Donnie Walsh Out as President and General Manager of the New York Knicks

Donnie Walsh will not return as president and general manager of the New York Knicks next season. Team owner Jim Dolan made the announcement

on Friday that the Knicks and the 70-year-old Walsh would be parting ways, leaving a void for someone else to continue the building job he began. Dolan and Walsh mutually agreed that Walsh would not return after his contract expires at the end of June, as Walsh decided Thursday he was not up to Dolan’s request to stay on for at least two more years.

Walsh arrived in New York following the 2007-08 season with a ton of work to do cleaning up the mess left by his predecessor Isiah Thomas, which meant spending two season reducing one of the league’s highest payrolls so the Knicks could get far enough under the salary cap to be able to afford two of the top players from last summers free agent bonanza.

The Knicks were however only able to land Amare Stoudemire, but ended up trading for Carmelo Anthony in February and finished the season at 42-40, their first winning record in a decade. New York reached the postseason for their first time since 2004 this past season as well, but they were swept by the Boston Celtics. With the departure of Walsh it now opens up the question as to whether or not head coach Mike D’Antoni will return for the final year of his deal.