CLAAAANG!!! Another errant Knicks shot glances off the rim. The New York Knickerbockers have mastered the art of losing for the past 10 years. The only silver lining after this season is the possibility of signing two big name, “max contract” players. The Knicks traded away their upcoming draft pick (along with Jared Jeffries and others) to Houston, to free up more money for these players. Nothing is guaranteed, the Knicks aren’t necessarily getting anyone for their trouble.
The losing that the Knicks have been doing is a relatively new experience for their head coach, Mike D’Antoni. D’Antoni came over from Phoenix, where he had an outstanding winning percentage, playoff appearances every year, and usually a late-season meeting with the San Antonio Spurs that ultimately would decide who would come out of the west. Before he coached Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash and Shawn Marion to 60 wins a year. Now he leads Al Harrington and a band of inexperienced, below average knicks to likely two 30 win seasons.
The Knicks have been on a downward spiral since they decided to trade away their franchise player of the 90’s Patrick Ewing. They have been compiling bad contracts ever since, and it wasn’t until Donnie Walsh became the active general manager that their attitude toward free agents began to change. Starting with the trades of Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph, Walsh has managed to free up more and more salary cap space, and with it, the possibility of greater things in the future.
LeBron James is a free agent after this year, and of all the suitors, New York stands in terrific position to land him. New York is after all the world’s greatest city, with so much culture and energy and love of all things basketball. New Yorkers are hungry… starving for a winner, and it has been waiting much too long.
