Berman Boils Over

This was written four days ago, but I didn't see it until now. Apparently, after the starting lineup debacle on Wednesday in Orlando, Post beat writer Marc Berman just blew a fuse. The result? Several days of vacation and this world-weary comment on the Post's Knicks Blog:

"I've got a basketball hangover from last night - still trying to figure it out - more confusing than Shakespeare's 'Comedy of Errors.'' The only logical explanation is Isiah Thomas is pulling a Larry Brown and trying to get fired. By the end of the Orlando night, Eddy Curry was more peeved than Zach Randolph, who vented before the game after being yanked from the starting lineup. Of course 2/3 of that starting lineup was changed at halftime. Isiah truly is a man of convictions."

Pretty standard Knicks postgame nausea, right? But then Berman provides this interesting factoid:

"Last night, Orlando president Pat Williams gave me his new book, 'The Ultimate Coaches' Clinic.' The book contains hundreds of coaches giving their tips on coaching. Isiah Thomas' advice is on page 98 and is laughable. Thomas: 'There are two types of coaches. 1. Values-based caoches [sic] who are concerned with the lives of the players.' 2. 'Just-coach-the-game coaches and that's it.' You have to decide who you are and build your principles around that. You have to make up your mind to be one or the other. 'Yes, Isiah, time to make up your mind who you are. At 8-20, the Knicks are on pace for 24 wins, one head of Larry Brown's original Team Titanic. I'm staying out here in Florida the next few days to escape the madness."

Team Titanic? Another great nickname. So let's start calling the 2007-2008 Knicks Team Titanic 2.

And lets hope that the Knicks don't drive any more sportswriters to soul-numbing despair.

Incidentally, New York is now 8-21. That's on pace for 22.6 wins (normally I'd round that up to 23, but these are the Knicks). It's also the fourth-worst record in the league. Miami, Memphis and Minnesota are worse.

But things are worse than that. The Knicks have a league-leading 14 losses by 10 points or more.They also have five losses by at least 26 points. And of the team's eight victories, only one came against a winning team - Denver.

Big Man Psychology

Chicago Bulls 100, New York Knicks 83

So with the shit hitting the fan as loss followed loss, the False Prophet pulled out this gem from his bag of tricks on Sunday - the old flip-flop switcharoo. After Isiah Thomas bungled his unvaunted lineup change on Wednesday, he came back with the inevitable correction against the Bulls: Zach Randolph plays, Eddy Curry sits.

And that made Howard Beck of the Times give us this:

"The day began with Curry out of the starting lineup for the first time in two seasons, the latest desperation move by Coach Isiah Thomas to break his team’s funk. The day ended with another rout — a 100-83 loss to the Chicago Bulls — followed by a tedious marathon interview at Curry’s locker stall, where he was asked 50 different ways about the benching while his teammates dressed and left. Curry said the demotion left him numb, which on balance seemed preferable to depressed. 'It definitely bugs me,' Curry said. 'I think I’m a starter in this league. But I guess not on this team.'"

There's something tragicomic about this exercise in pop psychology. Imagine the scene: Dozens of modern scribes gather round the bloated man-child of the moment, raining down questions as he offers sheer pathos in return.

Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford and Stephon Marbury get their bench faces ready

And as Beck has done so wonderfully recently, that lede was followed with the most casual and subtle of putdowns. Where other writers scream their anger, Beck applies calculated disdain.

"Then again, Curry may just need to wait a few days for Thomas to change his mind again. Thomas has shaken up the lineup in two straight games, with two straight losses to show for it, and seems inclined to keep tinkering until something clicks. The Knicks (8-21) would seem to have little to lose anymore, aside from a few wispy strands of morale floating through the Madison Square Garden corridors. They lost four straight games and 10 of their last 12 to close out 2007, never showing any reason to believe they will be better in 2008."

In the meantime, the Knicks did their best to help new Bulls head coach Jim Boylan pull a Lawrence Frank. Maybe this is the break Chicago needed on the way to a playoff season.

Alan Hahn, incidentally, delivered this nice rant on Knicks Fix before gametime. It's enjoyable enough to copy almost in its entirety:

"When Isiah Thomas strolls into the Garden around 10:20 a.m. this morning -- barely 90 minutes before tip-off -- you can't help but wonder if a sense of urgency really exists at all. As Walt Clyde Frazier might say, now's the time for stressin' and obsessin'! Now's the time for dark circles under the eyes. Pulling out hair. Burning the candle at both ends. Sleeping in the office with video tape piled up around you. Now's not the time for giving two days off in between losses and after you threaten lineup changes.Now's not the time for inviting Roy Jones, Jr. into practice. Now's not the time to shuffle the lineup like a deck of cards without making sure every single player knows and understands what his new role will be in the change. I'm tossing the keys on the table here. Running out of things to blog at this point."

That's understandable. Hahn has been at this a lot longer than I have. But I'll trudge on in the meantime. Taking a daily dump on these fools who play for the Knicks is too much fun.

By the way, remember when Knicks-Bulls meant something special - the Garden going crazy, a super-intense matchup, a game that kept New York still for a few hours. Those memories are starting to get the dull patina of old age.

Next up: Kings at Knicks at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Best-case scenario - Ron Artest makes a triumphant return to New York by scoring 38 and shutting down Jamal Crawford so completely that Crawford announces his immediate retirement.
Worst-case scenario - Ron Artest demands a trade to the Knicks and promises to pump some life back into the team.

Doonesbury Weighs In

This Doonesbury strip comes from Alan Hahn's "Knicks Fix" blog at Newsday. It ran there several weeks ago, and I couldn't resist adding it here. Now IiW is strictly non-political, so just bear through the beginning and wait for the punch line in the final frame.

Bad Curry

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Big Useless

One more thing about Eddy Curry. 82games.com did some individual defensive rankings back in summer 2005. Among the 43 centers ranked according to their defensive contributions, Curry was 38th, right ahead of Mark Blount and just behind Nazr Mohammed. Yeah, that was two years ago, but it's still a good indication of how worthless Curry is.

So let's go over this one final time. Curry doesn't play defense (Scott Skiles, his former head coach with the Chicago Bulls, once said he needed to put more effort into jumping), is a lackluster rebounder and is one of the biggest turnover machines in the NBA. He also has a big contract doling out $12 million per year, the worst +/- on the Knicks, a heart problem and no apparent desire to try harder.

And for all this, the Knicks gave up Tim Thomas, Michael Sweetney, Jermaine Jackson, a first-rounder in 2006 that became Tyrus Thomas, the switcharoo in the 2007 first round that netted Joakim Noah for Chicago, a second-rounder last summer that eventually became Kyrylo Fesenko and a second-rounder in the 2009 draft. In other words, the Knicks won't be done paying for this trade until 2009.

So to go with his nickname King of Turnovers, I hereby also decree that Curry shall be known as Big Useless.

82 Games

Zach Randolph, the best player on the
Knicks, according to 82games.com

Remember that graphic from the Times a few days ago, the one that showed how Curry and Randolph played together using +/- data? It came from a site called 82games.com. I've now placed that site's Knicks page in my links at right.

Reading through it is a fun statistical excursion, with some interesting results. The two Knicks with the best ratings on the site are rookies Wilson Chandler and Randolph Morris, who both basically never play. So eliminating the garbage-time kids from the equation, only three players have a positive rating: Zach Randolph at 2.2, Jamal Crawford at 2.1 and David Lee at 1.3.

The rest of the Knicks? Well, they just are bad for the team statiscally. Mardy Collins bottoms out in the ratings at -21.5, while Malik Rose follows at -11.5. But those two don't play much, earning only 9 and 11% of burn time on the floor. The third worst player is a starter, though - Quentin Richardson, trailing the pack with a rating of -8.0. To provide some context, Spencer Hawes of the Sacramento Kings has the same rating. Players like the Hornets' Hilton Armstrong and the Bucks' Royal Ivey are a little bit ahead.

As for Randolph's team-leading 2.2, that's just a tad behind what Ime Udoka is doing for the Spurs.

Despite his low rating, Rose leads the Knicks in +/- with 22, though his playing time could easily make that a statistical anomaly. Only two other players are on the plus side, and they are - you guessed it - the seldom seen rookies again. Eddy Curry brings up the rear with an abysmal mark of -196, despite being on the floor only 54% of the time.

The site also provides stats for five-man groups to see who plays best together. Four of the top five quintets have a negative +/-. The lone exception is the group of Crawford, Fred Jones, Richardson (which is really surprising), Lee and Randolph.

Eddy Curry, "King of Turnovers"

And best of all, 82games just completely savages Curry. If the analysis is correct, he might just be the most useless player in the league considering his exorbitant salary. And that's not even taking into account his heart problems (medical) and his heart problems (motivational).

In an article from last March/April, Curry had the most offensive fouls in the league with 68 (far ahead of runner-up Amare Stoudemire). Randolph, incidentally, was third. Curry was also eighth in "lost-ball" turnovers (Randolph tied for ninth) and first in three-second violations with a stunning 34. 82games promptly gave him the title "King of Turnovers."

On a sidenote, Jamal Crawford was revealed as a particularly risky ballhandler. He led the NBA in palming violations and tied for sixth in double dribbles.

Assuming the Worst

Orlando Magic 110, New York Knicks 96

It's not often that sportswriters go to a game assuming one of the coaches is an idiot. Despite any notions of impartiality, sportswriters certainly have some assumptions: Peyton Manning is a good passer, Bill Belichick knows what he's doing, Tiger Woods will probably pull away down the stretch.

But you don't see this often: The head coach is a raging moron, and we should have expected the worst.

But the age of caution is long gone in New York, especially when the Knicks are concerned. And sportswriters are gleefully unleashing some verbal uppercuts. The Post weighed in most savagely after Wednesday's loss to the Magic, with writer Marc Berman delivering this lede:

"Isiah Thomas' ballyhooed changes to the starting lineup last night caused more chaos and confusion."

But the article didn't end there. The hits just kept coming:

"With Thomas taking another page from the 'how-to-get-fired' handbook, the Knicks (8-20) notched their 20th loss last night, folding in the fourth quarter in a 110-96 defeat to the Magic at Amway Arena. The only thing Thomas accomplished was Curry and Randolph weren't on the court together all night. In the land of make-believe, this was unbelievable even by Thomas standards. After two days, Thomas stuck with his new starting lineup for two minutes. Then he had an entirely new alignment to start the second half. ... But after Curry picked up two fouls 2:06 into the game, Randolph was inserted and Curry was not heard from again. That is, until the start of the fourth quarter, when Thomas inexplicably attempted to defrost Curry, who was shocked to be put back in."

"How-to-get-fired" handbook, land of make-believer, defrost Curry - that's enough vitriol to make me giggle with pleasure. Add to that the hyperbolic, punny header: "Magic Kingdumb," followed by the equally insulting sub-headline, "Isiah Bungles Lineup Shakeup in Orlando." My only regret is that I didn't actually see the game, my night being occupied with prior plans.

Ken Berger of Newsday delivered an almost equally vicious lede in his gamer:

"Only the Knicks could make a drastic lineup change and have it blow up in their face in two minutes and six seconds. Only the Knicks could bench the wrong big man, anger both of them, bring the guy who should have been benched to begin with into the game after he'd sat for 34 minutes, and turn a three-point game into a blowout in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter. Confused? So are the Knicks. So, evidently, is the coach. Nothing makes sense with this team anymore, not after last night's inexplicable 110-96 loss to the Orlando Magic. 'We're all just trying to find answers here,' Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said. Sure. Wrong ones."

Howard Beck of the Times was a little more sedate, but even he had to offer some criticism:

"Coach Isiah Thomas furiously shuffled bodies all night in a vain search for an identity on a team that has none."

With blows this voluble landing, it seems fair to ask if the sportswriters were piling on. The answer is simple - of course they were, and the Knicks deserved it. What's more, piling on is fun in this situation. It's what this blog is dedicated to.

My last question was will Curry bit the dust? I'm still not sure if the answer is yes or no. Despite pre-game speculation almost unanimous on a switch of Curry for David Lee, Isiah kept Curry in the lineup over the far more productive Randolph, who was benched for Lee. But then Curry played less than five minutes overall, giving way to Randolph, who played most of the game and provided plenty of offense.

The other lineup change was even more surprising as the False Prophet put in Jared Jeffries for Fred Jones. No matter what Jones has done wrong over the past month, I think just about everyone knows that Jeffries is not the answer.

The important thing is that the Knicks are 8-20. Unfortunately, the pack of terrible teams is large this year, but New York has a good opportunity to secure the title of "Worst in the East" soon. The Knicks' biggest rival now is the Miami Heat, who are a half-game back.

Next up: Bulls at Knicks at noon on Sunday.
Best-case scenario - Jim Boylan's rise to head coach spurs the Bulls to a 40-point win. Buoyed by the success, the Bulls go on to sweep the Knicks over the season, ending with Viktor Khryapa dropping 60 points in a couple of months.
Worst-case scenario - The Knicks are so impressed they decide to trade their next two first-round picks for Viktor Khryapa.

Will Curry Bite the Dust?

So by tomorrow morning's shootaround, we will all know what the hullabaloo's all about. Isiah Thomas admitted after the loss on Sunday to the Lakers that it was time to shake things up in the starting lineup.

Cue the thunder and drama. Almost all observers have assumed that Eddy Curry will get the hook and be replaced as a starter by David Lee. Unfortunately, this development has the real and very scary potential of actually improving the Knicks.

I mean, that's quite a notion - the only player on the team who clearly cares about winning should start. It only took Isiah four seasons to figure out that in the pampered NBA superstar universe, a big difference in effort and motivation trumps a small difference in talent.

Anyway, I enjoyed this article from the Times' Howard Beck about the problems of playing Curry and Zach Randolph (above left) at the same time. Some of the nice tidbits:

"Randolph (a power forward) and Curry (a center) are, of course, not the team’s only problems. The Knicks are terrible defensively, and have been for several seasons. They are stocked with gifted one-on-one scorers who struggle to mesh in a team game. They lack a true, undisputed leader."
...
"Thomas has promoted the idea that Randolph’s outside shooting ability makes him a complementary player to Curry. But all three scouts interviewed for this article disagreed."
...
"All three scouts recommended moving Curry or Randolph to the bench and minimizing their minutes together. Only one of the three scouts expressed any belief that the tandem might improve over time. Then again, the Knicks’ problems may be much bigger than their big men. The Pacific Division scout said the Knicks simply lacked an identity. 'Certain teams, you know what they do,' said the scout, pointing to Washington (which runs the Princeton motion offense) and New Orleans (pick-and-rolls with Chris Paul), among others. 'Everyone has principles or cores. New York, they’ve got a lot of individual offensive talent, but they don’t have, it seems to me, any principles, any cores.'"

No principles, no cores. That's a nice summary of the state of things in New York.

The graphic (above) that accompanied the article was also interesting. It's about time plus/minus was regularly calculated as an NBA stat like it is for hockey. Curry's mark of -11 overall and -16 while playing without Randolph is simply astonishing. He's also been on the negative side during every season in his career.

Hail the Daily News

In keeping with the theme of Isiah Thomas' four-year anniversary over the weekend, check out this retrospective by Frank Isola of the Daily News. It opens with one of those classic attempts by Isiah to rationalize the mess he created:

"We started from deep, deep, deep in the hole. We started with a cap number that was probably the highest of any NBA team in history and a low talent level and a building that was empty. Now we have a building that is full, probably one of the most profitable franchises in the NBA. Our cap number's down and our talent base is good. We're young, we're improving and we still have a lot of room for growth. Now we've got to put some wins on the other side of the ledger."

Ah yes, winning - that's the only accomplishment Isiah and the Knicks are missing. Too goddamn bad it's the only important one. And by the way, what's the salary number now? Is Isiah even aware that the NBA has a luxury tax and not a salary cap?

Isola's column is a nice, albeit brief look back at four years that could be a primer on how to suck in the NBA. Some of the Isiah's early, stupid moves are now quite forgotten after the fiascos of Jerome James and Jared Jeffries in the past year. But Isola reminds us of the idiocy of yesteryear, highlighting such personnel gems as the Steve Francis acquisition. Good times. It also included a few moves I didn't know about, like Isiah firing Mike Saunders.

It's always fun to trash something in print (witness this blog). That's why movie critics love what they do. They find new putdowns for the latest on-screen dreck. But it's tough to rail against Isiah in an interesting and fresh way after people have been doing it for four years. That's why I liked Isola's column.


Also, major props to the Daily News for those "Fire Isiah" tearaway pages (pictured above). Yeah, it might not be impartial, but aren't we a little past that by now?

Four Years Gone

Scott Layden was a terrible GM, but he has been completely
overshadowed by the Isiah Thomas crapfest.

December 22, 2003 - a date which will live in infamy for Knicks fans - was four years gone on Saturday. Do you remember where you were when Isiah Thomas was hired as the Knickerbockers' new general manager?

I remember exactly how I learned the news. Sitting at the kitchen table, home from college for winter break, my brother came storming into the room and announced the tidbit he had just gleaned from the internet: Scott Layden, the maddeningly quiet and shady presence in the luxury box had finally been fired. His four-year reign of idiocy as GM of the Knicks was finally over. It was a span that had seen New York transformed from a perennial contender into a yearly also-ran, and Layden, a product of NBA nepotism with the Utah Jazz, was gone. My heart filled with joy.

A second later, my brother delivered the crushing letdown: Isiah Thomas had been hired as the new replacement. Rarely has such sheer exultation and utter despair coexisted so closely in consecutive moments. Neither the Knicks nor I have recovered since that fateful day.

Above, from left to right, Isiah Thomas, James Dolan and Steve Mills, the Garden's President of Sports Operations, pose together after Thomas was hired as the new Knicks GM in 2003. The team has been a catastrophe ever since.

I knew my team was in big trouble immediately. Isiah's track record spoke for itself: complete failure at every job he took since hanging up his jersey (and that, of course, is a long, woeful tale for another time).

Since then, my worst fears have been confirmed. The execrable on-court product of the Layden era has now become an embarrassment to the city in almost all areas of the organization.

The biggest surprise is how much patience the fans have given Isiah, who seems to survive at times merely thanks to the sleazy charm of the bullshit, pasted-on uber-smile that has obviously melted James Dolan's heart.

Layden got four years, and that was probably two years too long for that dipshit. Now Isiah has passed that mark and appears secure for the future despite recently earning his 201st loss in New York.

Hasn't it been enough? When will the suffering end?

Links Are Up

IiW's links section is up and features connections to such august sites at ESPN.com, SI.com and NBA.com. There are also links to the Knicks/basketball pages at the major area newspapers, including the Times, Post, Daily News, Newsday, Star-Ledger, Record and Sun. To whet your appetite, here's a column from the Post's Dan Martin in which Phil Jackson compares Isiah Thomas to George W. Bush.

Yikes. I'd probably avoid making the same direct comparison myself, but it's not the first time someone has linked the two (you know, for sucking at their jobs completely).

More links will be added. In the meantime, you'll notice no link to the Knicks' homepage. The reason is simple: I want to avoid sending anyone there and thus contributing any revenue to the Knicks through online advertising. Hey, we're all doing our part to make Cablevision crumble.

Fire Isiah

What else is new, right? Don't we all sometimes wake up late in the night, with that familiar refrain singing in the closed chorus halls of our unconscious ... "Fire Isiah, Fire Isiah, Fire Isiah, Fire Isiah, Fire Isiah?"

Thankfully, The Onion is always ready at hand to satirize our worst and best excesses. Behold, a Knicks board meeting grows rowdy.

As for the chant itself, I feel it's growing a bit tired. Not that it should ever stop. Let the Garden rafters ring with our cries of ire and sadness. But we should all reward cleverness above all in sporting catcalls. Originality, too.

Well, I'm no master of brevity or the witty putdown. But there's a lot of material to work with here: anything negative about popcorn, how Zeke rode Laimbeer's coattails to two rings, the Pacers called and they want Isiah back because now they don't have an excuse for being mediocre. Any foible, any chink in the armor is fair game when the battle is against pure idiocy and incompetence.

Go forth, Knicks fans and warriors, and revel in the havoc you can create. When a tear rolls down Isiah's face during a game, we'll all go out for a drink ... and then burn him in effigy.

"And at 6:04 of the third quarter ...

Los Angeles Lakers 95, New York Knicks 90

... we hear the first 'Fire Isiah' chants of the night."

So sayeth Al Trautwig, who stepped in for rare play-by-play duties beside Walt "Clyde" Frazier. Trautwig is always welcome. When he or Mike Breen are paired with Frazier, the game often sounds more like a baseball game (no, that doesn't mean it's boring). All three are comfortable and practiced enough to provide rigorous analysis while providing background information, stories and general thoughts about the players, teams and league.

But to get back to the point, I'm surprised it took that long given how lackluster the Knicks were throughout the early going. That deficit hit double digits early on and got up to 25 fairly quickly in the third quarter.

But once again, the Knicks had just enough life to avoid another juicy blowout and not nearly enough balls/clutchness/non-crapitude to take the final step and get a win.

Whew. The Knicks can't afford any wins right now. Isiah Thomas might get another contract extension.

My favorite part of the game, of course, was Clyde and Trautwig's discussion of how the Knicks players obviously don't give two shits. The venerable duo said they'd rarely seen a team so enervated and that opposing players were even beginning to comment on how lifeless New York seemed. As Clyde noted, players rarely criticize opposing players for not trying hard. The Knicks, it seems, are just so bad that other teams can't help but say something.

So Crawford shook off his phase of suckiness from the first half (remember that airball on the trey attempt) and netted 31 points. I still say he's a waste of talent.

Kobe Bryant was the true star, making all the big plays at the right times. He poured on 39 points, passing the 20,000 mark for his career in the third quarter as the youngest ever to do so. He also had 11 rebounds and eight assists and could have put together a triple-double if he wanted one.

Another highlight was Clyde saying that Eddy Curry could take advantage of his mismatch with Andrew Bynum because of the Lakers center's youth and inexperience. That was followed by Bynum promptly swatting away a weak shot by Curry, who spent most of the second half on the bench as usual. He's also in the picture above, presumably getting another shot blocked.

And then there was the final play, such a big screw-up and one of those moments of hilarious stupidity that only the Knicks could have made it happen.

From Bart Hubbuch's gamer in the Post:
"The Knicks' final sequence yesterday was poorly designed and even more poorly executed. In other words, it was a microcosm of their miserable season."

Well put.

Next up: Knicks at Magic at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
Best-case scenario - Isiah cuts half of the roster then signs himself as a point guard, starting the game on the floor and then promptly tearing up his knee. His injury helps the Knicks rally Willis Reed-style to a two-point, triple-OT loss.
Worst-case scenario - Dwight Howard breaks Wilt Chamberlain's record of 55 rebounds in a game, finishing with 73 boards. He then swells into a new Godzilla-like creature and battles Matthew Broderick in the Garden's catacombs while trying to lay eggs.

Where the Knicks Happen

Just one of my favorite videos of the past year, from the haunting piano solo to the picture of James Dolan mid-cackle in a hunched-over, Tim-Curry-is-evil pose. It brings tears to my eyes.

I think that "Knicks Happen" could become an alternate phrase for the classic "Shit Happens." It's sort of like how "Najeh Happens" became popular after NFL running back Najeh Davenport had his infamous defecatory encounter with a laundry hamper.

Vote for the Rebels

Like Howard Beale (right), the half-crazed, world-weary news anchor played by Peter Finch in "Network," some Knicks people just couldn't take it anymore. And they decided to follow that desperate man's famous dictum:

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. ... Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. ... All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!'"

And now, you have the chance to honor those courageous few who have taken their protests to a new level. The New York Daily News is offering the chance to vote for Anucha Browne Sanders or the fan duo of Ed Barnes and Jason Silverstein as New York's sportsperson of the year.

Anucha, of course, sued Isiah and Dolan's asses for being a bunch of junior-high pervs. Barnes was the one who threw his jersey on the floor in disgust, while Silverstein held up a sign that said "Fire Isiah" and got booted from the Garden. I wonder how Garden security would handle the fans at big-time college football games. They'd probably have to kick everybody out eventually.

A Return to Normalcy

Charlotte Bobcats 105, New York Knicks 95


Normalcy, in this case, being both a made-up word (damn you, Harding) and a state of complete shittiness.

From Viv Bernstein's lede in The New York Times today:
"The fourth anniversary of the arrival of Isiah Thomas as president of the Knicks comes Saturday without fanfare or celebration. Instead there is only more misery for the Knicks."

What a surprise. Did anyone really believe that a fluke victory over the Cavaliers on Wednesday meant anything? Apparently, yes.

"Thomas, who had questioned the team's heart before that game, seemed to believe the Knicks had turned the season around with that win. But Friday's game was another step back. 'It's extremely disappointing and puzzling,' Thomas said."

What, exactly, is so goddamn puzzling, Isiah? You're an incompetent idiot, and the team has sucked for four years. David Lee (bless his heart) catching fire for one game doesn't mean an epiphany has suddenly gripped the minds of Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph, Quentin Richardson, Jared Jeffries and Jamal Crawford.

The 105-95 loss to the Bobcats had blowout potential early on, with Charlotte leading by double digits early in the second quarter. The hosts went up 71-44 early in the third, before Isiah pulled Q and Curry. After that, the bench players lead a bit of a comeback, rescuing Zeke from another 20+ point loss.

The Bobcats, of course, are 10-14 and fourth in the Southeast. But hey, that's good enough to beat on the hapless Knickerbockers (8-18 now).

My favorite part of Bernstein's article was the appended notes section that most newspapers attach to the end of gamers - the Times calls them "Rebounds":

"Isiah Thomas did not get completely away from the jeers and calls for his dismissal that come nightly at Madison Square Garden. One fan held a sign during Friday's game that read, 'Hey Isiah, Santa's got your pink slip.' There were a handful of chants of 'Fire Thomas.'"

I'm just absolutely delighted by this news. There are several possibilities here: The Knicks have fans down in Charlotte willing to go the extra mile to show Isiah just how completely he is reviled; hatred of Thomas has become a nationwide fad, a pursuit for the truly committed; Bobcats fans have seen how the Garden crowd gets its groove on every night and decided they needed to have some fun too. Good times all around. Plus, bonus points for the "Fire Thomas." It's good to shake things up occasionally from the somewhat staid "Fire Isiah." Let's get creative, people.

One final point. Where exactly was Howard Beck? Has the Times' beat guy just gotten so miserable watching the same putrefaction night after night that he just couldn't take it anymore?

Next up: Lakers at Knicks on Sunday at noon. Best possibility - David Lee smacks Curry upside the head instead of high-fiving during a substitution. Worst possibility - The Knicks win by 20, Kobe tells the media he's dying to play for the Knicks and Dolan announces his engagement to Isiah.

Four Years of Crappiness

Today - Saturday, December 22, 2007 - marks the four-year anniversary of the Isiah Thomas regime at the New York Knicks. Up to this point, I was content to complain privately, unload my derision upon friends and mull in my anger and self-pity over how much Thomas and his evil overlord, Cablevision chairman and Madison Square Garden head honcho James Dolan (also known as the two morons standing to the right) have destroyed the Knicks.

Maybe the fans only fully woke up this season, but the idiotic duo that run the Knicks have been destroying the NBA's signature franchise since they came to power. The result has been a catastrophe, and there's no hope on the horizon.

Thankfully, I am now heaping my derision onto the blog-reading public. So enjoy all the ire, blather, head-smacking exasperation and seething rage I have that will be broadcast gleefully in the months ahead.

Well, let's begin.

-Blocho