Former New York Knicks head coach and general manager Isiah Thomas believed MSG owner James Dolan would do everything for his team to win a championship.

"I don't think there's an owner who wants to win more than James Dolan," Thomas said Saturday via Real GM.

"He commits the resources. He does everything he can for the players. He just spent $1 billion on the arena for the fans. I think he'll do whatever it takes to win."

"The people in the Garden aren't basketball people," said an unnamed veteran executive. "They think they're basketball people. They're New Yorkers, so they watch a lot of basketball, but that's a far [bleeping] cry from working in it."

A veteran front office executive said the key for Knicks' victory is long-term planning, contrary to Dolan's tendency to abandon the system when it doesn't work.

The solution for every problem, whether it's in team-building or in the corporate world, is a coherent long-term strategy," said another longtime sports executive.

"And the requisite follow through. Sure, you have to be nimble and flexible enough to make midcourse corrections when necessary. But if you did a good job plotting your course you can't keep changing plans every year or two."