A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

CRASH AND BURN/PATIENCE IS THE HALLMARK OF THE OLD AND THE INFIRM: I can't remember the last time we took the betting off the board this early for the Least Surprising News of the Year (though I think it was probably the Brit-K-Fed divorce), but we almost had to do it today, because the Knickerbockers fired Isiah Thomas as their coach. I say "almost had to do it," because there actually is a surprise in there -- they are retaining Thomas in some capacity to report to GM Donnie Walsh. Apparently crippling a team for years to come with extravagant and painfully obvious salary-cap mismanagement, constructing a terrible team, coaching that team into indifferent underachievement, expensively embroiling the franchise in a sexual harassment scandal, making racist comments, misspelling "Isaiah," and turning a once-proud franchise into a complete laughingstock on and off the court won't get you fired-fired. It's not clear to me why James Dolan is keeping him around in any capacity -- wouldn't he want him free to seek employment with other teams (cough Clay Bennett cough)?