In an interview with FoxSports Bill Reiter, Isiah Thomas spoke about how his game compared to those of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. His comments are surprising, to say the least.

“I have no problem saying this at all,” he says. “[Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are] all 6-(feet)-9 and Jordan was 6-6 and a half. If they were all 6-1, it wouldn’t even be a question. They wouldn’t even f—ing rate. If they were all my size, s—, they wouldn’t even be talked about.

“I beat the s— out of them when they were that big. If we were all the same size, f—.” He stops to laugh good-naturedly. “Make them 6-1 and let’s go on the court.”

In basketball, there’s an obvious advantage to being tall, but if it were the only (or even driving) quality necessary to be great, Gheorghe Mureşan would have been a Hall of Famer.

Little guys have an advantage in quickness and bigger guys are closer to the rim. Isiah used his quickness to get by bigger defenders, while Jordan, Magic and Bird used their size to dominate smaller players.

Had MJ, Magic or Bird been 6-1 or 6-2, they still would have been great players. They wouldn’t have been as big, but that wouldn’t affect their ability to shoot the ball or find the open man. Isiah complaining about their height no different than if they complained about Isiah’s quickness. If you’re in the NBA, you’re gifted one way or another.

Thomas says in the piece that he’s terrible at public relations, and this is another example. But the guy can evaluate talent. The Knicks drafted pretty well under his tenure — David Lee, Wilson Chandler, Trevor Ariza, Channing Frye — and he helped the Raptors settle on Marcus Camby, Damon Stoudemire and Tracy McGrady. I doubt he would accept such a role, but Thomas would make a great VP of player personnel.

The article is really about Isiah’s exile, and Reiter mentions Thomas’ abilities in the area of player evaluation as a possible way back into the league:

In 2009, ESPN used the Estimated Wins Added stat, developed by respected basketball mind John Hollinger, to judge 20 years worth of general managers. Isiah was ranked the second-best evaluator of talent…

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Isiah, who can’t seem to stay out of his own way, PR-wise. He has talents that could be useful to NBA teams, but there is so much baggage and ego that goes along with him that it just makes it easier for teams to go another direction. However, Knicks owner James Dolan does like him, so there’s always a chance that he could end up in New York again.

Just don’t let him participate in any trade discussions.

Grumbling about the number of targets he’s received this season, Cowboys receiver Roy Williams had this to say:

“I just try to play the game,” Williams said. “I just think if Michael Jordan is hot you keep feeding him the ball.”

Roy, I knew Michael Jordan…and you are no Michael Jordan.

In fact, you don’t just feed MJ the ball when he’s hot, you feed him the ball all the time. He was that good.

Considering Williams’ career (and draft position — #7 in 2004), maybe Williams should have said, “I just think if J.R. Smith is hot, you keep feeding him the ball.”

Yeah, that sounds better.

Per ESPN:

After a miserable start to the season in which he took shots at his players and himself, Larry Brown is out as coach of the Charlotte Bobcats in another messy exit in his well-traveled career.

The team announced later Wednesday that former Charlotte Hornets coach Paul Silas, who lives in the Charlotte area, will take over on an interim basis.

Here’s what team owner Michael Jordan had to say about the move:

“I met with Coach Brown two weeks ago about the team’s performance and what we could do to improve it,” Jordan said. “We met again this morning after practice. The team has clearly not lived up to either of our expectations and we both agreed that a change was necessary.”

Charlotte is 9-19 on the season and has lost four straight. The Bobcats won 44 games last season, so their start is obviously a big disappointment. Brown has a reputation for being able to turn around a franchise, but he has a tendency to wear out his welcome when things aren’t going well.

SIlas is a pretty good coach. His teams in Charlotte always played hard, so his presence should (somewhat) revitalize the roster. We’ll see.

For what it’s worth, Brown’s camp is saying that he fully intends to coach again.

Ouch.

Michael Jordan “Dunk Contest”

Magic/Bird “Box Out”

“Ali”

“Farah”

How did that last one get in there?

Steve Kerr appeared on the B.S. Report with Bill Simmons and had some interesting things to say. Feel free to head over to ESPN and spend an hour with Bill and Steve or read the highlights below:

On Ron Artest’s game-winning put-back in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals…

I wake up at night still thinking about that rebound — I mean, why didn’t it just hit the rim, and taken a normal bounce. I’ve thought about the game constantly, but as far as how that would have impacted my job, I haven’t looked at it that way.

On Ron Artest…

He was fantastic in the last couple of games of the Finals. I just think that Artest is one of the strangest players in the league because in a normal environment, in a normal game, sometimes he doesn’t look that great. He doesn’t make shots, he takes bad shots, he makes weird decisions, but when the game becomes kind of a street fight, especially like Game 7 of the Finals, there’s nobody you’d rather have. He’s just so strong and physical. And like that play he made against us in Game 6 — or Game 5 I guess it was — he just seems to have a knack for coming up with the loose ball, the rebound, whatever it is. He’s a crafty player, he really is.

On whether or not Amare Stoudemire is worth $100 million…

I was on the same page with Robert [Sarver, the owner of the Suns], with our management. We talked about it all year long. We really wanted him back, but if the price was too much though, then it didn’t make sense. And the main reason was because of the injuries. He’s had four knee surgeries, including a microfracture. You’ve seen what’s happened over the last few years with guys like Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O’Neal — the guys who come out of high school and play huge minutes right away. Their clock ticks a lot faster and they get to 29, 30, and they really start to slow down. I think you’ve even seen it a little bit with KG and Kobe last year although both guys really turned it on in the playoffs. But because of that, with Amare, I think he’s got a few really good years left in him. You know, years four, five and six though, if he can’t go and can’t produce, now you’re really tied up and locked down with a bad contract and that can be a major problem.

On the Knicks’ current predicament…

I agreed with the plan to wipe the slate clean and to get a fresh start — get rid of all of those bad contracts. The one decision they made that I think may haunt them is the Jared Jeffries trade to clear that last $7 million of room. Because in effect, they may have given away two lottery picks if they don’t play well the next two years, and that could crush them. Because those picks are huge — you get a great player on a rookie contract, it’s enormous.

On how Kobe Bryant compares to Michael Jordan…

Kobe’s probably more skilled, as a jump shooter for sure. Michael didn’t have that kind of three-point range. As a ball handler, probably a little more skilled than Michael was. I think the advantage Michael had was probably physically he was much stronger. He had more of a sheer physical force. And remember, he played in an era where you could put two hands on a guy and maul him and he still did everything he did. Jordan with the rules these days — I don’t know how anyone could even come close to guarding him.

On LeBron’s work ethic…

I don’t know him personally. I do agree with him that his post game could be much better. His shot selection could be better. We’re getting picky here obviously. He has the potential to get better. I mentioned one area, which was kind of moving without the ball and becoming more efficient, and you mentioned the other one, which is getting a go-to move on the block. He is about 270 (lbs.), I think. 6’7″ maybe, I don’t know. If he did have a go-to move on the block, I don’t think there’s anything you can do.

On almost trading Amare to the Warriors for the right to draft Stephen Curry…

We were pretty close. We had something lined up with Golden State where we were going to trade Amare for the pick, Biedrins, Wright and Bellinelli, something like that. The reason was — there was no secret that we were probably going to lose him at the end of the year, and he had come off what was a sub par year for him. We loved Curry coming out of the draft. We had him I think third on the board, so we didn’t even think he’d be there at #7. But we thought he would be Nash’s eventual replacement and kind of our cornerstone point guard for years to come. We had negotiated it. It was something that they were really seriously considering, but they ended up pulling out in the end.

On Danny Ferry…

I think Danny is really, really good. He’s thorough and smart. I think Cleveland was almost held hostage for the last five years, ever since the LeBron contract situation began. They had to constantly prove to him that they were going to everything possible to win a title, and that probably forced their hand into some bad signings, and into some other sort of compromising situations that were tough to deal with. But I think Danny Ferry is a top notch GM.

I’ve always thought that Kerr was a thoughtful, well-spoken guy and had high hopes for his tenure as Suns GM. He got off to a rocky start when the Shawn Marion-Shaq trade blew up in his face, but he recovered and quietly put together a 2009-10 Suns roster that had tremendous chemistry and talent. Had they been able to secure that Kobe airball in Game 5, there’s a good chance they would have gone to the Finals, but it wasn’t to be.

Kerr made a point to (twice) mention his interest in getting back into the GM game in four or five years, when his kids are older, and if I owned a team, I’d definitely keep Kerr and that timeframe in the back of my mind.