Blog Posts For Tag: Knicks

As New York Knicks tickets continue to be among the best-selling amongst NBA teams, the team and its perhaps more-famous fans are bemoaning the foretold demise of a Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire duo. Pundits who existed outside of New York warned of the dangers of putting two players on the court who can only play in isolation. Now as the first long losing streak of the 2012 NBA season enters its sixth game, the Knicks fans are coming to terms with the latest flawed team building exercise.

After the first weekend of NBA play, it appears all is well. The slate of games actually increased from 6 million to 6.2 million from last year to this. Many feared repercussions similar to those after the NBA lockout in 1999. However, the players and owners proved most wise to save the Christmas dates. Besides, it is rare that the league enjoys much national attention (read – a national broadcast) until the holiday weekend.

Now that Carmelo Anthony has arrived it appears the balance of power may have shifted from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference for the first time since Michael Jordan was shooting Space Jam.

An NBA trade, or the events leading up to the completion of an NBA, can be compared to many arduous or inclement events. It can be compared to building a pyramid over several generations or surviving a Category 5 hurricane. I like to think of it as a grotesque front office marathon. The talks begin a month into the season, ESPN prematurely reports and laments on potential deals, and the team that ends up with the coveted player is the last one mentioned in February. This February the player is Carmelo Anthony and the team appears to be the New York Knicks.

When do we know that a sports query or sports story has truly resonated with the public? When a group of guys over 25 gets together for a mini-reunion and manages to talk about them between embellished stories of debauchery. My buddy Bill came back from New York this Holiday season and there were two sports topics discussed: the ever-escalating Tiger Woods sex saga and whether or not LeBron James will stay in Cleveland or bolt for New York. As interesting as it was pretending to be the PR team for Tiger, the most interesting question had for me was the LeBron talks.

Subtract a major part of the offense, add an opponent who does not play defense, and what do you get? Kobe Bryant posting 61 points at Madison Square Garden. Bryant hit 19 of 31 shots, including 3 of 6 threes, and sank 20 straight from the stripe. He did not do much else – only three assists, one block, and zero rebounds-, but he did manage to score the most points in basketball’s Mecca history.

Eddy Curry began his career as a big boy for the Chicago Bulls with a lot of potential. Now he is a big man for the New York Knicks with the world around him falling apart. He has dropped out of the rotation, been accused of sexual harassment by his former male limo driver, and recently found out that his former girlfriend and mother of his three-year-old son has been murdered.

The Boston Celtics started 27-2 and looked like they were going to be the team to beat the Chicago Bulls historic 72-10 season in 1995-96. The season looked like one long holiday, but Christmas Day began with coal in their stockings and by New Years Eve it looked like Boston would have to make a resolution to play better defense.

The glorious world of the NBA has fans who adorn their walls with pictures of tremendous athletes who can work magic with an orange leather ball. How many guys have LeBron James posterizing some poor second string guy trying to earn a multi-year contract and not be remembered as a cringing face on a highlight reel? How many have people have Dwayne Wade on the wall twisting and contorting his way through the lane for level of basketball awe and impossibility.

Are the New York Knicks for real? After 10 games they are 6-4. They still play no defense (105.5 points allowed per game), but this season they can score too (105.7 points).