Bob Cook

The hallmarks of Donnie Walsh’s nearly quarter-century career as an Indiana Pacers executive are patience and trust — two items always in short supply in New York, where he is being put in charge of reviving a franchise that is suffering through its seventh straight losing season.

If owner James Dolan stays out of Walsh’s way, he is capable of spending the next few years assembling a team that would attract LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Deron Williams, among others, who, after the 2009-10 season, will make up the best free-agent class the NBA has ever seen.

But Walsh’s patience and trust could also keep the Knicks in the cellar, given how Walsh is leaving Indiana after numerous player arrests, questionable personnel decisions and one of the most notorious brawls in American sports history.

If Knicks fans expect Walsh to blow up the team, they weren’t listening to Walsh explain during his farewell news conference in Indiana how he approached rebuilding the Pacers after becoming the moribund team’s general manager in 1986.

“When I first started, I (realized) it was going to take four years to get the players ... and they’ve got to play together three years, that’s seven years,” Walsh said Monday at Conseco Fieldhouse. “I thought, ‘I’m not going to make it here. I’m going to be an interim guy.’ Somehow I slipped through.”

“It always starts with a lower talent level, then it builds.”

Walsh, a native of the Bronx, won’t be afraid to make decisions that will upset the local faithful. His second draft in Indiana, Walsh famously selected Reggie Miller in the first round as fans assembled at Market Square Arena for a draft party booed him for not taking local favorite Steve Alford. It didn’t take long for Pacers fans to figure out Walsh made the right decision, and to stop booing at draft parties.

But indeed, it took seven seasons — and the hiring of good friend Larry Brown, for whom Walsh had worked as an assistant coach in Denver — for the Pacers to become a consistent NBA power. (One imagines Brown either trying to talk Walsh out of going to New York because of the hassle and pain, or talking him into it because that hassle and pain could be rewarded with a large cash settlement.)

Some practicalities with the Knicks would make it difficult for Walsh to engineer a quick turnaround, even if he thought one were possible. The next few seasons, the Knicks are stuck with huge contracts for the likes of Stephon Marbury, Eddy Curry, Jerome James, Jared Jeffries and Malik Rose.

It’s possible that Walsh could unload a few of these players for serviceable parts — as he unloaded Jalen Rose to the Chicago Bulls for Brad Miller and Ron Artest. But the focus clearly has to be on the 2009-10 offseason, when the Knicks could have true, quality, marquee free agents lined up at their door, and the team could have money to spend. Zach Randolph will be entering the final season ($17.3 million) of his deal, and he could be the only big salary left if, in prior years, Curry, Jeffries and Jamal Crawford exercise player options to become free agents.

So be patient, Knicks fans — Walsh can ensure the greatness you’ve demanded will finally come. Like Walsh, be patient, and trust that he and the Knicks are capable of doing the right thing.

And yet ...

Knicks fans need to be a little bit nervous in that like Dolan with president and coach Isiah Thomas, Walsh has so much patience and trust that there is a risk the team goes nowhere.

Walsh’s mistakes, back to when he hired Dick Versace as coach and bought his argument that drafting George McCloud and turning him into a point guard was a better move than taking Tim Hardaway, result when he trusts his underlings too much. Or when he gives second and third chances to people who take advantage of his trust rather than appreciate the opportunity (a Pacers franchise hallmark under owners Mel and Herb Simon).

For instance, Walsh’s arrival hardly means Thomas is out the door. It may be that Walsh’s arrival solidifies Thomas’ status with the Knicks in some form. After all, Walsh hired Thomas to coach Indiana in 2000, but it was Larry Bird who fired Thomas after Walsh hired him as team president in 2003. If Dolan trusts Thomas, and Walsh trusts Thomas, then it stands to reason Thomas leaves only on his own terms.

Even as Bird was gleefully shoving Thomas out the door, Walsh repeated his contention that he hired Thomas to coach a veteran team coming off an NBA Finals appearance, and that Thomas did an admirable job adjusting on the fly to a team hastily assembled after the unexpected retirement of Rik Smits and other unexpected personnel changes turned a veteran team into Miller and a group of youngsters.

The New York Daily News recently reported the tale of Walsh letting Thomas select Fred Jones over Tayshaun Prince in the 2003 draft, and that’s a warning that if Thomas stays, no matter what position, he is still going to have some sway over the Knicks’ personnel.

If it’s not Thomas, whomever is coaching the Knicks and whomever is handling day-to-day personnel matters is going to be on a very long leash. As Pacers team president, Bird started by firing Thomas and has since sought to imitate him by building a mishmash roster full of long, untradeable contracts. Bird might have had his hand forced by the sort of fan-alienating, off-court events once seen only in Portland, but he also, like his mentor Walsh, gave extra chances to players who shouldn’t have gotten them.

However, Walsh is capable of admitting and correcting his own mistakes, such as how he once dealt Mark Jackson, then traded back for him a few months later. And he leaves Indiana positive about that team’s development, which isn’t just him blowing smoke as the team is in playoff contention even though Jermaine O’Neal and Jamaal Tinsley have missed large chunks of this season.

So it’s likely that with Walsh’s arrival, the Knicks will get better. But it will require Knicks fans and ownership to be patient, and to trust him.