<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">David Stern can't force James Dolan to sell the Knicks or make him clean up his franchise. As depressing a thought as that is, those are simply not within the scope of the NBA commissioner's job. But there's no law that says that Stern can't occasionally call Dolan with some helpful suggestions on how to get out of the mess that is the Knicks. And apparently that is exactly what Stern has been doing for the last five months, as much as he tries to downplay his concern about the sorry state of the franchise in his own backyard. Rest assured, Stern and other league officials are fed up with the way the Knicks are being run, not to mention how the media has a field day depicting Dolan and his minions as incompetents. Not that Stern's advice is being heeded. When he recommended that Dolan look into hiring Suns outgoing CEO Jerry Colangelo to come in and take over the entire Garden operation - a la Bob Gutkowski and later Dave Checketts in the 90's - Dolan reportedly erupted by questioning how anyone could second-guess his ability to run the Knicks. Dolan's response couldn't have been well-received by Stern, who has tried to exert his influence on the Garden's CEO in the past, with varying degrees of success. During the final months of the Scott Layden regime, when the Knicks were showing zero progress and Layden's stonewalling tactics with the media were the butt of jokes, Stern met with Dolan over lunch. At the meeting, he told Dolan that he needed to change the face of his franchise. Eventually, Dolan did, firing Layden and bringing in Isiah Thomas. Now, in light of the Knicks and Larry Brown looking to part ways after only 10 months, Stern is back on the case. But lately, Dolan has been dismissive of recommendations coming from the commissioner or anyone outside of the Garden. Not long after Dolan shot down the idea of turning the operation over to Colangelo - a Stern favorite who founded and built the Suns into an elite franchise - the Garden chief was approached about firing Thomas and replacing him with Kiki Vandeweghe, the former Nuggets GM and ex-Knick. Because of Denver's success during Vandeweghe's five-year tenure, during which he took over a lottery team and built it into a playoff team with a pretty decent future, he is widely regarded as one of the better young executives. But Dolan would have none of it. Stern plans to keep up the pressure, even if he tries hard to make it appear that he's barely concerned about the doings at the Garden. When he meets the media and is grilled on Dolan's franchise, Stern issues a few standard remarks. He always states that the Knicks are merely one of 30 teams and that all leagues have teams that are run well and some that are run poorly. Further pressed, he'll state that it's not imperative for the league to have a successful franchise in New York. When he stopped over at the Meadowlands for a Nets-Indiana first-round playoff game several weeks ago, he was bombarded with questions about the Knicks' disgraceful 23-win season and Brown's performance. Ever the diplomat, Stern reminded everyone that when league took off in the '80s, "We had L.A. and Boston playing all the time in June. Then we had Chicago winning titles. And we had even greater success." More questions followed, but he wouldn't cave. "There are 28 teams that wish the New York teams nothing but ill," he said. "I put my Knick fandom behind me when I became commissioner. But if I were to guess, it takes a season or so (for Larry Brown) to let people know how he likes to play and my guess is that they'll be getting some more players that would like to play the same way. And my guess is that the Knicks will be substantially improved next year." But his public stance and his view expressed behind closed doors are totally opposite, according to those who are familiar with his scathing candor. "David knows it's really bad to have a premier franchise, playing in the media capital of the world and playing in one of the marquee venues in the world, Madison Square Garden, and it's the laughing-stock of his league," said one such source. "He's trying to get Dolan to make changes, but Dolan thinks Isiah is a genius. He's the only person in the world who thinks that." </div> link: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/419556p-354282c.html
