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Isiah Thomas is still trying to convince people that he wasn't a terrible GM

Isiah Thomas is still trying to convince people that he wasn't a terrible GM

New New York Liberty president and potential part-owner Isiah Thomas doesn’t want you to know that he made bad basketball trades. And he also knows that hitting up the NFL-obsessed sports talk radio market is the best place to explain things away. We got a little taste of that on Wednesday.

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In the fall of 2005, frustrated at a fruitless summer’s worth of negotiations, the Chicago Bulls decided to put center Eddy Curry on the trading block. Curry was a restricted free agent, and he was angling for a massive contract extension on the heels of a breakout year with Chicago – one that ended prematurely to his the diagnosis of a heart condition. Teams were both hesitant to commit big money to Curry because of his medical issues, and because of Chicago’s ability to match terms.

Fearful of that condition, Chicago asked Curry to submit to DNA testing in order to gauge the severity of his potential heart problems, and Curry rightfully declined citing privacy issues. Unable to come to terms, the Bulls turned to a trusted partner, one that helped them clear their books in taking Jamal Crawford off the team’s hands the previous summer.

They dialed up the New York Knicks, run by Thomas, and proceeded to put together one of the worst trades in NBA history. On Wednesday, in talking on the Boomer and Carlton show, via SB Nation, Thomas set to defending that deal:

That’s … that’s a no. No.

Thomas is correct, there was a “swap,” and he did not trade two draft picks for Eddy Curry. He traded three, including two second-rounders and New York’s 2006 pick, on top giving Chicago the ability to “swap” 2007 draft picks if Chicago ended up with the better record that season.

New York also sent along Michael Sweetney, and though the former Georgetown big eventually ate his way out of the NBA, he actually outplayed Curry for the better part of the first half of 2005-06. Shockingly, a team featuring Crawford, Stephon Marbury, Curry and poor, poor Antonio Davis (later dealt to Toronto for Jalen Rose!) did not do exceedingly well in 2005-06. That was exacerbated by the bad coaching of Larry Brown, who did everything but point shave that season in an attempt to wrest personnel control away from Isiah, and Thomas’ decision to send expiring contracts to Orlando for Steve Francis soon after the Jalen Rose deal.

That Knick team finished last in the East and ended up with the second-worst record in the NBA at 23-59. Chicago, a fringe playoff team, earned the 16th and second pick in that year’s draft, and did exceedingly well to trade up for Thabo Sefolosha and select LaMarcus Aldridge second overall with what would have been New York’s selection.

Then they completely blew it by trading Aldridge to Portland for Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa, mainly because Scott Skiles was a complete and total weirdo:

"Scott Skiles came across as a very focused and determined man," Aldridge said after a solo workout for the Bulls on Wednesday. "At the table, he stared at me for five or 10 minutes and didn't say anything. I was kind of wondering, `Did I do something wrong?'

So, yes, Isiah did draft Wilson Chandler in the first-round of a draft, and his career outlasted Thomas’. Thomas took Chandler in 2007, however, in a draft that had nothing to do with Tyrus Thomas. Thomas also spent a first-round pick on Renaldo Balkman in the 2006 draft, and we’re not exactly talking up his career arc over the airwaves for the same duplicitous reasons that make Isiah Thomas who he is.

It’s true that Thomas already had both Channing Frye and David Lee in hand prior to the Curry deal (and Jerome James, don’t forget!), and that Lee later became an All-Star while working for another team, and that Frye was later turned into Zach Randolph.

Randolph also became an All-Star while working for another team, because:

Telling a couple of football guys about the “swap” only takes a small turn towards the realm of the possible when you talk about the 2007 draft.

The Knicks, by then coached by Thomas, continued to stink in 2006-07. They’d lost 15 of 18 games down the stretch and needed an Eddy Curry (!) lay-in at the buzzer in the season’s final game to move into a three-way tie for the NBA’s eighth worst record. Mind you, this is during a season that saw Chicago make the second round of the playoffs – New York wasn’t gaining anything by tanking games.

As such, Chicago earned the right to grab the seventh overall pick after the draft lottery, and they happily latched onto Joakim Noah, the 2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Thomas made his own contribution to draft night by dealing Frye for Randolph, back when Zach was still doing stuff like this:

Just because Chicago made a horrible trade for Tyrus Thomas doesn’t mean the Knicks didn’t punt away the picks that became LaMarcus Aldridge and Joakim Noah. We’re not sure what Wilson Chandler has to do with any of this.

Curry would go on to play just 10 games over the last three years of his six-year, $60 million contract. Thomas was let go by the Knicks in 2008. He then proceeded to orchestrate a deal for Carmelo Anthony in 2011, after the Knicks attempted to re-sign Thomas as a consultant in 2010. On Tuesday he was introduced as the president of the New York Liberty.

This is who Isiah Thomas is. Good thing he still has that one friend left.

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Kelly Dwyer

is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!