Who are the New York Knickerbockers?
by Leo
As the offseason winds down, but really apropos of nothing, I’d like to take stock of my favorite team – the New York Knicks. This isn’t a dissection of roster moves and player stats rather, it’s a higher level discussion about where the Knicks have been and where they’re trying to go. If you want a recap and assessment of the Knicks right now, check out the Further Reading section below.
In the beginning there was Isiah Thomas. While he ravaged the Knicks franchise with his arrogance and incompetence, New York edged closer and closer off the cliff. The team records from those years cannot begin to represent the atrocity of Thomas’s reign. Here, in the city basketball made its home, on the sport’s largest stage, the Knicks were disgracing New York’s good name. As team president, and eventually as head coach, Isiah took the city in his hands, and he squeezed.
Who can forget:
- The Larry Brown experiment – signed to a five-year $50 million deal only to be bought out a year later for $18.5 million.
- Or the Jerome James contract – 5 years, $30 million for a player who played a total of 4 games the last 2 seasons.
- Or the coaching ineptitude that culminated with a 45-point loss to the Boston Celtics.
While the on-court problems were (and this is debatable) victimless, the Horror that was the Isiah Era included two off court disasters – the Anucha Browne Sanders sexual harassment lawsuit and Marv Albert’s firing* as a result of James Dolan’s tyrannical media policies. These ruinous events revealed that the problems of this epoch originated from the actions of cocksure men who thought themselves untouchable. Hubris would lead to their fated downfall, and these events were a harbinger of things to come.
New York could not stand for this any longer. From deep within the bowels of Madison Square Garden, the collective soul of New York readied its war cry.
“Fire Isiah!”
“Fire Isiah!”
“Fire Isiah!”
On April 2, 2008 the clouds parted just a crack, and a ray of light shone though. Donnie Walsh – ironically, the person who drafted “Knick killer” Reggie Miller and built a team that rivaled the Knicks in its heyday – took over the reigns as Knicks team president.
And he, like Gandolf at Helms Deep, began to clear away the rot. His first act as president was to fire Isiah** and bring in Mike D’Antoni, mastermind of the revolutionary Phoenix Suns. With this changing of the guard, we arrive at the current state of the Knicks.
If these Knicks represent anything, it is potentiality. When you watch the Knicks play, you imagine LeBron James flying down the court in a Knicks uniform. You imagine seeing Wade’s unrelenting energy unleashed in D’Antoni’s system. You imagine Chris Paul and Chris Bosh blossoming under New York’s bright lights.
The reason why the Knicks are potential and nothing more is that the current Knicks roster is terrible. The recent changes in management and coaching staff has left New York with only the rawest of materials – a core of young, inexperienced, and unremarkable players. Things are not going to turn around as quickly as New York would like, in fact, the team, which finished 32-50 last year, has only gotten worse. They drafted Jordan Hill and Toney Douglas in the first round, neither of whom are big time draft picks. They pursued Kidd, Nash, and Grant Hill, only for them to resign with their current teams. They can’t even retain the two most popular players on their current roster – David Lee and Nate Robinson. The failures of this offseason are compounded by the fact that the Knicks do not have a first round draft pick in 2010 – they traded it to Utah. While New York has the resources, coaching staff, and the city to attract a big time franchise player, they do not have a roster ready to contend for a championship. Any player who comes to New York these next couple of years is walking into an era of reconstruction.
The future of the franchise rests on the shoulders of a player not yet on the roster. Walsh has been gearing up for the summer of 2010, but the possibility of an earth-shattering acquisition is becoming less and less likely. The shrinking salary cap and overall economic situation are causing players to negotiate contracts with their current teams. Free agents such as Kidd, Nash, and Grant Hill are only the first to secure their futures now instead of later – many others will follow. As more and more players resign with their own teams, the future of New York basketball gets dimmer and dimmer.
It’s impossible to predict the future but, if the Knicks swing and miss on big time free agents the next couple of summers, it will be a long time before winning basketball returns to New York.
Further Reading
A detailed analysis of New York’s 2009 offseason: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=13374
FreeDarko’s take on the importance of New York basketball: http://freedarko.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-is-it-gnawing-on-arkansas.html
The Baseline looks ahead to New York’s possible moves in 2011 and 2012: http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/The_Baseline/entry/view/28551/with_nash_gone,_what_will_the_knicks_do?
*****
*Albert, a New York announcer for 37 years, was fired because he criticized the Knicks’ play.
**Again, this is ironic because, while with the Pacers, Walsh gave Isiah his first head-coaching job in the NBA. He also gave Isiah a contract extension to coach to Pacers one year before firing him as head coach of the Knicks.
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Comments
yo i think you subconsciously made your header the knicks colors hahah. a true fan. nice blog.
or, did you do that on purpose?? hhaha you can delete my comments if you want to