NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Bleacher Report: The Utah Jazz have "the most disgusting fans in the NBA."

2. The Wages of Wins Journal: Statistically, the All-Rookie second team is better than the first.

3. Mark Murphy, Boston Herald: Is Sam Cassell getting benched?

4. Basketbawful: What it's like to lunch with Larry Bird.

5. Jerry Brown, East Valley Tribune: Mark Jackson is getting an interview with the Destroyer.

6. FreeDarko: ESPN does not know who Rodney Stuckey is.

The New York Knicks are flushing the seeds of ineptitude out of Madison Square Garden, one step at a time. Ed Stefanski is leading a revival of the Sixers in Philly. Billy Knight has had enough of the ownership issues in Atlanta. Even successful franchises like the Mavericks and Suns are making drastic changes in coaching and leadership.

But in Indiana, even with the departure of Donnie Walsh to New York, the Pacers are keeping it in the family. In need of a GM to supplement Team President of Basketball, Larry Bird, the Pacers decided to promote from within. They have promoted Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations, David Morway to the GM position, where he will assume the duties of both positions.

The GM position in Indiana is little more than a figurehead, regardless, with Bird holding so much power including what is referred to as a "single voice." Furthermore, with Mark Cuban's recent comments that GM's are held essentially powerless to the will of the owner, that would make Morway third man in this totem pole. Bird has had success but the roster is fairly a mess. We'll see what effect, if any, this new "right hand man" will have in Indiana.

There's a report this morning -- backed up by an NBA TV talking head last night -- saying Rick Carlisle has been chosen as the next coach of the Dallas Mavericks. We'd accept this as fact if the source weren't Peter Vescey, who in the past week has retracted a column and errantly reported Derrick Coleman needs a heart transplant.

Vescey reports in the New York Post that Carlisle has interviewed with the Knicks on Wednesday, but has since wowed Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson down in Big D. Vescey parroted the same report on NBA TV's postgame festivities last night (via HoopsHype). ESPN.com's Marc Stein (the most plugged-in national reporter when it comes to Dallas) offers Carlisle only as a favorite in the job hunt, one of five candidates Cuban will consider. The Dallas Morning News, for its part, have nothing on the potential hire.

My only concern for the Mavs here: You need some creativity on offense, right? You need a coach who will, at the very least, turn the reins over to Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki and let the points fly, yes? Carlisle spent four seasons in Indiana; here are the Pacers' ranks in leaguewide offensive efficiency each of those seasons, chronologically: 9th, 18th, 21st, 30th. Yep, worst offense in the league in 2006-07. What did Jim O'Brien do with basically the same roster in 2007-08? 19th in the league.

Carlisle can coach defense, and he's not likely to grate on Kidd like Avery Johnson did. But this sure as heck doesn't seem like your typical magical elixir.

Apologies for beating this horse so mercilessly, so relentlessly ... but Golden State, at 47-32, is the last hope to snare an up-for-grabs playoff spot in the West. Back East, the last floating contender is Indiana, who after tonight's home loss to the Charlotte F. Bobcats stands at 35-45. This is unbelievable.

Atlanta lost in Boston, so Indiana lives another night. They need to sweep Washington and New York on Monday and Wednesday, respectively. They also need Atlanta to lose to Orlando and Miami on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's hard to blame the Hawks for not being able to clinch Saturday night against the Celtics -- The Big Three did play for three quarters. Of course, Atlanta was tied after those three quarters ... and were outscored by 10 in the fourth with Sam Cassell doing the damage.

Don Nelson let some "this isn't fair" sentiment slip after his team's loss to Denver on Thursday. It sounded like sour grapes then, but he's completely right: this is bull. God bless Atlanta for finally finding a way into the postseason, but they'd be in 12th place in the West. Golden State would be fourth in the East. Something's gotta give.

Atlanta's opportunity tonight to basically clinch their first playoff berth in roughly 1,400 years came and went without much fanfare -- the Hawks, after all, have looked like a sure playoff team for weeks now. Indiana needed a win over Atlanta tonight to stay alive, and -- hey! -- they got it.

Mike Bibby has heard choirs of angels and flutists since arriving in February, but tonight was a big ole foghorn. Bibby went 0-for-8 with 2 assists in 26 minutes. Bibby's Indy counterpart, Flip Murray, had a bonkers evening with 20 points on 11 shots and 10 assists. (Their salaries are only about $12.7 million apart, though.)

Atlanta's still in strong position for the gift of a first-round execution by Boston playoffs -- the Hawks hold a two-game lead over Indy with four games to go. The Pacers need to win out and watch the Hawks lose to two of the Celtics, Magic, New York and Miami, or go 3-1 and pray the Knicks or Heat can stun Atlanta. (The Nets, 32-45 and idle tonight, are allegedly alive too.)

It's criminal this race is happening while the 46-31 Denver Nuggets and the 46-31 Golden State Warriors have do-or-die games tonight. Time to update the Geneva Conventions, or at least the league rules.

Officially, both the Pacers and Donnie Walsh are denying ESPN's report from late last night that Walsh has agreed to sign with the Knicks at the end of the season. Unofficially, though, both Sports Illustrated's Ian Thomsen and the New York Daily News' Frank Isola have found their own unidentified "league source" to corroborate ESPN's report. According to Isola's source, just because Walsh is denying a deal doesn't mean the framework isn't still in place:

"If Donnie is saying he hasn't accepted anything then nothing is done but he has an offer," the NBA source told the News. "I think it is safe to say they have a handshake agreement."

Of course, the fact that additional outlets are "confirming" this rumor doesn't necessarily mean anything: for all we know, all of these unidentified "NBA sources" may be just a single individual happy to chat with multiple reporters.

But still, this thing seems to be picking up steam -- enough so that it may have been the reason the Knicks canceled practice today -- or at least pretended to cancel practice so Isiah Thomas could avoid the media, depending on how much you take what the Knicks are saying at face value. Stay tuned.

The Pacers held a press conference on Monday to announce that Donnie Walsh was leaving the team's front office at the end of the season. Walsh maintained that he was unsure what his future would hold, but ESPN begs to differ. The Worldwide Leader cites an unnamed source who says Walsh is "expected to sign a three-year, $15 million contract with New York at the end of the season to oversee their basketball operations division." How does Isiah Thomas fit into the new power structure? Sadly, the source does not know.

But just who is this source and can we take him seriously? Alan Hahn of Newsday was unable to confirm or deny the rumor with his own contacts but was still able to shed some light on the matter:

I was able to find out some details of ESPN's story. Usually the network credits a scoop to one of its reporters (i.e.: ESPN's Chris Sheridan is reporting . . .) but on this one a reporter is conspicuously not credited. I was informed that the reason for this is because the report came from an executive-level figure at ESPN, not someone at the reporter level.

Weekend reports had Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh sticking in Indiana and rejecting suspected advances from New York and Milwaukee. But Walsh just told reporters he's stepping down at the end of the year, apparently saving Larry Bird's job and placing Walsh himself firmly on the market.

All rumors now begin with New York. Walsh's meeting with Knicks owner James Dolan was a poorly kept secret last week; the New York practically salivated over Walsh's resume over the weekend. Of course, the New York media -- particularly the Daily News's Frank Isola -- were off by a country mile on this one, reporting on Saturday that Walsh would be staying in Indy and Bird would be out of a job. (It was a coin flip, I guess.)

I suspect Bucks owner Herb Kohl will make a push for Walsh, though any incentive Milwaukee could offer should only come in the form of potential Knicks pitfalls. "Our media and ownership won't ruin your life! You won't have to put up with Stephon Marbury here!" Assuming Walsh had another job lined up, it appears the Isiah Thomas Era is coming to a bloodless end.

The New York Daily News this morning indicates Donnie Walsh's meeting with the owners of the Pacers Friday went well, and Walsh is now likely to spurn advances from the Bucks and Knicks to instead take the Indiana job back from Larry Bird.

The Daily News's Frank Isola considers the future of Bird, which we pondered yesterday.

The Simon brothers are not sure whether to keep Bird in a different role or just sever ties with the Indiana legend. There are whispers that Bird's younger brother, who holds the title of premium services manager with the Pacers, already has resigned.

Bird shouldn't be relegated to scout or consultant or adviser or any of that noise -- and I could not imagine he'd take such a job anyways. Bucks owner Sen. Herb Kohl isn't above making a big splash (see: George Karl), and I would imagine Bird's name will come up in talks to replace ousted Larry Harris.

I still think Bird would be a good coach for a promising roster ... like Chicago. He isn't the guy to take over your rebuilding project from the sidelines, but he has shown good understanding of game tactics (obviously) and few ex-players garner such respect from today's ballers. Coaching might not be in his plans anymore, but he seems to have a degree better success in that role than his current one.

Don't look now (really! don't! that's how they snare you!), but the Pacers have won four straight, and ladies and germs: We have a hot race for the 8th seed in the East.

Atlanta scored a massive win over Orlando last night, thanks to tremendous output from Joe Johnson (34 points on 20 shots, 7 assists, 3 steals) and solid efforts all around. That put the Hawks at 30-39, which would be 12th place in the West... but is 8th in the East. Awesome!

But those Pacers are only 1-1/2 games back themselves, thanks to a road win at Chicago. The improbably decent pairing of Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Troy Murphy combined for 49 points on 60% shooting, and Larry Hughes shot 2-11. (Fun!)

The Nets are actually tied with Indiana for 9th place, after a loss at Philadelphia. But no one really cares about the Nets, because they have been almost as disappointing as the Bulls (if that's possible). Not to disparage Nets fans (it's not your fault), but seeing the Celtics visit Atlanta or Indianapolis in the first round would be vastly more entertaining than a few more games at the 'Zod. Boo Nets!