This has to be the Knicksiest last 48 hours. Well maybe not the Knicksiest, as they didn’t trade any draft picks for an overpaid and over-the-hill scorer in that time. But it’s hard to argue that it hasn’t been a Knickly two days.
It started when New York drops a home game to the Pelicans, competing like an actual NBA team for a half, before playing a third quarter that saw a 9 point deficit balloon to 25. In that period Knicks star Carmelo Anthony got himself ejected. And tough-guy Kyle O’Quinn decided to try to end the career of Anthony Davis. Or as I like to call Davis, “the super star most likely to move teams and win a championship in his next stop.” Way to make him cross off the Big Apple as a destination, KOQ. (Although it’s hard to argue that New York, given the current state of affairs, was a destination for The Brow anyway.)
On the court last night, the team toys with the Sixers, taking them about as seriously as the adults playing the nieces and nephew’s in a backyard game after Thanksgiving dinner. Of course despite their mediocre effort, the Knicks had the opportunity to close the game out on the final possession. Instead of running a play that might give them a chance to score, they allowed their point guard to dribble into a triple team and … well … I know you know what happened next.
If their on the court performance wasn’t enough, reports surfaced that the franchise’s main off-season acquisition, Derrick Rose, went AWOL for Monday’s game. Supposedly he left the team to go back to Chicago, but didn’t notify management with a call, text, or email, despite going to an airport. (You know the place you wait for hours doing nothing but play with your phone.)
Apparently Rose’s punishment was a $500 fine and a plane ticket back to New York. Not only is $500 less than the Knicks paid per game for Rose, it’s probably half the amount that might be worth for him to stop and pick off the floor if he dropped it. Surely it’s not even the cost of the plane ticket back to New York.
The Knicks’ suits botched their handling of this situation, much like the team bungled their last 2 games. There’s a reason some franchises win year after year. Good owners hire competent front offices and the trickle down effects results in wins. Maybe not every year, but surely more often than not. And if that were ever in doubt, look at the Los Angeles Lakers, and how their dynasty has suffered since the death of Jerry Buss. Or look at how Mark Cuban turned around perennial loser Dallas into a solid franchise.
The Knicks lose on the court, because the ownership hires the wrong front office staff, who acquire the wrong players. Our team is so incompetent that they can’t even get some basics right, like how to discipline players or what basketball philosophy to enact on the court.
This will not change, because ownership is blind to the problem. Everyone who has suffered through an addiction problem, or knows someone who has, understands there is no progress until the addict can admit they have a problem. Yet before the start of the last season MSG thought the Knicks were a playoff team, and they ended with the worst record in franchise history. This year, our “Big 3” was supposed to make the playoffs and then some. Yet statistical minded folk knew both teams were doomed to the lottery from the start.
I started this blog in 2004, and the Knicks have given me 10 losing seasons and only 4 playoff appearances. And I’m pretty sure every fan here reading this has been a Knick fan for at least that long. Last night I had my notes ready for a game recap. I had some witty ideas of a Russian/Wikileaks hacked version. But then New York put on their perverse show, and a wave of disgust came over me — and I couldn’t stomach the joy to go through with writing about them in a fun & light way. So all I’m left with is this:
The Knicks Suck.