NY Knicks - Sad, very Sad

Having worked at Madison Square Garden in the 90's (Van Gundy and Pat Ewing era), it saddens me to see the Garden these days.

Back then, the ticket was hot and the electricity in the arena was powerful especially when MJ came to town!

Unfortunately, the Knicks have become a joke and it is sad that the powers that be don't seem to care.

For any NY Knicks fan, the phrase "wishing for the good old days" has never been more appropriate.

Enjoy the article below by Dave Anderson of the NY Times. He is one of my favorite writers. (NY Times link is at end of article)

Gswede
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February 24, 2008
Sports of The Times
Better Days for the Knicks? Dream On
By DAVE ANDERSON
I had a dream the other night, a dream that was too good to be true.

I was in an otherwise empty Madison Square Garden that was set up for a Knicks game, only me and a rumpled little man sitting in the front row who looked like James L. Dolan, the cable guy, and he was babbling about what he had finally decided to do about his alleged professional basketball team.

“I’m returning the New York franchise to the National Basketball Association,” he said. “As of now, the Knicks no longer exist.”

I was tempted to tell him that the Knicks have not really existed for several seasons, not the Knicks that New York knew and loved, the Knicks of Red Holzman and Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, Dick Barnett and Earl Monroe that won two championships, or even the Knicks of Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy and Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, John Starks, Allan Houston and Larry Johnson that twice went to the finals. But he kept babbling.

“As of now the Knicks no longer exist,” he repeated.

I told him that a pro basketball franchise and a team can’t simply cease to exist in the middle of the season.

“I don’t care. I’m canceling the rest of the season.”

You mean you’re forfeiting the remaining games?

“Home and away,” he said. “Anybody who bought tickets for any of those games will get refunds. Home and away.”

•

What happens to the players?

“I’ll pay them whatever millions remain on their contracts for whatever number of years, and they’ll be free to go anywhere else.

“If any other team wants them,” he added, with a smirk.

“The last time I watched them play, whatever five guys were on the court, they looked like they were five strangers we had hired off Eighth Avenue that night. No teamwork on offense, no rebounds, no defense.”

What happens to the assistants?

“The assistant coaches and everybody in the front office get all the money that’s coming to them, too.”

What happens to Isiah?

“Who’s Isiah?” he said.

Isiah Thomas, your coach and president for basketball operations.

“Oh, that Isiah.”

Yes, that Isiah.

“I thought Isiah was his last name. When all those fans were yelling, ‘Fire Isiah,’ I thought they were cheering for him. I thought Fire was his first name.”

But what happens to Isiah?

“He’s on the Cablevision payroll now. I thought about using him as a repairman, but that’s what I thought I was getting when I hired him to fix the Knicks more than four years ago. If he couldn’t fix the Knicks, I doubt he could fix somebody’s cable TV if it’s not working. So maybe I’ll just let him work off the rest of his contract as a consultant.”

Will you consult him?

“Not if I can help it.”

Does all this mean that there won’t be a New York franchise in the N.B.A. next season?

“No, somebody probably will buy the New York franchise by then.”

In returning the franchise to the N.B.A., does that mean you’re putting the Knicks up for sale?

“Not me.”

Then who?

“Commissioner David Stern told me he’s willing to broker the sale. When we didn’t settle that sexual-harassment case before it went to trial and we lost, eventually settling it for $11.5 million, he said that the Knicks were ‘not a model of intelligent management.’ Imagine that. Doesn’t he know that Cablevision is a billion-dollar business?”

But on your watch, the Knicks have been nowhere near as successful as Cablevision?

“Let me remind you that, according to Forbes magazine, the Knicks, with a net worth of $608 million, are pro basketball’s most valuable franchise.”

But that $608 million hasn’t bought a playoff berth in what will be seven seasons, much less a championship.

“Playoffs, championships. They’re not the bottom line. The dummies who kept buying Knicks season tickets at ridiculous prices, they’re the bottom line. And in returning the Knicks franchise to the league, David Stern has assured me that he’ll start the bidding for the franchise at $608 million. Now that’s a bottom line.”

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Will you let the new owner’s team play in the Garden?

“Under the deal I made with David Stern, the new owner can rent the Garden for every home game for the same amount that the Knicks paid. Whatever amount that was. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what it was.”

To tell me the truth?

“Of course,” he said.

With that, I woke up. Not wanting to forget anything, I hurriedly wrote down everything that this rumpled little man who looked like James L. Dolan had told me in the dream. And as crazy as that dream was, the next night, I dreamed that I had to tell the commissioner about it. When I did, he laughed.

“I’ve had the same dream,” he said.

Link is http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/sports/basketball/24anderson.html?ref=basketball