NY Knicks Oust Coach Mike D'Antoni; Jerry Sloan Likely Replacement

As exciting as the "Linsanity" craze was only days ago, it still fell far short to save the career of embattled coach Mike D'Antoni who was asked to leave as part of a "mutual" agreement by the NY Knicks management. Assistant coach Mike Woodson takes over until a new head coach is found. D'Antoni actually replaced former Detroit Pistons great Isiah Thomas as coach, but neither have been able to bring the big city team back to the glory days of old, although the "Linsanity" over surprise player Jeremy Lin has been very good for the team's image.

Two retired coaches are being approached for the job, including Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan, but sources say that Sloan may be the only one of the two really interested in the job. This means that Jerry Sloan appears to be the best bet to accept the job. Sloan led the Utah Jazz as head coach from 1988 until his 2011 retirement. Sloan started his career as a player with Baltimore Bullets in 1965, later becoming a Chicago Bull from 1966-1976. Sloan then moved to coaching, where he coached the Chicago Bulls from 1979-82, then returned to coach the Utah Jazz as legend for his long stint there.

You know that it's a bad sign for any team when D'antoni's coaching instructions sometimes looked more like the "sign of the beast" than anything. That's a sure sign of your team being caught in game losing hell if ever there was one.