Isiah Thomas announced the first acquisition of his brief but busy tenure as the Knicks' president of basketball operations last night, but what he told reporters at Madison Square Garden was not the deal that had been rumored all day, the signing of Leon Smith.

Smith had already visited and departed the Garden. Instead, Thomas sent forward Clarence Weatherspoon, who had been left home on the recent three-game trip and was negotiating a buyout of his contract, to the Houston Rockets for point guard Moochie Norris and center John Amaechi. Smith is likely to become a Knick when roster manipulations are completed.

Rather than completing the buyout of Weatherspoon's contract, which had three more years totaling $17.6 million, Thomas made the deal with Houston and said Amaechi would be waived, with the team buying out the remaining two years and $5.5 million of his contract.