I'm With Oakley

When Master Bates texted me to tell me that Charles Oakley had been ejected from Madison Square Garden and arrested, I thought he was messing with me. I thought Nails (who frequently tells me my favorite players have been traded, killed or photographed in bed with hookers) had put him up to it.
Unfortunately, it was another sad chapter in the sad story of the New York Knicks.

We will never know what truly happened, because there are such differing accounts, but clearly this went back a while, and rightly or wrongly security would keep an eye on Charles Oakley whenever he entered the Garden.

We don't know if Oakley was drunk, we don't know if he was abusive, we don't really know if Dolan ordered security to eject him.
We only know what we see on tape, which makes Oakley look pretty bad. He is physically assaulting the security personell and refusing to leave.

As the headline indicates, I am with Oakley on this one, but when you are in a private place, and security in charge asks you to leave, you have to leave. That's the law, and the decent thing to do.
Oakley resisted, which led to the ugly incident and his arrest.

But that's only one night. As a Knicks fan who has been subjected to years of mismanagement of the team by James Dolan, if anyone has to be banned from the arena for life it should be Dolan.

In God's Hands

Former Knicks forward Anthony Mason passed away this morning from congestive heart failure.
Mason was a mainstay on the great Knicks teams from the early-90s, where along with Charles Oakley he ushered in a bruising style of defense to the NBA.
He was best known for having phrases shaved into his hair including "In God's Hands."

He was also immortalized in the 1994 rallying song "Go NY Go NY Go" "oh rebounds if that's the case we put Oakley and Mase in your face!"

The Man With the Flat Hair

Chase's favorite player, Iman Shumpert made one of the plays of the year with this incredible putback dunk on a missed shot.



What's amazing is that he got hurt the very same day as Derrick Rose, with the very same injury. That dunk shows Shumpert it all the way back, not just physically but mentally as well.

And while I'm sharing great plays, I might as well include this one from Kirk Niuewenhuis. Unfortunately, he's in the minor leagues because he can't hit for shit. But this was a hell of a play.

And We Saw a Game Too

Thanks to a very generous friend I was able to take Chase to his first Knicks game, versus the Indiana Pacers.

But first we had to get the proper attire. I bought last season's Melo jersey for $30 off nba.com during a sale. And then we took Chase to Modell's and got him a Melo jersey shirt. I explained to him that we liked Melo because he was the best player on the Knicks, but also because he went to Syracuse. And he didn't just go to Syracuse, he won a national title. So we dressed up in our Melo shirts...



And headed towards the train.



Riding on the train was by far his favorite part. Before, during and after the game, the train ride came up as his favorite part.

When we got to MSG we of course took his picture next to the life size Melo



And then a picture next to this name



We had very good seats in 200 level



With nice cushy movie theater style chairs



Then we went on the concourse to get something to eat and discovered it was kids day, meaning they had someone making balloon "animals"



Chase got a basketball hoop hat, with a balloon basketball



and of course we shared a big bucket of popcorn.



We were in the corner of the second level, but the second row so our view was very good.

Zoom



No Zoom



Chase loves counting the scores during games, especially basketball because the scores change so often and get so big. So he astutely noticed that when the Knicks led 9-2, Melo had gotten all those points. "Now I see why he won the national championship.

The Knicks started off with hot shooting and maintained that lead through, extending it to as much as 20 at one point. But other than picking up on Melo's hot shooting to start, I could tell there wasn't much about the game that was interesting him.

He was more interested in his balloon hat, his popcorn and after halftime, his hot dog.



By the way, he does eat the bun, he just does it separately from the dog.

Other things that got his interest: The Knicks City kids, some weird halftime show where a giant inflatable mascot swallowed a kid, and this feature on the scoreboard where they showed baby pictures of Knicks and made you guess who they are.



Iman Shumpert was his favorite.



He asked that if someday he plays for the Knicks would Mrs. Poop and me please send in a baby picture of him to put up on the scoreboard.

Meanwhile, I was scanning the crowd for celebrities. This row featured Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller, Drake, some random guy and then the guy who played Jackie Robinson in the new movie. A few seats to his left was Spike Lee.



Also in the crowd was the smoking hottie from 30 Rock whose name I forgot and remembered about 4 times since the game, Katrina Bowden.

The game ended and we hustled back to the train for Chase's favorite part of the trip -- the train ride.

Cereal Offender

Kevin Garnett is a well-known trash talker who will say anything to get under an opponent's skin. His tactics worked on Carmelo Anthony who completely lost his cool because of Garnett's physical and verbal assault.
Melo tried to confront Garnett after the game, waiting in the tunnel for him to board the Celtics team bus.



Why was Melo so angry? KG reportedly told him that his wife, LaLa tastes like Honey Nut Cheerios. Melo got a one-game suspension for this which I felt was totally unjustified. Melo didn't actually do anything. He may have contemplated something, or attempted something, but like attempted murder, it's unfair to punish someone for a crime they didn't commit. If anything, for infractions actually committed, Garnett should have been whacked.

But at least LaLa has a good sense of humor about it, suggesting on Twitter that they all deserve a check from Honey Nut Cheerios for all the free advertising.

Lin Can Last

I’ve been accused of pouring water on Lin-Sanity because of my post last week pointing out holes in Jeremy Lin’s game that could eventually lead to the deflation of the Lin bubble. While that wasn’t my intent (as always, it was to provide fair and balanced, hype-free analysis), I understand how it came off and want to now assert my true feelings about Lin-sanity:

I FUCKIN LOVE IT

It’s been at 10 years since I’ve been this excited about the Knicks. As I’ve gotten older and married and had kids, I have sacrificed the Knicks. There have been some years where I barely even watch Knicks games. But since Jeremy Lin has emerged the Knicks have become my favorite team. I have seen almost every game in its entirety. That’s doesn’t make me a front-runner since I’ve kind of been there all along.

As the Knicks have lost 2 of their last 3 games some people are now expecting the Lin Train to fall off the tracks, but I’m not among them. Here’s why:

Lin is smart. He knows how to play the game. As he gains more experience he will better be able to differentiate the chances he should take and those he shouldn’t.

Which leads me to turnovers, which many people feel will be his undoing, I don’t.
His turnover rate is high, but not unreasonably so, lower than Steve Nash and Rajon Rondo. And his usage rate is high, higher than most point guards who dribble upcourt, pass the ball and get out of the way. Given his involvement in the offense, his rate of turnovers, while problematic, is not fatal.

Also, Lin gives away fewer possessions with bad shots than most guards do. He’s basically shooting 50% from the field. And here’s my favorite thing about him, his judicious use of the three-pointer. He knows it’s not a strength, so he only shoots when he’s open. And he’s made 11 of 24 in the past 7 games.



This is the perfect system for him. D’Antoni needs a dynamic point guard to run his offense and Lin is it.

He has good running mates. Both Stoudemire and Anthony are good mid-range jump shooters who can play pick and pop with him. Chandler and Fields are unselfish players who don’t need the ball to be able to contribute.

For all these reasons I am hopeful Jeremy Lin will have a long and successful career as the Knicks point guard.

I’m not yet optimistic enough to predict a championship, but don’t accuse me of being a killjoy, because like I said earlier, I FUCKIN LOVE LINSANITY!

Lin-Sanity

It's been nearly 40 years since the New York Knicks have won the NBA title. It's been ten since they have even won a playoff game. That is the reason for the sudden Lin-Sanity that is sweeping the tri-state area.



It all started against Nets when Lin played 36 minutes. He had only one game with more than 10 all season to that point. Amare Stoudemire missed the next game, Melo got hurt and Lin took over leading the Knicks to four-straight wins.
His amazing stats:
vs. Nets: 25 points (10-19 FG), 7 assists, 5 rebounds
vs. Jazz: 28 points (10-17 FG), 8 assists, 2 rebounds
vs. Wizards: 23 points (9-14), 10 assists, 4 rebounds
vs. Lakers: 38 points, (13-23), 7 assists, 4 rebounds

Those are absolutely incredible numbers: 28.5 ppg and 8 apg on 57.5% shooting. But there are several reasons why I don't expect this to keep up.

1) Carmelo and Amare will be back eventually. When they come back they will demand the ball and they will clog up the middle taking driving opportunities away from Lin.
2) Teams are going to start to lay off him and make him shoot from the outside. That might be a weakness. Even during this amazing stretch, he has made only 3 of 14 from 3.
3) He's reckless. There are several ways this can manifest itself. First off, he could get hurt. Second, he makes a lot of wild drives resulting in some crazy layups, most have been falling, maybe that will stop. Third, he makes a lot of turnovers, 17 in these 4 games. An assist to turnover ratio of nearly 2 is decent, but if his teammates' shots stop dropping, his ratio will.



4) Nothing like this ever lasts very long. If Lin were the most heralded point guard prospect ever, it would still be implausible for anyone with so little experience to be performing at this high level. The only question remaining, is when he returns to a more normal level of performance will he still be a good NBA point guard, or is his natural level something closer to serviceable backup?
5) If this keeps up we're going to have to put Papa Poop in the Lin-sane asylum. He has the most severe case of Lin-sanity I have ever seen. And he hasn't even been able to watch all the games because of the dispute with Time Warner Cable and the Knicks. After every game he messages me the stat line, followed by a bunch of exclamation points. A few more games like this and he'll end up in a straitjacket that looks like this:

Hope is a Good Thing

"Even a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step." - Ancient Chinese Proverb.

My knee-jerk reaction to the Knicks sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics is not to have a knee-jerk reaction.

Yes, I am incredibly disappointed they couldn't even win a single game, especially after two heart-breakers on the road. I'm more disappointed that after two close games in Boston they came to New York and dropped an egg on the home crowd, being down so much so early the crowd never really got into the game, either game.

Here is why Knicks fans should be heartened: After years of refusal the Knicks finally went with Breaking Bad's "no half-measures" policy. They scorched earth and traded everyone they could. Then they built a new team around Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.



Two problems with this approach: Amare's questionable health and the high price paid to get Carmelo.

The Knicks obviously don't have the depth to compete with the better teams in the NBA. And they don't have a good enough point guard to distribute (and defend) though I would have loved to have seen how they did with a healthy Billups.

Here is what they do have: two legitimate scorers. For the long and storied career of Patrick Ewing the Knicks never had a suitable scorer to compliment him.

Note: John Starks does not count because he was a barely literate volume shooter.

Now they have two great forwards who if they can stay healthy and be surrounded by a good core (defensive center, facilitating point guard,) they form the foundation of a potential NBA champion.



And that brings hope to a fanbase that has had no reason to be hopeful in at least 10 years.

But it still sucks to get swept out of the playoffs.

Fashion That's Clashin

My favorite announcer in any sport is Walt "Clyde" Frazier. And he has been so for many years because of his dual loves, vocabulary and fashion.
A recent article in the New York Times explained how Clyde makes his fashion choices.

Walt Frazier — Always in Style
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
In Walt Frazier’s closet hangs a polyester cow-print suit with brown-and-black splotches. However absurd, it fits in a menagerie of 100 or so suits that hang on five racks and with patterns of tiger stripes and leopard spots; designs of bold plaids and checks; and colors of yellow, red, salmon and orange.



The closet is actually a small, disorganized bedroom in Frazier’s Upper East Side apartment where he mixes and matches his dozens of ties, shirts and handkerchiefs to his suits. He spends hours inside thinking about what to wear to announce a Knicks game for the MSG Network; he will work and rework his suits and accessories (“Sometimes, I’ll let the tie dictate the colors I’ll mix with it”) to gratify himself and stun others, something he has done since soon after he became a Knick in the 1960s.

“I like unusual combinations,” he said Thursday afternoon, dressed in a white pullover and sweatpants as he eagerly prepared to broadcast the first Knicks playoff series in seven years. “I have to entertain myself. I like combinations that people wouldn’t think would go normally together.”

Frazier exhibits a delicate touch as he moves among two hangers jammed with a riot of colorful ties to an armoire packed with pocket handkerchiefs, the suit racks and a floor littered with boots made of alligator, ostrich, eel and stingray skins. This is where he seeks an alchemy befitting the Clyde persona that was summoned to brash life more than 40 years ago, when he starred for the Knicks and often battled the Celtics. Here, a wild plaid suit is tempered by a pink shirt and a pink tie. Here, the leopard-spotted suit is tamed with a black silk shirt and black-patterned tie.



“If your suit is popping,” he said, “your tie can’t.”

As he considered his choices, he sometimes said, “Now, where is that hankie?”

He had returned from Boston that morning from the Knicks’ last game of the regular season. On Sunday, he will be back in Boston for Game 1 of the Knicks-Celtics playoff series. He eyed a bright green suit — not Celtic green — that he was tempted to pack for the trip to TD Garden.

“For years, he wouldn’t wear green in Boston,” said Mike Breen, his partner at the MSG Network. “Now he’s going for the reverse jinx.”

The green suit shares space with the cow print that Frazier first assessed as sofa fabric for rental property in St. Croix. He was in Zarin Fabrics, on the Lower East Side, when he spotted the cow print, along with the leopard and tiger designs, on rolls. These could be suits, he said, offering the sort of idiosyncratic style judgment usually reserved for Las Vegas extravaganzas.



“I asked the guy and he said, ‘Yeah, it could be a suit,’ ” Frazier said. “But he might have told me just to sell it.”

He toted the fabrics to Mohan’s Custom Tailors, near Grand Central Terminal, which makes nearly all his suits and has a celebrity clientele.

Frazier occasionally spends hours studying swatches for future suits and shirts on a scholarly hunt for what he calls jazzy, and what others might call gaudy.

“He thinks and thinks and tries to match things,” said Mohan Ramchandani, the proprietor of Mohan’s.

Ramchandani trusts Frazier’s vision, yet still had a question about the cow print. “Are you really going to wear this?” he asked. “Because it might be too heavy?” Frazier assured him he was, and Ramchandani turned the cow and wildcat prints into suits for $700 to $800 each.

In the months before Frazier picked them up, they were ogled by other customers.

“Sometimes, we show people the Clyde suits,” he said. No one else asked for a cow suit.

A funny thing happened in January when Frazier broke out the cow ensemble for a game at Madison Square Garden. He left the pants hanging at home. “I wasn’t brave enough to wear the cow pants,” he said. He wore black trousers instead. “Man,” he added, “I thought it was going to be too much.”

Breen remembered the night in January when Frazier wore the leopard suit in Los Angeles.

“When the camera came on,” Breen said, “he said, ‘This might be one and done.’ ” That night, Breen added, Frazier hinted at the cow suit that was to come. “He said, ‘Mike, you ain’t seen nothing yet.’ ”

The leopard print might go into seclusion, but it will be replaced by something provocative. Frazier challenges the tailors at Mohan’s: “Show me something that nobody else would wear.”

Frazier has so many suits in his closet that he said he did not have to spring for any dry cleaning in the 2009-10 season. “I said, ‘Man, I’m saving money by having all these suits.’ ”

There is a touch of frugality to him; he enjoys ironing, and said he was appalled recently when it cost him $34 to dry-clean four silk shirts.

Frazier plans his next season’s outfits during the current one. On a table in his kitchen are swatches (one that looks like cheetah) for 10 or 12 suits that Mohan’s will make for him. He has a bagful of buttons that will be sewn onto his jacket sleeves. And inside a folder are pages clipped from women’s magazines and catalogs to help him visualize his future designs. He stopped reading GQ long ago.

“I look through these for different patterns for shirts,” he said, flipping the pages of a Bloomingdale’s catalog. “I like these open collars for summer. You can see what you’re getting more than in men’s magazines. Here’s a suit. See how that lapel looks? And here’s a sort of Nehru suit.”

The closet will soon close its run after about 30 years and move to Harlem next week, where Frazier acquired three penthouse apartments last year. There is more closet space there, and he vows to be better organized and to ruthlessly color-coordinate his wardrobe. He is also planning to open a sports bar and restaurant on 10th Avenue between 37th and 38th Streets in December. The ceiling has a design that is based, in part, on Frazier’s shoes. A Frazier-themed mural will span a blocklong stretch.

“It will be,” he said, “a shrine to Clyde.”

Melo Drama

It seems like the Knicks are close to trading Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Eddy Curry and Anthony Randolph in return for Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and a couple of spare parts.

As much as I love Melo I think the Knicks should stand pat. Yes, there is a chance Melo will panic and accept a trade (and a 3-year, $65 million deal) to the Nets, but the long-term interests of the team would be best served by hoping Melo hits the free agent market.

The fact is, he wouldn’t make the team good enough to win a title this year. So why trade serviceable parts (Gallo, Chandler and even Felton – though he may not be with the team next year) and another #1 draft choice (in 2014) to get him now? The only answer is because after this summer’s debacle Donnie Walsh doesn’t want to come up short once again.

Yes, it would be a gamble to give the Nets three days to reach a deal with Melo, and yes it would be an embarrassment to be wrong, but the prospect of getting Melo for free (essentially) makes that a wager worth making.

What Do You Give Me For? JLeary and the Guy at the Knicks Game

Juice and Focks noticed a guy who looks a lot like JLeary on TV at the Knicks-Heat game Friday night, seated right in front of Robert Randolph.

My Six Point Analysis of the LeBron James Incident

1. LeBron really did sully his reputation with this entire episode. I thought it was mostly cranky old white people who were hating on LeBron and calling him an egotist. But it turns out the sentiment against him is nearly universal. It runs the gamut from hating him and refusing to watch the NBA ever again to people like me who are marginally disappointed with the way he handled this thing. But I do think it is worth nothing that what LeBron did was better than a press conference to apologize for sleeping with 15 women, or explaining how that handgun got in your carry-on bag, or to refute rape charges. This was mostly a positive think but I think a lot of the negative reaction has to do with the way the special was handled.

2. The special was an outright disaster. First of all, he said he told only a handful of people. Maybe true, but they told a handful of people and they told a handful of people and so on and by the time he made the announcement everyone knew his decision. I think that was the first embarrassment. The second embarrassment was 15 minutes of Stuart Scott and his merry men (I love Wilbon don’t get me wrong) saying the same things we’d all been saying for months. And then a 15-minute interview of softball questions from Jim Gray. And why say the announcement would come in the first 15 minutes if that’s not what they planned to do? They should have produced some package of LeBron from the summer getting on and off planes (someone must have been shooting this stuff), showed him interacting with the kids at the Boys and Girls Club (wasn’t that the entire reason behind this?) then have him make the announcement, then take questions from the audience/twitter. Sure the ratings would have plummeted in the second half hour but that’s better than ruining your reputation.

3. Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert may have also done some damage to his reputation. He wrote a letter ripping LeBron (and used a weird font to do it). He told Cavaliers fans they had been betrayed, called this a cowardly act and then in an AP interview ratcheted up the rhetoric even more saying LeBron quit on the team. I think he was just trying to act like a fan, to show he’s one of them, as he clearly runs the risk of losing his fan base this morning. The fact that he said he guarantees Cleveland will win an NBA title before the Heat is a perfect example of his attempt at a diehard fan’s eternal optimism. This morning Cleveland fans are devastated and setting fire to LeBron jerseys in the street. If Gilbert issued a statement saying something like “We thank LeBron for his years of service and wish him well in his new city” the fans would have been furious, thinking their owner doesn’t care as much as they do. I can see why some say it’s beneath a man of his stature to act like a common fan, but I also think LeBron probably owed him the courtesy of a phone call.

4. From a basketball perspective I think LeBron made a big mistake. He obviously realizes the only way to achieve basketball immortality is to win titles. And he’s willing to take less money and sublimate his ego (contrary to what he evinced with the Special) to accomplish that goal. But I think Chicago especially and possibly even the Knicks and Nets set themselves up to be long-term contenders if they could have added LeBron. Then he could have won titles (or at least competed for them) and had them be his own. It sort of seems like he is taking the easy way out by teaming up with Bosh and Wade. Sort of like when Gary Payton and Karl Malone joined the Lakers. Also, I have significant doubt that this will work out the way they all hope. It might be very hard for these three players to happily share the ball. And if they are not winning 60 games a year the talk with start and the fingers will point and this holy alliance could go south in a hurry. The key test will come late in games when you need one guy to take over. Wade has shown himself to be better in those situations so what if LeBron misses a couple of game-winners and Wade makes some? What if Wade ends up being Finals MVP the first time they win? Is that the type of title Lebron is pursuing with this decision?

5. I’m still not decided on what this means for the greater NBA. Over time history has shown that people like dynasties, so if the Heat become one I could see that being a positive for the league. I also don’t think it will be that easy for the Heat to become a dynasty. And even if they do, they will be like the Yankees, a lot of people will hate them. But there are a lot of teams that really have no chance before the season starts, and as Major League Baseball can tell you, the key to a successful league is competitive balance, and the illusion every team has a chance at the title.

6. As for the Knicks, they are royally screwed. Amare and only Amare with the rest of this roster (including the players acquired from Golden State for David Lee) is good enough to win about 25 – 30 games. Now Donnie Walsh has the choice: he can sign Mike Miller (ok, he signed with Miami, but you get the point) and Luke Ridnour or wait til next offseason and make a run at Melo, Chris Paul or Tony Parker. I think the latter is better because in the former you acquire players who really aren’t that great, for expensive long-term contracts, and that is not the model for success in the NBA. Getting LeBron was Plan A. It took a long time to formulate, and it failed. Plan B is to be bad for a really long time, but actually keep your draft picks. That may take even longer but it is probably the Knicks only chance to become a legitimate title contender capable of competing with Miami’s new juggernaut.

That's Amar'e

The Knicks made the first splash in the historic free agency season of 2010.
The Knicks signed Amare Stoudemire for 5 years and $99.7m. They are obviously hoping the presence of Amare will address their biggest weakness when it comes to recruiting free agents: they have no team. Most other free agent suitors (Bulls, Nets, even Clippers) can boast a few NBA ready players on the roster, the Knicks have no such talent, so perhaps they are trying to use him as bait.
I still think it’s a long-shot to get LeBron , there’s no chance at Wade, Bosh would be redundant, and so would David Lee, so it looks like we’ll have Stoudemire and no one else, at least for now.



And I think at this point maybe they are best off suffering through one more bad season and trying again in free agency next year. Maybe at some point during the season they could trade for Chris Paul if New Orleans becomes convinced they can’t resign him.
Paul and Amare would be a good start to a team, but if D’Antoni couldn’t win with Stoudemire and Nash, what makes you think he can win with Paul and Stoudemire, or Stoudemire and anyone not named LeBron?
I think the Stoudemire signing is a good first step, but I still don’t see them signing LeBron, in which case I still don’t see a positive long-term prognosis for the team.

The Summer of Knicks Fans' Discontent

Have you ever been looking forward to something? A trip, an event or a present? And when it finally comes, it doesn’t quite materialize the way you hoped. I fear that scenario will play out for Knicks fans this summer. After years of preparing the team, and suffering through losing seasons, the Knicks were poised to cash in on a bumper crop of free agents. Unfortunately I think the Knicks are going to end up very disappointed.

The big prize if of course LeBron James. There aren’t enough celebrity endorsements, Ring Pops (what is the deal with Ring Pops lately?) or lap dances at Scores (though that is an awesome gambit) to get LeBron here. I think there’s at least a 90% chance he will stay in Cleveland. It just makes the most sense, they can pay him the most money, he’s tangentially from there and I think he would like to bring a title to that city. That leaves a small window for Chicago where teamed with Derrick Rose and perhaps another free agent (Chris Bosh?) the Bulls could assemble a Michael/Scottie-esque juggernaut.

Note: I don’t buy the stuff about him not wanting go to Chicago because of the unavoidable comparisons to Michael Jordan. You mean if he wins a few titles and is the best player in the game for some other team they won’t compare him to Michael Jordan? They compared Harold Miner to Jordan for heaven’s sake. He’d have to play for CSKA Moscow to avoid Jordan comparisons. And if he wins 5 titles in Chicago you think that somehow won’t be good enough because Jordan won 6? Asinine.

I’m also leaving a tiny window open for the Nets which would be a complete wild card but they do have some appeal (Jay-Z, Brooklyn) and some young talent (Harris, Lopez and now Favors).

I don’t see the Knicks getting the consolation prize either. I think Dwayne Wade will stay with the Heat, 95% sure of that. Once again small chance he goes to Chicago because he’s from there, but I expect him to stay and try to recruit someone else to come with him.

As for Chris Bosh, he could come to the Knicks, it’s possible if he wants to try to be a #1 guy and lead a team. But I think it’s more likely he’s willing to play second fiddle to LeBron, Wade or Rose (if LeBron stays).

I think the Knicks will end up with Joe Johnson and Carlos Boozer. If that’s the case I’d rather re-sign David Lee and take our chances once again next year once Eddy Curry’s money comes off the books.

If you think I’m wrong and you’re so smart won’t you join me in the ESPN.com Free Agency Predictor game. As always our group is called The Poop. You must sign up by Wednesday before midnight.

Brilliant Opportunity the Knicks Missed

Note: I got this idea from a letter to Bill Simmons but since The Concierge says its possible to get a patent for an existing product, I'm running with it.

Earlier this season, on November 6th, while the Knicks still had Jerome James they hosted LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Knicks should have paid Jerome James during the offseason to change his uniform number from #31 to #23.

On that date they should have held Jerome James replica jersey night.

Imagine it, 19,763 fans in #23 Knicks jerseys with James on the back.

That would have been the greatest recruiting tool possible and there isn't a damn thing the NBA could do about it, though I'm sure the Cavs would have filed a tampering complaint.

The fact that the Knicks spent three years preparing for this and didn't think of that really upsets me.

What the Fuck Are the Knicks Doing?

The Knicks are trying to clear enough cap space to sign two players to maximum contracts this offseason.
That was Donnie Walsh’s stated goal when he arrived and he is willing to spare no expense to do it.
Essentially Walsh traded Jordan Hill, the right to swap 1st rounders in 2011 (unless it’s #1 overall) and the 2012 1st round pick (top 5 protected) to get Jared Jeffries $6.9m contract for next season off the books.
He also got rid of problem child Nate Robinson but that wasn’t a salary cap move.
In the two deals the Knicks got Tracy McGrady, Sergio Rodriguez, Eddie House, Bill Walker and JR Giddens all of whom come off the cap at the end of the year.

So did Walsh accomplish his goal?
He has $17.7m committed next year to Eddy Curry (yikes!), Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler and Toney Douglas.
A max player like LeBron will get $16.7m.
If the cap falls to around $53m (expected because of the recession) the Knicks wouldn’t be able to sign two max players (they’d still need to sign at least 6 more players to at least the NBA minimum).
They could sign a max guy and another guy to just short of the max, maybe LeBron and Joe Johnson. Or instead of Johnson, David Lee for $10m per season and still have $4.9m to spend on another player.

Here’s the list of guys potentially available this year:
LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Tyson Chandler, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Joe Johnson, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Redd.

Best case scenario LeBron, David Lee and a serviceable point guard.
Worst-case (reasonable): Amare and Ray Allen. They need to use this money to build for the long-term.
Even better case: when Curry’s money comes off after next year they use it to sign Tony Parker.

As much as it kills me to give up basically four years of first round picks (though we will have one in 2011) the Knicks have to go for this 100%, if they half-ass it their chances of landing LeBron or Wade diminish. I think this is the right move for the long-term health of the franchise, go scorched-earth and make your best effort to sign the best player in the league.

Great Excuse for a Loss

The Knicks were afraid, very afraid. And it had nothing to do with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

For two days, several players had trouble sleeping because they were convinced that their downtown hotel is haunted.

"I definitely believe it," Jared Jeffries said. "The place is haunted. It's scary."

Eddy Curry claims he slept for only two hours Sunday night because he couldn't stop thinking about ghosts roaming the hotel.

For years, guests staying at the Skirvin Hilton have reported ghost sightings and strange noises. Legend has it that sometime in the 1930s, a woman jumped to her death while holding her baby in her hands.

"They said it happened on the 10th floor and I'm the only one staying on the 10th floor," Curry said. "That's why I spent most of my time in (Nate Robinson's) room. I definitely believe there are ghosts in that hotel."

Assistant coach Herb Williams teased Jeffries and Curry for believing that the Skirvin is haunted, but Curry wasn't laughing.

"There are too many stories," Curry said. "Something is going on there."

John Starks Can Relate

UAB guard Robert Vaden was averaging 18.7 points per game and shooting 36% from 3-point land entering his team's key game against Memphis.
While his teammates fought valiantly in an attempt to end Memphis's ridiculous conference winning streak, 54 games, Vaden single-handedly shot them out of the game.
Vaden's stats:
3 points
0-17 FG
0-12 3pt

Eerily reminiscent of John Starks's line when he shot the Knicks right off the NBA Finals by going 2 for 18 (0 for 11 from behind the arc.

I can only imagine how Vaden's teammates felt, shouting "I'm open" while this chucker tries to shoot himself out of a slump in the most important game of the year.

Bad memories.

Eddy Curry Accused of Gay Sexual Harrassment

From the NY Post:

Knicks center Eddy Curry was slapped with a shocking sex-harassment suit Monday by his former driver, who claims the 6-foot-11 hoopster tried to solicit gay sex from him.
The stunning court papers claim Curry, a married father of three, repeatedly approached chauffeur David Kuchinsky "in the nude," allegedly telling him, "Look at me, Dave, look" and "Come and touch it, Dave."
Curry also made Kuchinsky perform "humiliating tasks outside the scope of his employment, such as cleaning up and removing dirty towels [Curry had ejaculated into] so that his wife would not see them," the Manhattan federal court suit says.
Kuchinsky, who is straight and Jewish, also alleges racial discrimination, saying that Curry hurled slurs at him including "f---ing Jew," "cracker," "white slave," "white devil" and "grandmaster of the KKK."

And in a disturbing episode reminiscent of some of the evidence in the manslaughter case against former Nets star Jayson Williams, Kuchinsky further claims in his suit that Curry pointed a "fully loaded" gun at him on at least two separate occasions to keep him from complaining about his treatment.
"Look, I have one in the chamber," Curry allegedly said.
Kuchinsky, who worked for Curry from October 2005 through October 2008, says he was initially hired as an around-the-clock chauffeur for Curry and his family at their Burr Ridge, Ill., mansion.
But shortly after starting work, he soon found his duties fell well outside his job description and "progressively became Curry's "house-boy,'" his suit says. He is seeking $98,000 plus compensatory damages from the injured Knick, whose contract pays him $9.4 million this year.
Kuchinsky says he is owed $68,000 in unpaid wages, as well as $25,000 in expenses for which Curry never repaid him.
"Instead of paying him, they discriminated against him, figuring that it would keep him there," said Kuchinsky's lawyer, Matthew Blit. "Imagine going into your boss's office ... and he stands up and drops his pants and he asks you take care of him. Those actions are unacceptable whether it's in a corporate office or a private home."

Story suggested by SCZA who is too busy laundering dirty towels before his wife gets home to post it himself

It's Gotta Be the Shoes

The latest hint that LeBron James loves New York and wants Knicks fans to love him back (eventually) was unveiled last night as James led his Cavaliers to a demolition of the Knicks.
LeBron unveiled a new pair of sneakers called the "Big Apples."



Knicks fans did their best to welcome LeBron, sporting makeshift LeBron Knicks jerseys. Personally, I would have started a "We've Got Cap Space clap clap clap-clap-clap" chant.