CREDIT: (AP Photo/Ed Betz) On Tuesday, the WNBA’s New York Liberty announced that former NBA star and ex-New York Knicks head coach Isiah Thomas would take over as the team’s president. As part of the deal, Thomas will also take a partial ownership stake in the team. Thomas doesn’t have a particularly strong history as a basketball executive, but what made his hiring controversial was the ugliest chapter of his unsuccessful tenure with the Knicks.