The New New York Knicks

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Sanders alleged that after formally complaining to M.S.G. about Thomas' behavior, she was fired by C.E.O. James Dolan, a bullying lout who claimed she had interfered with the team's internal investigation. A federal jury found for Sanders, and ordered Dolan to pay $3 million for the retaliation. Equally appalling were the sordid revelations about Knicks players. Point guard Stephon Marbury—who'll "earn" about $22 million this season—was forced to admit to a sexual encounter with a 22-year-old intern. Marbury recounted how he had lured the college student into his car after an outing to a strip club with the memorable line: "Are you going to get in the truck."

She answered, "Yes."
    
"It wasn't really a conversation," Marbury said.

The decline of the Knicks began in earnest 10 years ago when then general manager Ernie Grunfeld swapped the sturdy but ancient power forward Charles Oakley to Toronto for young, brittle Marcus Camby. This was the kind of trade the Knicks should have been making to maintain or improve their level of talent while trying to keep the team as young as possible.

But coach Jeff Van Gundy didn't like giving up a veteran like Oakley for the inexperience of Camby.

"That deal played a huge role in Grunfeld ultimately being fired," says N.B.A. writer Ian Thomsen, "and set a new stupid standard for future G.M.'s Scott Layden and Isiah Thomas—to win now or else."  
    
Thomas joined the Knicks in December 2003 following three seasons as coach of the Indiana Pacers, a team he took to the playoffs three times. In New York, he embarked on a frenzy of trading and deal-making that made the Knicks only worse. In N.B.A. parlance, the players he acquired were just good enough to lose with.

 Among Thomas' most questionable moves was the 2005 trade of two first-round draft picks—both of which turned out to be lottery selections—for Eddy Curry, a low-post center whose aversion to defense and rebounding borders on phobia.

Last year Thomas made a bigger splash by swapping for power forward Zach Randolph, another D-challenged shooter vying for space on the low-block. Unfortunately, Curry and Randolph—who will make $9.7 million and $14.7 million, respectively, in 2008-09—"can't co-exist on the same floor," says Knicks broadcaster Mike Breen. "They're deeply defective big men who don't defend."

It's not that Thomas is a poor judge of talent. "Isiah has drafted good players along the way," says Jack McCallum, author of the recent Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns.

"But he has the fatal flaw of hubris: 'I can get any bunch of players to play for me. I can rescue anyone's career. Chemistry doesn't matter if I'm the coach.'"

That's how he wound up with the combustible combo of Marbury, Randolph, and Curry.
    
Thomas was just trying to satisfy the deep-pocketed Dolan's impossible-to-satisfy demands, which essentially involved mortgaging and frittering away the long-term future of the franchise in order to win immediately. It's difficult to make prudent decisions when you're under orders to win by throwing excessive money at players in a league with a hard luxury tax.
    
Thomas took over as coach during the summer of 2006. Dolan had fired the near-mythic Larry Brown after a single season with four years and $40 million left on his contract. (Brown settled for $18.5 million). Though the team continued to sputter, Thomas was handed a multiyear contract extension with a caveat: He had one season to show dramatic improvement.

He didn't. "The team would stop opponents for the first 43 minutes and get run over in the last five," observes John Starks, a onetime Knicks guard. "If players fall behind like that continually, it deflates them and the losing mindset becomes habit."
    
The strength of the current team is the perception that at last, Dolan seems ready to turn things around. He hired Donnie Walsh, a proven G.M. who is the anti-Isiah: Not flashy, stays behind the scenes, widely respected. He hired a coach considered a different animal in the N.B.A., a stick-to-his-principles-come-hell-or-high-water fast-break guy. D'Antoni is respected, too, and he'll probably set a world record for clever rejoinders to the New York press.

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