Knicks Morning News (2025.01.25)

70 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.01.25)”

Woke up this morning and realized that the rather uninteresting dream I was having was being narrated by Mike Breen and Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier. It somehow made me happy and also made me realize that I might need to get a life.

I enjoyed your bio, Doogie. Can’t believe you remember so many details from 40 years ago but thought Donte’s shot was in game 5! (That was maxey’s shot.) Thank god you didn’t hurt Bernard with your foot, then we’d really hate you.

What if, instead of banning Doogie, everyone just chills out and accepts that every now and then he’ll post something inane that you won’t want to read, and we don’t gang up on him, or threaten to take our ball and go home, or rudely diagnose him with mental illness?

There is nothing harmful or mean about his grammar tick. It’s no different than Clarence’s this-is-what-I-just-ate Tourette’s (which I also enjoy, fwiw; I’ve gotten quite a few good food tips from Mr Beaks). Respectfully, I think everyone is a little too primed, like a coiled spring, and collectively overreacting. He’s really not that bad.

And Doogie, for fucks sake can you please try to exhibit some impulse control? People have asked you, respectfully, and many times, to stop. You need to start listening. Next time you see a grammatical error, pause. Speak out loud to yourself what you want to write. Or if you’re public, just say it in your mind. Pause again. Keep waiting. Then move on to the next post. Try that for a few days and you will enjoy this blog a lot more, I promise. Be the guy who wrote the bio. People will appreciate your heartfelt comments a lot more than your grammar prowess.

I get the impulse completely, but I reject on principle people ganging up and voting others off the “island” because of the content of what they think and say. The impulse finds its ultimate basis in illiberalism. I don’t do illiberal.

I hew to that principle here — or it wouldn’t be a principle at all, but simply whim and fancy.

As the old adage goes: Hard cases make bad law. Such is life.

If the act is meant to be comedy, it’s failing. If it’s meant to be literal and devoid of irony, it’s the height of bad manners to correct people by name and by statement for their grammar and spelling when people are typing on iPhones, often in the middle of multitasking. Who does such a thing?

In the case of things like “Markaten,” that’s so obviously an homage to Walt Frazier (national treasure and honorary Knickerblogger patron saint) that it’s stunning to fathom that such a thing would even need to be pointed out. No Knickerblogger is obligated to play nice in the sandbox with such nonsense.

Once upon a time in the vibrant jungle, a donkey and a tiger found themselves in a spirited debate. The donkey insisted, “The grass is blue!” The tiger, unfazed, countered, “No, the grass is green.” Their discussion grew heated, leading them to seek the wisdom of the lion, the King of the Jungle.

As they approached the clearing where the lion sat majestically on his throne, the donkey couldn’t contain himself. “Your Highness, is it true that the grass is blue?” he shouted.

With a calm demeanor, the lion responded, “Indeed, the grass is blue.”

The donkey, triumphant, turned to the tiger and exclaimed, “See! The King agrees with me! You should be punished for disagreeing!”

The lion, with a serious tone, declared, “The tiger shall be punished with five years of silence.” The donkey leaped with joy, chanting, “The grass is blue!”

But the tiger, accepting his fate, looked up at the lion with confusion. “Your Majesty, why am I being punished? The grass is clearly green.”

The lion replied, “You’re right, the grass is green. But your punishment has nothing to do with the color of the grass. It’s about your choice to waste your time arguing with a donkey. A brave and intelligent creature like you should not be drawn into foolish disputes or bother me with such trivialities.”

The lion continued, “Arguing with a fool is the worst waste of time. Some people, no matter how much evidence you present, refuse to see the truth. Their ego and pride blind them to reality. They are only interested in winning their arguments, not seeking understanding.”

In this jungle, the wise lion taught that when ignorance screams, intelligence remains silent. Your peace of mind is far more valuable than engaging in pointless debates.

So remember: Choose your battles wisely. Sometimes, the best response is no response at all. Let the grass be blue to those who will never see its true color.

Better than any fortune cookie. It’s a good story.

Why isn’t the tiger the king of the jungle though? He actually lives in the jungle and I absolutely would take a Bengal tiger over a lion in a prize fight. 🙂

Here’s another tip, Hubert.

Never throw your cheese rinds away. Particularly parmigiana reggiana. Those need to be wrapped and stored in a dry cool place. Add to your stocks when you’re making soup and you’ll have panty dropping dinner affairs up the wazooo. Never make a banal soup again.

Hi all. I don’t post much, but I read everything. This is probably my favorite sports blog. I also enjoyed the bio and the jungle parable above. As to the banning stuff, I agree with Hubert. While you don’t have to play nice in the sand box, in my view canceling someone is not a great solution.

Owen, my bro-in-law is always asking me random “Who wins?” questions, so I’ll be the pedant and answer you, too.

Interestingly enough, a male lion and a heavyweight tiger (Amur or Bengal, not a middleweight like the Malayan tiger) are almost exactly the same size and weight. So it’s really a crapshoot.

I tend to default to tigers being scarier, like you, but in fact adult male lions spend a considerable portion of their lives fighting (and killing) each other, since in order to mate they often have to take over another lion’s pride. Tigers, being largely solitary, do their damnedest to avoid each other when possible. So experience might go to the lion.

I have an old photo-laden book about African wildlife with a three-shot fight sequence, ending with one big male lion biting into the other’s skull, with the dying one shooting out a stream of urine like a fountain. I might well forget Lady Raven’s name before that image leaves my decaying brain…

And even more pedantic, ‘jungle’ is derived from the Hindi ‘jangal,’ which means scrubland or wasteland. Westerners warped it over time into meaning ‘rainforest.’ Both lions and tigers can be found in the equivalent of Hindi jangals. But you’re right, only tigers are found in jungles.

I think a male tiger is longer and heavier with longer teeth. Also much more agile.

The largest subspecies easily run over 700 pounds, I think the record for a wild tiger is 850 pounds. The record for a lion male is around 600. I think typically the lion would be giving 100 pounds away at least.

I am sure a Fanduel AI will read this thread and post a line shortly

I don’t dream almost never. Ok, ok, when i say this Lady Cyber instantly corrects me (semi angry LOL) to “you dream, you just don’t remember it”.
But if i did, i’d love to have a dream narrated by Breen and Clyde. 🧡💙

JK47

That Merle Travis video was amazing.

I have a tough time wrapping my head around that combination of talent and skill.

My Clyde and Breen narrated dream has me hitting a game seven NBA finals 3 over LeBron. “Bang, Bang, Bang!”

Good test for the Knicks tonight. They should finally be fresh by now. They are home. The Kings are playing well.

My Clyde and Breen narrated dream has me hitting a game seven NBA finals 3 over LeBron. “Bang, Bang, Bang!”

👌

Never throw your cheese rinds away. Particularly parmigiana reggiana. Those need to be wrapped and stored in a dry cool place. Add to your stocks when you’re making soup and you’ll have panty dropping dinner affairs up the wazooo. Never make a banal soup again.

Excellent advice (which I have been following for years).

In fact, never throw anything away. Keep your kale stems, your broccoli stalks, that part of the celery no one eats. Learn how to make brodo & sugo*. It lasts forever in your freezer. And it also makes an outstanding gift to bring with you when you visits a friend’s home.

* I learned from watching Frank Prisinzano on Instagram. He’s the East Village restauranteur behind Frank, Supper, Lil Frankie’s. He posted his methods during the pandemic and you can find them on YouTube.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

I have never advocated for banning anyone, but have not really had an issue with someone getting banned because I think the moderation here is pretty liberal and level-headed.

I don’t think it’s rude at all to “diagnose” folks with a disorder when their posting is largely characteristic of that disorder. Nor is is rude to call someone an asshole, etc. when they are posting like someone who is autistic or an asshole. If you aren’t autistic or an asshole in real life, don’t act that way here. If you are going to act that way here, then you should expect, and more importantly, own the reactions of the crowd. When an increasing number of posters, including the non-abrasive hotheads, call for you to shut the fuck up, or for you to be ignored, or for you to be banned, and you go on to blame them and refuse to change your behavior, you deserve whatever you get.

A triple bang is something I wouldn’t have the balls to even dream about

Hart questionable tonight with knee issue.

Nice. I learned that when I was a cooking for a dude named Jimmy Bradley at the Red Cat on 23rd and 10th circa last millennium. And a ton of other stuff about wine and shit. That dude was awesome. Gave me tickets to Knick games on the regular. I got him on guestlists to great parties in return.

Well, I see that “Operation Freeze Out The Troll” isn’t going well, since this place has now just turned into DoogieBlogger, which, let’s be honest, was his intention from the beginning.

I love this place, but I’m not so sure I love the zero moderation version of this place so much. It’s not a lot to ask for someone to stop engaging in patently rude behavior that adds literally nothing to the site. What the troll does is against the spirit of this place, and worst of all, it’s dumb. It dumbs the place down, and I don’t come here for dumb. But it appears dumb is what we’re gonna do from now on.

You know what Joni says about the parking lot and all that.

JK – he hasn’t posted today. We get it. Working on it.

JK is right, but the format here unfortunately doesn’t really work for the ostracism motion to be taken up via secret ballot.

Z-man, it is rude to call someone an asshole, no matter who the person is.

“Z-man, it is rude to call someone an asshole, no matter who the person is.”

See, I think it is rude to deserve to be called an asshole. I also think it is rude to not speak out when someone acts like an asshole. If you are in favor of less direct, more euphemistic ways of putting it, sure. A you can imagine, living in a world of middle-schoolers for the last 30+ years, one has to choose alternative ways to call out asshole-ish behavior, whether by the adults or the kids. In an online forum such as this one, not so much. I prefer to go directly to the word or words that say it best.

I know that it won’t shock anyone here that I have been called an asshole and much worse many times in my life, and rarely did I not deserve it to one degree or another. And that’s before leaving for work in the morning!

Has it ever occurred to you that those people were better at diagnosing assholes than you are? Pretty arrogant to have that level of confidence in one’s diagnostic skills.

Owen, not to be disputatious (On this site? In these shoes?), but the 800+ tiger story is really questionable, as they got its weight at a ‘kill site.’ How, by measuring its paw print? Questioning the carcass? (Also the story veers into a random sentence about giant squid for no reason…) A lot of weird Russian pseudo-science out there, which I know because I supervised an Amur tiger conservation program in the Russian Far East for over a decade. Average tiger-lion weights for adult males tend to be equivalent in most tomes.

What I DO know, to Z-Man’s Rainbow quote, is that some Amur tigers are known to feed on young and even occasionally adult brown bears (our grizzlies). Which I don’t know, maybe means you win.

I’ll quit there to avoid the ban hammer.

“Has it ever occurred to you that those people were better at diagnosing assholes than you are? Pretty arrogant to have that level of confidence in one’s diagnostic skills.”

Nah, I’m actually pretty good at it. In your case, I have no doubt.

It was a rhetorical question.

It was a heartfelt response.

Fox also questionable tonight with ‘a thumb.’

Prediction for the night: Isaiah Crawford will win the Sumner Award by going off for 20+, if only because of the name. He did shoot 41% from three at Louisiana Tech, so he should have some good looks if they let him onto the floor.

Also, Dougie McBuckets will be irritating.

Also, Dougie McBuckets will be irritating.

There is no one by that name, it is “o” not “u”, and his last name is Brown, not “Buckets”, and he isn’t Irish. But you know that, Idiot.

There is no one by that name, it is “o” not “u”, and his last name is Brown, not “Buckets”, and he isn’t Irish. But you know that, Idiot.

[slow clap]

I would love to see the Knicks swing a deal for McDermott. Any of the end of the bench dudes making over $2 million plus a second or 2 should do it.

Hey Gents — Been lurking and not posting at all since moving across the Atlantic — mostly b/c I’ve been spending all my waking hours learning Italian and how to separate my garbage into the five color-coded categories that seem to change depending on what instructions I’m reading 😉

But — today’s digressions have included my smile of the week:

A lot of weird Russian pseudo-science out there, which I know because I supervised an Amur tiger conservation program in the Russian Far East for over a decade.

Raven. What!!!!???? God, I love this site. Keep on Knickerblogging, Knickerbloggers.

And — Go Knicks! Two All Stars? What the what?! Life is … good?

Raven -That is pretty cool! Amazing thing to be involved with.

I read a book about the Russian Far East, The Tiger, which was excellent.

Most adult lions run closer to 400 and I think you can find plenty of 500 pound tigers out there. Either way, I am still taking the tiger. Lionesses do all the work in most prides in Africa anyway.

Watching Spurs v Pacers and it’s remarkable how much bigger Wemby looks than Turner. Turner just blocked him though.

That sword of omens makes me think Lion-o wins in a fight with Tygra.

now i know why sabelenka has one of those tattooed on her arm…

well, I’m a leo, born late july, mark me down for choosing a lion over a tiger…

if someone is unable/unwilling to moderate/control their behavior in a group setting – it’s like they’ve abdicated control…

other folks need to intervene, enforce boundaries…

not a lot of fun having to control some one else’s behavior…

like spock said at the end of that one movie – the concerns for the health of the group can outweigh the need of one…

i think that’s what spock said, most likely though – I’m just making shit up in my head…

howdy KBA, thinking of you and wishing yourself and the family well…

so cool, so brave for you to make this venture 😊

where were you at prior to going to Italy?

has the transition been fairly smooth?

This has been an interesting thread but nothing beats a Thundercats reference.

Hali on a serious heater…

Tell you what, I wouldn’t want to face Indiana in the first round…

What a nasty throwdown by Castle!

I think tonight we need to pay special attention to Malik Monk, as well as Keegan Murray and Keon Ellis if Fox doesn’t play. That is the archetype that generally kills us.

I think Hart will play. He doesn’t miss games very easily, and he’s just had three full days off. By the way, I really hate the way that the NBA handles injury designations and especially game-time decisions (not to mention that it makes daily fantasy much more challenging). “Probable” basically means the guy is playing, “doubtful” means that he’s not, and “questionable” (the most-used designation) means “we’ll let you know 20-30 minutes before the game whether or not he feels like playing.”

Losing to the Pacers in the second round again would be terrible deja vu, and very tough to take.

It is not “canceling” to be banned from a blog for being annoying. No one has an unimpeachable or intrinsic right to be here, anymore than they do to keep posting on a social media site after being banned for violating that site’s terms of service.

“I think tonight we need to pay special attention to Malik Monk, as well as Keegan Murray and Keon Ellis if Fox doesn’t play. That is the archetype that generally kills us.”

My predicting this almost guarantees that it will be Kevin Huerter Night at the Garden.

I was thinking Huerter when I wrote my bit about Isaiah Crawford, who has actually only played like three games. But the name was too good to pass up.

There will be no Sumner Award™️ tonight, we will dominate the game from start to finish. Now this is a bold prediction. 😛

i would say, prior to a ban, there should be at least one “time-out” (a week suspension maybe) given…

sometimes folks aren’t that properly motivated until they more clearly understand and accept there will be consequences for their behavior, it’s one of the reasons they have trouble to begin with…

there is value to the community, value to the site (i wonder how much mike k. could get for selling us off 🙂 ),the community and site should come first…

ha, like the jimmy butler situation, we are going to have to ask you to stay away from the team for a while, while trying to get what you want you are just fucking with everyone else’s flow…

sometimes folks aren’t that properly motivated until they more clearly understand and accept there will be consequences for their behavior, it’s one of the reasons they have trouble to begin with…

As a former boundary pusher I feel this, it took me a while as a kid to learn that probing the limits of what other people will accept socially is a generally a bad idea

Banning should not be necessary except in extreme cases. We all just need to avoid engaging with donkeys.

From September-November [redacted] was net-neutral here, with no grammar policing or tjypo nitpicking. Then [redacted] went into scortched-earth mode, posting dozens of times an hour and dominating threads with truly useless garbage. Like the ethereal January Knicks, perhaps we can all just hope for the October Downtown [redacted] Brown to come back.

Hey Geo,

Thx for your kind thoughts. Our family’s transition has been fairly smooth.

I’m embarrassed by how much I like Milan. And it’s not that I’m doing anything special or “fancy” — just enjoying functioning mass transit, mixed use neighborhoods, friendly customer service everywhere, and endless variety of goods and food.

I’m definitely giving off naive American vibes, I hope not Ugly American ones.

Before our departure was a stop in Austin for a couple years, and before that I was in NYC for thirty plus, so I’m happy to be back in an urban setting.

I’m prolly ten years too old for the challenges, though. Mostly, I hope my kids thrive. So far so good. School starts Monday.

Cheers.

Banning should not be necessary except in extreme cases. We all just need to avoid engaging with donkeys.

If we’re going to all commit to some impossible to maintain pact to ignore a specific poster, just ban the person. It’s less cruel than shunning them and less demanding of people who just come here to talk Knicks

Very cool, Raven. I don’t have such experience with tigers, but my son did love a series called “Who Would Win?” (I think) when he was a boy. I remember that lion vs. tiger was one, and I think the lion would win in part because of his mane – the practical purpose is to block death bites around the neck, and it’s quite good for that purpose.

There were a bunch of them, but I only remember that one and the orca vs. shark one. (Orca easily, if I recall)

KBA, now that I’m free to go anywhere, I’ve been debating Italy. My mom was pursuing citizenship before the recent law change in October (pre-election, lol), so I was expecting I could follow on her coattails. Now we’re both talking about it anyway, even if it starts with residency. Any thoughts?

“If we’re going to all commit to some impossible to maintain pact to ignore a specific poster, just ban the person. It’s less cruel than shunning them and less demanding of people who just come here to talk Knicks.”

Wait. You’re the guy who randomly asks me questions out of the blue such as whether or not I like gladiator movies. No one *makes* you ask me such questions, but I’m always nice enough to respond to you and answer them. LOL

Hey Rama,

I’m only a month in, and I’m not sure about your exact situation. My (extremely naive) opinion would be that Milan, in particular, is a welcoming international city. Many locals I meet describe wanting to rival London (bc Brexit) or even Berlin.

My wife and kids have EU passports, so I can stay easily, but there are many legit residency and visa options for those without EU status. You just have to look.

For example, the self employed visa/residency requirement is something like proof of income/contracts from the previous year of around 8 – 12K.

All this may change soon. Anti-immigration is in the air everywhere now. And my personal suspicion is that the EU economies are houses of cards, so who knows.

Nevertheless, to generalize terribly, and anecdotally, everyone I have met so far believes in the Mystery of Faith that is an integrated and cooperative EU, multilingual and respectful of all cultures and ethnicities. For me, that’s my kind of Kool Aid.

Rama, Emilia’s not exactly my cup of tea. I can’t fault other people for loving it.

Thanks, KBA. Will consider, including timing… Don’t want to get shut out again.

Having watched a couple clips, I don’t think I’ll be seeing Emilia. It was produced by a good friend’s close friend, though, so I should probably shut up about it. Also, I do admire ambition! It sounds like it’s definitely ambitious.

Werk. Congrats to them! Making movies is hard.

See, I think it is rude to deserve to be called an asshole. I also think it is rude to not speak out when someone acts like an asshole.

You’re basically saying you’re being rude because someone else was. It’s still being rude and it’s unpleasant to reas. If you feel you have to reply, you could easily do it politely.

“If you feel you have to reply, you could easily do it politely.”

I agree to a point. With the posters in question, we’re way past that point.

If you are a politeness freak who thinks that it is rude to engage with assholes by telling it like it is, we will just have to agree to disagree on how to address such folks.

Wait. You’re the guy who randomly asks me questions out of the blue such as whether or not I like gladiator movies. No one *makes* you ask me such questions, but I’m always nice enough to respond to you and answer them. LOL

Doogie I was doing a bit from Airplane because I knew you would take it seriously

For some reason I thought Fox was out tonight but ESPN is saying that’s not the case?

There’s not a very strong liberty interest in ensuring one’s right to post on a sparsely populated New York Knicks message board. If someone repeatedly demonstrates they can’t be bothered to cease behavior that literally everyone else hates, and their rare other posts are very mediocre anyway, I would say that justifies a ban.

I can say personally I have found it increasingly exhausting to visit the site. The high-quality Knicks discussion I’ve been enjoying since I was 14 is so often bogged down with pedantry that often isn’t even correct and other assorted garbage.

Maybe give Drooskie one last chance, I’m not saying the ban hammer should be wielded lightly. But if someone brings literally nothing to the board and derails threads regularly, that seems like plenty to me.

He’s been doing quite well today. Let’s see how it goes.

Plus without him Donnie never would have had the post of the day.

Yes, I recognized it from Airplane, but it was still out of the blue because we hadn’t been talking about Airplane. Thus, I just answered it straight. You asked me something else out of the blue the day prior or the day just after, but I don’t remember what it was. I answered that one straight, too, even though I knew ahead of time that you wouldn’t care what my answer was. Do you happen to remember what it was? 🙂

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70 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.01.25)”

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