http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/30287.htm
October 14, 2004 -- In Tim Thomas' view, the Nets center should be renamed "Jason Coward."
Thomas is still waiting by the phone for a Jason Collins apology. Not that Thomas expected one from the Nets center who changed the tone of last April's first-round Nets series with a nasty clothesline on the Knicks small forward.

"Some guys are cowards about it," Thomas said. "I probably won't be the last guy he takes out like that."

With the rhetoric raised another pitch, the still-bitter Thomas gets his first crack at revenge tonight when the Knicks open their exhibition season against the Nets in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. — a hardscrabble, coalminer's town that serves as an appropriate setting for this ongoing feud.

Thomas, who worked on his boxing over the summer, said he will have no fear driving down the lane tonight.

Said Knicks warrior and newly minted tri-captain Kurt Thomas, "We haven't played yet so I don't know how physical we are. But we'll just give you guys something to write about. When it's Nets-Knicks going at each other, it's always going to be a rivalry."

Yesterday, Tim Thomas spared Kenyon Martin, instead making several references to Collins being a dirty player. Late in Game 1, Thomas soared in the lane for an attempted dunk. Collins ignored the ball and dragged Thomas down. Thomas crashed to the court, sustaining a series-ending back injury.

"It took out a scorer, someone who had in a series before [2003 with Milwaukee] gave them trouble," Thomas said. "They knew that going in.

"The worst part was knowing my kids were home watching," Thomas added. "Getting beat, they can deal with that, but having Daddy [carried out] on a stretcher . . . I have energy that I'm always going to get up because I know my kids are watching. But you have some guys who know how to play, and have guys who are dirty."

Asked if Collins has begun to develop into a dirty player, Thomas asked, "Has? Let's leave it at that."



After his injury, Thomas expressed disappointment none of his teammates retaliated. Some Knicks were surprised Thomas called them out, as the team was already undermanned and couldn't afford a suspension.

But the Knicks are over with that. They aren't over the Net sweep. On paper, the Knicks have the goods to win the Atlantic Division and secure no worse than third seed, following the Nets' hellish summer.

"I think everyone was surprised, shocked about the decisions they made, but that's management's decision," Kurt Thomas said.

But as Stephon Marbury added, "They are [the division champs] until they get beat."