Isiah Thomas on NBA luxury tax: “I had no idea it existed”

NEW YORK — Only a few days after Jamal Crawford’s season-ending stress fracture – and only one day after his absence contributed to a loss at the hands of the hapless Celtics – Isiah Thomas held a press conference Thursday to address the possibility of signing Jimmy Jackson to pick up some of the scoring slack.

When asked whether owner James Dolan would be willing to take the luxury tax hit of signing an additional player in a season that is almost certainly lost, Isiah dropped a bomb - “Take the what? What the hell are you talking about?”

Peter Vecsey explained to the embattled GM that the Knicks franchise pays a 100% tax on every dollar they spend over the tax threshold [Ed. Note: With their payroll currently sitting at $139,264,859 and the 2006-07 luxury tax threshold at $65.42 million, the Knicks pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $73,844,859 in taxes. Give or take a few thousand.] leaving Thomas confused.

“So you guys are telling me we’re paying double for more than half of this team? Wow,” the Knicks GM muttered. “No wonder the franchise is losing millions of dollars. I knew there was a salary thingy, but I thought it was just a suggestion; you know, like sexual harassment laws.”

After having the rules explained to him, Isiah seemed to sour on the idea of adding Jackson, saying that it “hardly seems worth the financial drain” when there’s virtually no chance of his team making the playoffs.

It’s going to be tough for this sport to sweep any nations, but it’s still pretty frickin’ cool!