On the surface, having "Slats," now 77, join Drury to discuss the next phase of The Process made sense. His role is no secret, having been included in the first paragraph of the news release about the management shake-up:

"Senior Advisor Glen Sather will work with Drury during this transition and continue to consult with the team."

But still. Sather did not do many interviews when he was the team’s GM and president, and here he was, two years since transitioning into a presumed semi-retirement.

All of which naturally leads to palace intrigue over precisely what went down in this week’s shocking makeover.

Did Sather whisper displeasure with the direction of the team into the ear of MSG Sports executive chairman James Dolan? Did he merely confirm Dolan’s sense a change was needed? Did he have nothing to do with it?

None of that was settled by Thursday’s interview, but Sather did have an interesting answer when I asked him to detail the extent and nature of his current role.

He said that since assuming it, he has sought "to be available to anybody within the organization that I can help, and that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do — try to make the team better. And if Jim asks me a question, I give him an honest answer, the same as I did with Jeff or J.D. or Chris.

"I’m not there to tell anybody what to do. I’m there to help them make a decision or counsel them to look somewhere else for an answer. I’ve been around this league for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of certain things that I like and that I don’t like, and I have an opinion on them. When somebody asks me, I’ll share it with them."

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