Butler

I'm secretly rooting for Butler to win so that sports pages everywhere can have the headline "The Butler Did It." Unless someone can come up with an equally entertaining and silly Duke headline, I'll continue to root for the underdog.

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