Knicks President, Basketball Operations, Donnie Walsh addressed the media on Tuesday, April 22 to discuss, amongst other things, his search for the next coach of the New York Knicks.

Below is a transcript of his conference call…

Question: What is your reaction to Scott Skiles going to Milwaukee.

Donnie Walsh: I like Scott. He would have been one of the guys that I would have tried to get into lengthy conversations with. It was Friday, 6:00pm when we basically made our move, and after that, I did at some point talk to Scott. And I could tell that he was right down the road, and I just couldn’t rush into it that fast. I just could tell that he had an offer that he was fairly close to taking, and I just couldn’t react as fast as perhaps I had to because of the situation he was in with Milwaukee. I think that was basically what happened.

Question: Are there any regrets at not getting a real chance to go after him?

Donnie Walsh: There are always regrets about everybody. But there are just some things you can do and some things you can’t do. It was one of those situations where I didn’t know how to make it better. In effect, he took the offer that was sitting there for him. I’ve dealt with Milwaukee myself, and I think they are a good organization. I can understand why he would take that offer.

Question: Is it clear to categorize Mark Jackson as the lead candidate?

Donnie Walsh: Well, everyone seems to be doing that because I have said that I like Mark and would talk to him and would interview him. I guess you don’t know that until you sit down and the two of you talk together. Then you’ll find out how far along you are as far as those kinds of descriptions are concerned. Certainly he is a guy I am interested in enough to want to sit down and talk to, and I’ve spent my time trying to develop not so much a list, but a small group of guys that I would feel that way about. He’s certainly one of them.

Question: Will he be in this week for an interview?

Donnie Walsh: I am going to interview Mark, that’s definite.

Question: But we can’t say when?

Donnie Walsh: No, because then you’ll be peeking through the windows. I just don’t think its necessary. Some of this I am trying to have the privacy of developing exactly who the candidates going to be. As soon as I know, I’ll tell you guys.

Question: Is it accurate to say that Isiah Thomas is not permitted to have any contact with the players on the team?

Donnie Walsh: No. The only thing that we agreed to is that Isiah is dealing with me, and nobody is reporting to him. That is the description of what he will be doing. It was never discussed about players and all that. He is not coming in everyday like he used to, but he is there as a resource to me.

Question: So if he wants to talk to players, you have no problem with that?

Donnie Walsh: I don’t think he’ll do that, I think he’s going to try to deal with me. That’s the way we set it up.

Question: Regarding assistant coaches that you need to get permission to speak with, is that something you are going to pursue, or do you want to see first with the guys that are available that you don’t need to get permission for?

Donnie Walsh: I think that depends on how the first week here goes, because I am putting together a list of guys that I’d like to talk to. And I’ve talked to quite a few people, not so much that are candidates, but people about the candidates. And there are some guys that I probably will call up their franchise and ask to see if I can get permission. Normally when teams are in the playoffs, teams are hesitant to do that. So I haven’t really pushed that, but I will because it seems like there’s an inclination they would do that. But most of the time you don’t call teams up that are in the playoffs.

Question: There was a report that said you sort of were waving your hand at Jeff Van Gundy’s name. Is that sort of like Jeff isn’t really a candidate? Where does he fit into all this?

Donnie Walsh: Somebody asked me on the last conference call what about Jeff Van Gundy. I hadn’t thought about Jeff Van Gundy because he acted like he didn’t want to coach. I went, ‘Jeff Van Gundy, oh yeah, we should put him on the list.’ Then I started reading that my hand went up in circles and I don’t know what other description you’d give it. And then there were some articles written. So I called Jeff Van Gundy and talked to him about that. He told me he was not a candidate right now for coaching jobs for his own personal reasons, and I just told him I was sorry if he got the impression that … I have nothing but respect for Jeff Van Gundy. I think he was a very, very good coach, and I meant what I said when I said it the last time. Now I’m kind of putting my hands together now, because I speak with my hands sometimes, so I don’t know what that means, but what I just said I really believe. I like him. I thought that if he was coaching, he certainly was a guy you should talk to. He’s let me know for his own reasons he doesn’t think he will be coaching for a while, so that’s where it is.

Question: Do you worry about getting a real wide-open search because it is considered that Mark is the frontrunner?

Donnie Walsh: No, I don’t think so. I know people talk like that in the NBA, but when I talk to them that isn’t a persistent theme. I think its pretty well known that until a guy gets the job, he doesn’t have the job, and so therefore it’s open. In saying that, I do think a lot of Mark, and I think a lot of some of the other guys that I’m going to be speaking to. So no, I don’t think that that’s going to hurt my ability to speak to other people.

Question: Can you give us some insight into how you work with your list for coach?

Donnie Walsh: I start with my wish list, and go from there. And sometimes there are complications with that so you might have to take your list in a backward order, like for instance playoffs and that kind of stuff, or whatever it is. But I try to sit down ahead of time and pick out the guys I think would be very good for the New York Knicks and then go from there. Usually the list expands a little bit because there are usually more guys than you can think of when you first start doing it. But I don’t like to get it too wide spread or it gets where everybody in the NBA can coach the team.

Question: Can you give us a sense of how big that list is at the moment?

Donnie Walsh: It’s workable right now. It’s a workable list. I think it’s not too big and not too small. I don’t want to be saying it’s down to a certain number because tonight that number could change. It could go up one, down one. But I’ve always done it the same way, and that’s the process I’ve used.

Question: Are there years where you’ve had a one guy race where you knew who you wanted?

Donnie Walsh: Yeah, I think that most of the time it is more than one guy, and then you are sitting there trying to decide which one and all of a sudden its real clear who you really think should do it. But there have been a couple of times when I’ve had just, this is the guy I have to get, and I knew from the beginning who would be perfect for our team.

Question: Can you give us an example of that?

Donnie Walsh: Yeah, Larry Bird. I won’t say Larry Brown because I think there might have been some people involved to begin with, but he was close to that too.

Question: How did you know Bird was the guy?

Donnie Walsh: I met him. And I sat down and talked to him, and I thought he was tremendously prepared for it. He took me from what he would do from the first day of training camp to the Finals of the NBA, the last day. It took about an hour and a half or two hours, and after he had been with me for three years, I thought back on that conversation and what he told me that first hour and a half was exactly what he did from day one until the last day for three years. No less, no more. It was exactly what he did. That’s pretty amazing, I think.

Question: With Isiah, he had no experience, how did you know he would be a good coach?

Donnie Walsh: I just felt that from the standpoint of technically, he had a better feel for what he would do, which surprised me a little bit. But it wasn’t the same kind of presentation that Larry made, and I had other guys involved in that one. I ended up choosing Isiah among other guys. I chose him among a myriad of thoughts about it, certainly one of them was that we were in the playoffs so long, I couldn’t deal with Byron [Scott], he got the job with New Jersey before we were out of the playoffs. It was kind of like Scott Skiles.

Question: In terms of the playoffs, are you considering sitting back and waiting to see if a couple of Head Coaches become available?

Donnie Walsh: You’ve got to think about it, unless you become really convinced that there is a guy suited for your team before all that happens. Then yeah, I think you should see what happens. But on the other hand, you might get a guy who is exactly what you want.

Question: Have you called Mark Jackson at all because his name is floating out there a lot?

Donnie Walsh: I’ve talked to Mark. I told you that in the last conference call. I’ve talked to Mark. I didn’t call him in reaction to a story, I called Mark because I called him. Jeff I called in reaction to a story.

Question: Do you care to share any of the names on your list besides Mark?

Donnie Walsh: Not really, not yet. You guys seem to find them out.

Question: Do you feel the need to act expediently, or is that sort of not how you are thinking right now?

Donnie Walsh: You always want to get your coach in place, but I don’t think you can panic into it because you are afraid of what other teams are going to do. I think you just have to make sure you get the right guy.

Question: You don’t have one guy in mind like you did with Larry Bird, did you?

Donnie Walsh: No, not really.

Question: How did your conversation with Herb go?

Donnie Walsh: Herb came in obviously because we had let Isiah go. This was more of a meeting I think in terms that he’s here right now, and what happens with him. But in the course of the meeting I asked if he wanted to be a candidate for the Head Coaching job, and he said he did. So we discussed it a little bit and I said, ‘Listen, we’ll continue this, but I just wanted to know if you wanted to be included,’ and he said he did.

Question: Did you talk to Jeff Van Gundy today or yesterday?

Donnie Walsh: I talked to him today.

Question: What was his reaction?

Donnie Walsh: I think I explained it before, but I called him up just to explain to him that I had nothing but respect for him, and that if he was going to coach he would be on my list. He informed me that he didn’t think he would coach for his own personal reasons. And we discussed that a little bit. I just told him that I have a lot of respect for his coaching ability and that I would never do anything to kind of make a demeaning gesture to him on that. He understood.