NBA Saves Knicks From Themselves

Maybe there is an NBA conspiracy to make the Knicks good (as suspected for the 1985 draft lottery) since the league rejected Isiah Thomas' contract with the Knicks. Phew! Dodged a bullet there!!

Week in Sports

Quite a week in sports. Here's a few things I've been thinking about:

1. LeBron - enough has been written on the subject, so I'm not sure what else I can add. Bill Simmons on ESPN had some nice summaries, as did the NY Times. What is most impressive to me is how a athlete / celebrity can go so quickly from being loved to being reviled without having done anything illegal. I'm with the group of people that thing LeBron is a lot less likable than he was before. One would think that a player of LeBron's status could recruit other players to play with him instead of the other way around. Surprisingly some of the other ESPN columnists have been somewhat supportive of James. Sure, it was within his rights to leave Cleveland but the way he did it was pretty tough. The media, fans, and public have to be a little responsible as well for building up egos to this size.

By the way, absolute must watch TV will be the first game of the Heat back in Cleveland.

2. Bob Sheppard - RIP. Amazing that a PA announcer is so linked with a team. Can you even name another PA announcer? Great move by Derek Jeter a few years ago to record Sheppard's voice so that he could announce him forever.

3. Spain wins World Cup - I was hoping for Netherlands but frankly, I don't really watch soccer. Here in Miami a ton of people reacted in the streets for the Spain win. I didn't know there were so many Spaniards here, or that all the Latinos felt such a connection to Spain.

4. The MLB All-Star game is this weekend. There are 83 named all-stars!

5. The Knicks - The team comes out of the off season in a bit of shambles. Amare Stoudamire is being very overpaid and a huge risk for the team, in my opinion. They didn't get LeBron and signed Stoudamire as a reactionary signing so that they had a marquee attraction. David Lee, a fan favorite, is now gone, and they have two new free agents that are in the mid-level range. Now, there's rumors Isiah Thomas is still linked with the team. That would be as if Barack Obama brought in George W Bush to be a part of his administration.

Knicks Need to Fire Isiah

Donnie Walsh steps in as the new President of the Knicks, and he has to fire Isiah Thomas. Even if Isiah Thomas was an amazing coach, there is such a negative attitude surrounding his tenure that it is time to wipe the slate clean. It would be the right move from a public relations standpoint, even if it's not the right move from a basketball standpoint (although given the rumblings from players about Thomas, it's probably the correct decision in terms of basketball too). If they're worried about spending all the money on the remainder of Thomas' contract, they should just bring in a cheap, first-time coach who wants to break in and let him do what he can to try and get this young team to play their best each night. That would go over well with fans, even if they stunk. This situation will take years to get out from, but maybe there's someone in place now who actually has a reasonable strategy. Dolan's made two right moves in this Walsh hiring - he got rid of Thomas, and he did so before the draft.

The Knicks Have Won 3 In A Row?????

What is going on? It's like I'm in some strange new reality!

More Knicks

The Knicks are on the verge of making it into the NBA playoffs, with a 30-36 record. Their "improvement" this year has already gotten Isiah Thomas a contract extension. I have to wonder, however, can a fan be excited for the team making the playoffs if their record isn't so hot? They're not exactly a great team. They are incredibly inconsistent, thus their under .500 record. I am impressed by the fact that they lost Jamal Crawford and David Lee and continue to play well, but I can't help but think the only reason they're even thinking about playoffs is that their division and the conference are just not very good this year.

New York Knicks Fight

Just when you thought it couldn't get any "better" for the Knicks, they had a huge fight on Saturday night. If you hadn't heard, while being blown out at home against the Nuggets, Knicks benchwarmer, Mardy Collins landed a hard foul on Nuggets guard J. R. Smith. Soon after, Smith got upset, and ended up in an altercation with popular Knicks player Nate Robinson. As the fight died down, Carmelo Anthony suckerpunched Collins in the face, and Jared Jeffries ran after him like a crazy man, with his jersey being tugged off as people tried to stop him. I'm so sorry I missed it live.

There's a ton of blame to go around on this one. Starting with the Nuggets: head coach George Karl is known to have made negative comments about Isiah and the Knicks regarding the Larry Brown situation. Could he have had his starters in late in the game on purpose to avenge Brown? Certainly possible.

Earlier in the game, J. R. Smith did a reverse jam while the Nuggets had a big lead. It was a show-off move. A hard foul could have been revenge for that as well.

Finally, Carmelo Anthony doesn't really have any defense for the nasty punch he threw while the fight was dying down.

What about the Knicks? They are not blameless here by any means. Again, starting with the coach. The stories published today, suggest that Isiah Thomas asked Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony at one point why the Nuggets were playing two starters, and then warned that Anthony should avoid the paint. Did he order a hard foul on a Nuggets player as retribution? Thomas also has a track record for having a bad temper - remember when he wanted to fight heckling fans? What about when he was screaming "break his feet" to his players regarding the Spurs' Bruce Bowen?

Nate Robinson also escalated this one. Nate is really popular among Knicks fans but I don't really see why. The only thing I can think of is that he's short. He plays with a lot of energy too. But he's a selfish player and not a great shooter. It'd be nice to see a point guard who can pass the ball a little. Regarding the fight, Robinson went after Smith, following the Collins foul. I wonder why he was looking for a fight there, as his teammate is the one who made the big foul.

Finally Jeffries, the big addition of the off season, looked deranged as people nearly tore off his jersey as they tried to hold him back from Carmelo Anthony. He was understandably angry about the sucker punch but you have to find a way to control yourself in these games. Especially if you just had a broken wrist.

I would imagine that the NBA will come down pretty hard on all the participants of this little party. Clearly both teams are at fault and hopefully both coaches are held accountable. Usually you like to see when your team is scrappy and tough, but this whole situation just seems more petty than anything. The amazing thing about the Knicks this year is that they are miserable, but I'm more fascinated by them this year than in a year where they're pretty good. They're the car wreck you just can't stop watching.

November 20, 2006 - Houston Rockets at NY Knicks

I swore that this year I wouldn't give any money to the Dolans and Cablevision as far as the NY Knicks were concerned. But I couldn't help but notice that lately there was a lot more advertising for Knicks tickets, which meant that there were probably tickets available. So instead, I hit the streets, and got tickets to section 62, normally $100 each for only $60 each. In return, I got a great view of the Knicks and the Rockets. The game was actually fairly close, but the Rockets ended up winning behind strong efforts from Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Sadly for the home team, the best Knicks players at the game were Allan Houston, Patrick Ewing and Charlie Ward, all who were either watching the game from the sidelines (Houston, Ewing) or coaching (Ward). Amazingly, Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury hardly played any minutes at all, a fact that did not go unnoticed in the next day's tabloid papers.

Larry Brown is Out

The New York Knicks are a disaster. What will make this firing even worse is that coming off a historic worst season, the team will almost certainly have a better record next year, which they will of course, then attribute to the new coach, Isiah Thomas.

Tags: basketball, Isiah Thomas, Knicks, Larry Brown, NBA