NBA

The Sad Season of the Knicks Comes to an End – by Duncan Freeman

As the NBA season comes to a close, we look back yet again on a disappointing season for Knicks basketball. Last year was the same—Oh, Carmelo is so good (he is), he’ll lead the team, and all these young players will help the Knicks make a playoff run! Which means we could win the final! Well, that didn’t happen, and it hasn’t happened since 1973. We got back there twice—in 1994 and 1999—when the Knicks came close to winning but never quite could.
From then on, we’ve been your classic middle-of-the-pack team—occasionally 7th or 8th seed, but never making it past the conference finals, even with Melo and Stoudemire (A.K.A Stat). This was the story last year as the Knicks missed the playoffs and we looked forward to the new season with Melo as a free agent and thinking about the future of our team. Well, Melo singed a five-year deal and with all the chaos of LeBron, Love, and Wiggins, the Knicks made their own five-star acquisition—the famous Phil Jackson, coach of the two greatest shooting guards to play the game. After winning 11 championships as a coach—and two as a player on the Knicks—Phil would try out his famous triangle offense in another big city.   The fans were excited. I was excited! Finally, a change. We all thought better things were to come.
But from opening day, you could see it would be a long season. The Knicks were quickly down by 30, and many fans expressed their anger with language too vulgar for BenSPN. One balding, frustrated man ripped off his Christmas-themed Melo jersey and threw it into the crowd, so clearly angered by yet another terrible start to a season for the Knicks.
After winning the next game, analysts changed their opinions and expectations.  Perhaps this could work. Maybe the Kicks and Phil Jackson could do this. And then the team went on the longest losing streak the city of New York had ever seen. At some point, the Kicks just started to tank. Whether it was the countless close losses, the injuries to Melo and Stat, or maybe the trades. Ah, yes, the trades: Shumpert, who on the Knicks couldn’t shoot or play defense, is now the staple defensive player and three-point shooter off the Cavs’ bench. Then J.R, an inconsistent scorer and wimpy defender on the Knicks yet he now starts for Cleveland and is bringing new energy to that contender.
After this, the fans and analysts learned to expect no more wins. Then the dropping of Stat left us with…only Melo. And then even he was shut down for the season with knee issues. This has left the Knicks with draft picks, boatloads of money, a couple of scrubs, and Andrea Bargnani.
The fans don’t even boo anymore; they have come to expect terrible losses. Even Spike Lee has been sitting in his seat the entire game instead of getting up and yelling. This season is long over and has been for a long time. Fans have showed up with bags over their heads because they were so ashamed to watch the Knicks yet now we again look forward, but this time with optimism. A historic and great franchise in a city equally great. Once destroyed by the likes of Isaiah Thomas and Mike D’Antoni, the fans now look forward to the magic of what Phil Jackson can do in the offseason.
Phil has to prove to New York that he can build a team and put New York back on the map. There are skeptics. Phil has not had to rebuild before. Phil hasn’t even had a front office job before the Knicks because he is so used to coaching. He has always been given great teams to coach and he still has to improve ours if we can make a run at the title. But we have faith—we have to have faith—that this great basketball mind can fix our disheveled franchise.
But after all it could all come down to chance, a lottery pick, or even the selfishness of a certain free agent.

The Annual Anti-Boston Issue #1 – The Celtics’ Nonexistent Future (by Emile Smigielski)

Foreword by Ben Drevitch

As I think many of you realize, benspn is very anti-NY sports, so to make up for this bias, we are inviting guest bloggers to write anti-Boston posts. The first runs tonight and this series will continue with anti-Boston articles from other guest bloggers until the end of March. We hope to make this an annual thing so please enjoy and without further ado, Emile Smigielski:

Let me start off by saying that Celtic GM Danny Ainge has no idea what he is doing. He may have an incredible number of draft picks at his disposal and quite a few young players too, but he doesn’t understand the rebuilding process.

There are a few important things to do when rebuilding: First, hire a terrible coach, like the Lakers did with Byron Scott, so that you will be sure to lose a ton of game. After all, the purpose of rebuilding is to get good young talent from the draft, and the more games you lose the better chance you have to draft better talent.

So, if you want to be successfully rebuilding a team, which the Celtics obviously are—any team that starts Evan Turner, Brandon Bass, and Tyler Zeller is most definitely not trying to be competitive—why did Ainge trade for Isaiah Thomas, at least a Top 20 combo guard, when the Celtics are already invested in Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley, their two young guards? Thomas will only take minutes away from those two guards, thus minimizing their possibility for development. Not only will Thomas take away valuable developmental minutes away from the youngsters (though he isn’t too old himself), but he will also help this Boston team win games, the exact opposite of what they should be trying to do.

This is not the only instance of Ainge not understanding what is needed of a rebuilding team. During the latest offseason, he decided to sign free agent Evan Turner, a wing player who would take minutes away from Marcus Smart and fellow rookie James Young, inhibiting their development and adding more talent to a team whose purpose is to lose games making things look even more upside-down for the team.

It seems as if Danny Ainge does not understand the purpose of rebuilding even though he seems quite set on achieving it.

More Sad News for the Knicks

The Knicks have recently bought out Amar’e Stoudemire’s contract (essentially releasing him from the team) and Carmelo will not be playing for the Knickerbockers for the rest of the season even though he played the All-Star Game like a punk, New York has finally completed the transition into having an all D-League roster. Knicks fans finally have nothing to see at Madison Square Garden except for an astounding lack of water fountains. Knicks fans also are unable to say that, even with the worst record in the league, they still have two star players on their roster.

But for now expect to see blowouts against the Knicks that are so routine you might be better off watching Mike Tyson Mysteries or Friends reruns on Netflix.

The Sad Season of the Knicks Continues

The Knicks’ season continues with more despair than hope. As of now the team is the worst  in the NBA with their pitiful 10-41 record; they are even worse than the lowly 76ers, but the team from Philly has a great future, unlike the New Yorkers. What makes it even more sad is that Knicks owner James Dolan told a lifelong fan to go ahead and root for the Nets after being criticized by him in an email. Dolan even called the fan an alcoholic. This may mean that no one will be showing up for Knicks games anymore because…

  1. The tickets are too expensive to watch D-leaguers.
  2. It’s just no fun.
  3. The t-shirt cannon gunner has the most accurate 3-point shot on the squad.

P.S. benspn will be having more on the Knicks’ sad season with a special guest blogger!

LeBron

LeBron James has just opted out of his contract with the Heat. So while we wait for another “Decision” lets look back to the last one where LeBron was right about one thing, what was it again? not one, not two, no it was – oh yes – NOT THREE.

Derek Fisher

Derek Fisher, the new Knicks head coach, vows to end the Knicks title drought. So basically Fisher is saying he will beat Lebron, and one of the western conference powerhouse teams, with Carmelo if he stays, and a bunch of old idiots who are overpayed and like to punch fire-extinguishers for fun. This team even with Carmelo didn’t even make the playoffs, this year, even when a team under .500 got in.

Stan Van Gundy

Stan Van Gundy, former coach of Shaq and Dwight Howard, just signed a contract to be the Detroit Pistons’ coach  and president of basketball operations. So watch out because in five years, once SVG transforms Andre Drummond into the best center of his time, and creates a playoff team, a Pistons star will want him out, and get him canned, at least if everything goes according to every previous coaching job he has ever had.

The Donald Sterling Problem

I’m sure many of you have heard the racist remarks allegedly made by Clippers owner, Donald Sterling. The remarks have left everyone scratching their heads what to do. The Clippers players cannot boycott their team and damage their championship dreams, but they did wear inside-out shirts during their practice before Game 4 against the Warriors. The shirts, with the Clippers logo hidden, were meant to symbolize how everyone is the same on the inside. The protest made news in the NBA, but the Clippers still lost the game.

The NBA also has not made a decision on what to do about Sterling. The only action they have taken is asking Sterling not to go to Game 4 in Golden State. Michael Jordan, the Bobcats owner, said that he was outraged, and encouraged Adam Silver, the NBA’s commissioner, to take action quickly.  Other owners have spoken up, including Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé and Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen. President Obama, LeBron James, and Magic Johnson have also spoken up.

While the NBA decides what to do, many sponsors have cut ties with the Clippers organization. State Farm, Kia Motors America, Red Bull and Sprint have all said they will suspend their sponsorships with the Clippers.

While everyone on Earth debates what to do about Sterling, my simple solution is just to bar him from the Clippers organization just like MLB did twice with George Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner was banned for two years once, and later banned for life, although both suspensions were reduced. I believe that the NBA should suspend Sterling for four years. In that time, Sterling should be able to sell the team for about $575 million, $563 million more than he paid for the team. That would turn a profit for Sterling and the league.