By Sports Direct

POSTED: 11:03 am MST December 5, 2011

The last time the New York Knicks were NBA champions, George Steinbrenner had just purchased the Yankees for $10 million, the World Trade Center towers opened in New York and Elvis Presley was doing a live concert from Hawaii. So it’s been a while.

But former GM and now team consultant — meaning they paid him to go away — Donnie Walsh thinks they’re close to another one. He says the core is there.

That is what he told Marc Berman of the New York Post.

“We have a core of players we can build around to build a [championship-contending] team,” Walsh said. “We’re not finished. There’s more pieces. But I think we got some really good players that can lead a team and form a core of that team. What we have are the most important things.”

They have some offensive firepower in Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, that is for sure. They have the star power. But do they really have a team that can defend well enough to put them in the title conversation? They need some quality role players for that, but Walsh said he thinks bringing in assistant coach Mike Woodson will help.

“I think Mike will be good for Mike D’Antoni,” Walsh said. “I’ve heard good things about [Woodson] as a coach and guy. It’ll help them. It’s always good to have a guy come in from a different perspective. I know his mentors, Bobby Knight and Larry Brown, and [Woodson] can offer them [defensive] systems that will be good for them. I also think they may have better defensive personnel. Let’s hope so.”

I’m not sure what personnel Walsh is referring to, but it’s not Carmelo.

How the Knicks build around that core, and what they decide to do with Chauncey Billups in the last year of his contract will be fascinating. Especially in the condensed free agency frenzy that will follow the lockout. They do have a core, but the bigger question becomes is there core as good as the one in Miami? Or Chicago?

Former Knicks team president Donnie Walsh says he doesn’t miss the grind of NBA front-office work and is enjoying his new role as consultant. He also claims that the roster he helped put together in New York is close to being able to challenge for a championship. From the NY Post: “Donnie Walsh, after spending a summer in Indianapolis relaxing with his family, has no regrets on his decision to pass on Knicks owner James Dolan’s contract extension to run the franchise. Last night, Walsh, 70, was back in Manhattan, looking dapper as the Bronx native/former Fordham Prep star was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame at the New York Athletic Club. ‘I spent the last 25 years running franchises, now I’m not,’ Walsh said. ‘But there’s a release that I don’t have to do that anymore. I haven’t missed it in that nature and I’ve enjoyed being home with my family.’ … Walsh knows he did not finish the job of building a title contender but said he feels he came close, assembling Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. ‘We have a core of players we can build around to build a [championship-contending] team,’ Walsh said. ‘We’re not finished. There’s more pieces. But I think we got some really good players that can lead a team and form a core of that team. What we have are the most important things.’”

Isiah Thomas will not be the next president and general manager of the New York Knicks. That is very different than saying he will not have influence, but he will not have the job and the title and the desk. Just ask him.

Who will? Probably a few of the guys already in the building in a power sharing arraignment.

That’s becoming the conventional wisdom around the Knicks, as articulated in the Daily News.

The team of Scott O’Neil, Glen Grunwald and Mark Warkentien, all of whom are already employed by the Knicks, are the front-runners to run the basketball operation, the Daily News has learned.

Grunwald is an Isiah Thomas disciple and former general manager of the Toronto Raptors. He currently serves as the Knicks’ senior VP of basketball operations and was named interim GM… Grunwald is highly regarded by his peers around the NBA and within the Knicks organization, having served under both Thomas and Walsh. According to a source, his responsibilities would be to handle the day-to-day functions on the basketball side along with Warkentien, who was hired Jan. 30 as a consultant.

Grunwald and Warkentien would report directly to O’Neil, the president of Madison Square Garden, who began taking on a greater role with the Knicks’ personnel moves dating back to last summer’s free-agent recruitment of LeBron James and including February’s celebrated trade for Carmelo Anthony.

They would replace Donnie Walsh, who was not picked up for a new deal when all he did was return the team to the playoffs after slashing the payroll in half.

Maybe some places this power sharing can work. But in Madison Square Garden under James Dolan? Yes, I have my doubts, too. But this may be the direction things are headed for the Knicks.

A statement from owner James Dolan said Walsh will stay on as a consultant for the 2011-12 season, but leave his current position.

“Following a long series of discussions regarding his future role with the New York Knicks, Donnie Walsh and I have mutually agreed that he will be leaving his position as president, basketball operations of the Knicks at the end of June,” Dolan said.

Walsh became the Knicks’ president in April 2008 after a long tenure with the Indiana Pacers, and changed the club.

He fired head coach Isiah Thomas only a few weeks after becoming president and hired Mike D’Antoni soon after. On November 21, 2008, Walsh traded away guard Jamal Crawford and forward Zach Randolph to help the Knicks have more payroll flexibility for the summer of 2010.

New York took advantage of it by signing forward Amare Stoudemire to a reported five-year, $100 million deal.

Walsh made his biggest move in February, acquiring star forward Carmelo Anthony and point guard Chauncey Billups, among others, from the Denver Nuggets in a blockbuster three-team trade.

The moves paid off with the Knicks’ first winning record (42-40) since 2000-01 and first playoff appearance since 2003-04. New York was swept by Boston in a first-round series.

“In a relatively short time with the Knicks, Donnie made a tremendous impact, which will be felt for many years to come. We thank Donnie for his leadership, hard work and many contributions to the revitalization of the team,” Dolan’s statement said.

The statement said Glen Grunwald, Knicks senior vice president of basketball operations, will serve as interim general manager beginning in July. Dolan added that there is no timetable for finding a new president and general manager.

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