So you're a gazillionaire owner of one of the biggest market pro basketball franchises on the planet. Maybe the biggest. Who cares if your team has the worst roster of overpaid, underachieving layabouts. Or that your insane coach/president is literally throwing stacks of hundred dollar bills into an incinerator on guys like Steve Francis, Malik Rose, Jerome James and Jared Jeffries. Or that with two first round picks in last year's draft, he went after two 2nd rounders. What does it matter that instead of Renaldo Balkman and Mardy Collins, you could have had Balkman and Marcus Williams, Rajon Rondo or Dan Gibson? Who cares if your coach mortgaged your future on Eddy Curry, and now you don't have a first round pick in one of the deepest drafts in years...
Wait a second. That should all really piss you off. Sure the Knicks are still making gobs of money, but just imagine how much more they'd make if they could make the playoffs, or even be a contender. So with the team performing better than it had in years, with Curry, Marbury and the rest of these salary thieves not embarrassing themselves on the nightly, you take the carrot they've been chasing and stick it in their mouths. It can't be denied; announcing Zeke's extension with plenty of time left to go in the season sent the Knicks on a pathetic slide.
In fact, for all the bravado about an improved team, they're barely better than the humiliation factory they ran last season. Plus, as Adrian Wojnarowski recently pointed out, the extension really means nothing. If they play bad enough, Isiah will get fired whether he has 1 year to go on his contract, or a thousand. Even Isiah knows this. But it seemed like the threat of unemployment had lit a fire under the Knickersuckers to play for the job of the coach they love so. So why take away their only motivation?
They clearly love Isiah, and why not? For all the rampant failure and underachieving that goes on in New York, the maddest I've ever seen any Knicks (including Isiah) get about anything, is when they think another team is running up the score on them. Thomas doesn't hold them to account for their failures, so they don't hold themselves either. Now there's talk of bringing in Rashard Lewis. I hope for his sake he makes the right decision and passes. What the hell do they even really need to go after 'Shard for? The problem isn't a lack of talented players (at literally every position). The problem is the atmosphere of mediocrity.
Just listen to Dolan when asked about the possibility of bringing in Jerry West, one of the most brilliant and unstoppable men in NBA history, both on the court and in the front office:
"I wouldn't say to Isiah, 'Hey, Isiah, Jerry's coming in and you've got to take it,'" Dolan said. "No, I would never do that." (Ken Berger, NewsDay)
Good call, why put the needs of the team, city and fans ahead of your borderline creepy relationship with Isiah Thomas, the man who ruined the Raptors, ruined the Pacers and now has ruined the Knicks. Why do that, when you can run a clinic on how to kill a franchise. That, my friends, is what we call "screwing the pooch."
Showing posts with label Francis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Francis. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Open Letter to Rashard Lewis: Listen Close
Dear 'Shardy,
Don't sign with New York. It would just end badly for you. I know how hard it is to resist the apple's draw. But if you want to be the #1 or, at least, #2 guy on a squad, don't go to New York. The fans are great, the arena is great, and the team could become not so bad. The problem is with a guy called Zeke. He has proven this year that he did amass enough talent to win some games. And people have kind of eased off him, because the Knicks are suddenly a possibility to make the playoffs. But the fact remains that a team with Franchise, Starbury, Frye, Lee, Crawford, Curry, Jeffries and Robinson, should flat out run away with the Atlantic division. The reason they haven't is because every dude on the team, other than Curry, is constantly looking over their shoulder for Thomas' next hairbrained scheme. Lee and Frye should both be blossoming into studs this year, instead they're constantly replacing each other and having their confidence and rhythm undermined. Crawford may be the best player on the team, and has no cohesiveness with the players next to him. Starbury is underachieving because he's a baby, but he has a point about being annoyed that the team would go out and get Francis. Francis is Francis, and Curry is Curry. Get where I'm going with this? You would be the next non-fitting piece on a team loaded with talent that has no identity. Why not consider a better destination, maybe a place where you could take over as the #1 scoring option? I'm looking South and East.
Charlotte: Morrison has to be considered a disappointment. Wallace is a superstud, but need not be the go-to shooter. Felton needs to shoot way less, and Okafor appears to not want to shoot that much anyway. You could move right in as small forward, or power forward, and with your outside game (and the money they can throw at you) it would be a marriage made in heaven. Wallace looks to be passing on an extension anyway, and won't be there, which only makes this an even more attractive destination.
Orlando: Look, I love Hedo, Hill, Nelson, and Milicic, but this team needs a shooter. They've got no offensive identity and the front court of you, Howard and Milicic makes me literally drool. You could be a breakout 1st option scorer and I feel like you could also provide much needed leadership and camaraderie to fellow straight-from-high-school star, Dwight Howard. And between you and Howard, it's like daring the other team to double team one of you.
New Jersey: What's not to like about replacing Vinsanity in Jersey? You get one of the best pass first players ever dishing you the rock. You get to be the number 1 scoring option. And, by moving to the Atlantic division, you get to play for a team that, when healthy, is an almost lock to win the division. Factor in Krstic, Nachbar and Jefferson and that becomes a fearsome starting 5.
Progs: The universe being the cruel place it is, I bet you will be wooed by Thomas' tales of Xanadu in Madison Square. You start the first 5 games for the Knicks before Zeke benches you in favor of Jared Jeffries, to test his newest theory.
Yours on the hardwood,
Cap'nSwag
Don't sign with New York. It would just end badly for you. I know how hard it is to resist the apple's draw. But if you want to be the #1 or, at least, #2 guy on a squad, don't go to New York. The fans are great, the arena is great, and the team could become not so bad. The problem is with a guy called Zeke. He has proven this year that he did amass enough talent to win some games. And people have kind of eased off him, because the Knicks are suddenly a possibility to make the playoffs. But the fact remains that a team with Franchise, Starbury, Frye, Lee, Crawford, Curry, Jeffries and Robinson, should flat out run away with the Atlantic division. The reason they haven't is because every dude on the team, other than Curry, is constantly looking over their shoulder for Thomas' next hairbrained scheme. Lee and Frye should both be blossoming into studs this year, instead they're constantly replacing each other and having their confidence and rhythm undermined. Crawford may be the best player on the team, and has no cohesiveness with the players next to him. Starbury is underachieving because he's a baby, but he has a point about being annoyed that the team would go out and get Francis. Francis is Francis, and Curry is Curry. Get where I'm going with this? You would be the next non-fitting piece on a team loaded with talent that has no identity. Why not consider a better destination, maybe a place where you could take over as the #1 scoring option? I'm looking South and East.
Charlotte: Morrison has to be considered a disappointment. Wallace is a superstud, but need not be the go-to shooter. Felton needs to shoot way less, and Okafor appears to not want to shoot that much anyway. You could move right in as small forward, or power forward, and with your outside game (and the money they can throw at you) it would be a marriage made in heaven. Wallace looks to be passing on an extension anyway, and won't be there, which only makes this an even more attractive destination.
Orlando: Look, I love Hedo, Hill, Nelson, and Milicic, but this team needs a shooter. They've got no offensive identity and the front court of you, Howard and Milicic makes me literally drool. You could be a breakout 1st option scorer and I feel like you could also provide much needed leadership and camaraderie to fellow straight-from-high-school star, Dwight Howard. And between you and Howard, it's like daring the other team to double team one of you.
New Jersey: What's not to like about replacing Vinsanity in Jersey? You get one of the best pass first players ever dishing you the rock. You get to be the number 1 scoring option. And, by moving to the Atlantic division, you get to play for a team that, when healthy, is an almost lock to win the division. Factor in Krstic, Nachbar and Jefferson and that becomes a fearsome starting 5.
Progs: The universe being the cruel place it is, I bet you will be wooed by Thomas' tales of Xanadu in Madison Square. You start the first 5 games for the Knicks before Zeke benches you in favor of Jared Jeffries, to test his newest theory.
Yours on the hardwood,
Cap'nSwag
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