

• "I'm not making a change. I believe in the plan, I believe in the strategy, I believe in the guys who are executing it. Maybe some people think I'm brain dead because of that and the record. But you know what? Time will tell."

• "I believe the best course for the organization right now is to stay the course, not react to the record and — to be honest — to the press and make a knee-jerk move that undermines what we've been thinking for the last year."

• "[Thomas has] come up with a plan on how to build, and he brings to the table a wonderful eye for talent. I think he's doing a fine job. To look for results right now probably isn't fair."

• "[Thomas'] ability to execute — that is what makes me keep my faith."

• "We made some trades. I think [Brown and Thomas are] getting us closer to the goal. The relationship between Isiah and Larry is brand new and now we see a pretty good relationship developing, and that's good for the New York Knicks."

• "I fully expect you all to kill me in the papers, but I'm going to stick with it. And I'm going to stick with it until we stop making progress or until we achieve our goal."

Forget Isiah for a second; I think we've found the real problem with the team. Too bad you can't fire an owner.