Cause ‘foulteam’ made no sense

December 8th, 2001. No, that day doesn’t mark a big game in the NY Knicks history, a huge trade or anything like that. On that day, the Knicks sported a 10-9 record, not as good as expected, but hey, it was still better than .500, right? The roster probably wasn’t good enough for winning a title, but Spree, Houston, Camby, Kurt Thomas, Mark Jackson, that’s a playoff team, no doubt about it. Then, all of a sudden, Jeff Van Gandy quit his job. Next thing you know, you got two long-term underachievers in Shandon Anderson and Howard Eisley. You lose Marcus Camby and Mark Jackson and get McDyess and Frank Williams back cause your GM thinks Camby is done. Six years later he is the reigning defensive player of the year and one year after that he’s playing on an even higher level. Cool, we got McDyess, all we gotta do is wait for him to get back into form, cause, remember, his injuries were far worse than Camby’s. But then you get a new GM who has a brand new masterplan. Why wait? Let’s get rid of the knee-less guy, let’s get a hometown hero (i was cool with that then, cause the Knicks had no pulse, but i had no idea what would happen between GM and the ‘hero’) and start winning. Let’s get an expensive coach who happened to be at the right place in the right time and took advantage of the LA Lakers implosion. It just has to work, right? I mean, an old school ‘teacher’ coach that loves calling all the plays and a new-generation shoot-first, shoot-second, pass-if-you-re-falling-out-of-bounds point guard. Why wouldn’t that work? And why exactly would it work?

Then, as if that wasn’t enough, the coach gets fired, bought out, whatever. Not like he didn’t deserve it, he used 42 different starting lineups, started hometown players in away games, compared his track record with Marbury’s, had his players quit on him, as well as quitting on them himself, and still got a 18.5 million dollar settlement. Wow. Think that’s bad? He was replaced by the guy that fired him, Mr. Smile. Cause no matter what happens, Zeke will flash a smile. Good (hasn’t happened yet) or bad, Zeke has a smile on his face. I thought, once Larry Brown is gone, players that deserve minutes will get minutes, but i was a fool. How can a man that traded Trevor Ariza for Steve Francis, the definition of a wasted talent, recognize talent, even if it fell in his lap. Unless, of course, if it’s the Draft Day. But what good does drafting a Renaldo Balkman do if you won’t play him and if you’re planning to sign his clone in Jeffries? What good does drafting Channing Frye do if you trade him for Zach Randolph? Mardy Collins? David Lee? Playing guys like Lee 24 minutes one night, then 40, then 20, then 40 again, means you have no clue what you’re doing. Cause he’s not a Lee Nailon kind of guy, someone that gets off the bench, throws a couple of shots, then if he’s hot you keep playing him, otherwise he gets back to bench and sits there till the game is over. Losing Ariza hurt like hell, seeing him playing in LA and being a key piece of their puzzle makes me feel good, cause he put his misery behind him, but he could’ve done the same thing in NY, right? Losing Lee or Balkman, or both would be even worse. And unless Mr. Clueless starts playing them, why would they wanna stay?

Let’s just hope Donnie Walsh talk has some truth to it, cause EVEN the Pacers are built better than NYK. Pacers!!!