Isiah Thomas is back in the Knicks orbit.
The Hall of Famer will be appointed to the Knicks board of directors when Madison Square Garden Sports Corporation splits the Knicks and Rangers into two publicly traded companies next month.
The transaction, contingent on approvals by the NBA and NHL, is set to be completed Oct. 26, creating MSG Knickerbockers Corporation (which will own the Knicks and Westchester Knicks) and MSG Rangers Corporation (which will own the Rangers, the MSG training facility and the Hartford Wolf Pack).
It’s a normal board of directors role that answers to shareholders — not a basketball role that would involve him in roster decisions. Members of the board of directors are not employees of the company.
But it rekindles Thomas’ involvement with the Knicks — though he’s long been involved with MSG at large — despite a disastrous tenure as both president and coach.
Thomas served as Knicks president for five seasons, from 2003-04 to 2007-08. After the Knicks fired Larry Brown, Thomas named himself head coach — a position he had for the final two years of that tenure.
The Knicks went 138-237 in the five seasons he was president and 56-108 in the two seasons he was head coach.
He was fired from both positions after the 2007-08 season.
And in the middle of his Knicks tenure, Thomas was accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit by former team executive Anucha Browne Sanders. MSG eventually settled the lawsuit for $11.5 million, though Thomas was not himself found liable for monetary damages.
After Thomas was fired as president and coach, the Knicks intended to bring him back as a consultant. But Thomas took a collegiate job as FIU head coach, and the NBA did not allow him to work for both FIU and the Knicks.
Thomas maintained a relationship and influence with Knicks owner James Dolan, however. In 2010, he was part of the Knicks’ failed pursuit of LeBron James, attending a meeting between the two sides in Cleveland.
That same offseason, the Knicks publicly credited Thomas for his role in helping the team sign Amar’e Stoudemire.
A year later in 2011, former NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Thomas played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role in the decision to trade for Carmelo Anthony, though the Knicks denied it.
And Dolan, in 2015, hired Thomas as president of the WNBA’s Liberty, which Dolan owned at the time. He served in the post until 2019, when Dolan sold the Liberty to Joseph Tsai.
Since 2020, Thomas has been on the Sphere’s (Sphere Entertainment) board of directors. The Sphere is owned by Dolan.
Former Knicks president Steve Mills, who was serving on the MSG Sports Corporation board of directors, will transition to the MSG Rangers Corporation board of directors. Mills served as Knicks president for four years from 2013-14 to 2019-20.
