There are no champions here

In the realm of sports, as soon as you lace up you're sneakers, cleats, or skates you are subjecting yourself to judgment. "You suck", is probably the first thing you hear in the fields of action. What separates the strong from the weak is the determination to get better. What separates that from all else is the heart of the individual. Success is not judged by the pay check. It's judged by your peers, fans and spectators. Your hardest critics should be your family. My son for instance, is trying to destroy me at anything he can. He's only 8 and we have a great relationship but he understands the unwritten rule of sports. Kill or be killed.

Where is the killer instinct with todays basketball players? Im not only talking about the highest paid guys. Just players in general. The greater majority have to be in almost perfect situations to succeed. Alot of times it's opportunity and fit. Alot of times it's lack experience. There comes a time when you have to question a persons heart and how they stand for this thing called pride. It doesn't have anything to do with how many shots a guy puts up in practice or how many rounds of p90x they did in the off season. What matters is, when the sneakers are laced and the ball is tipped, who is going to walk off the court victorious? If the team sucks, each individual has to take that with them. All championship squads had hall of fame talent. That hall if game talent would be nothing without cold blooded role players. Robert Horry, Mario Elie, Derek Fisher, Steve Kerr, John Paxson....Even the clubs that came close had guys that had the heart of a champion just the short end if the stick.

Knick fans out there are out there crying. At the short end of our stick the Knicks have names like X-Man, Oakley, Mason, Starks, Harper, Lj, Sprewell....you know the names. Guys never won a thing but earned the respect of a fan base and their peers that will never be taken away. 
Check the knicks roster after their playoff loss to Miami. Where are your champions? Can you name 3 with a straight face? No matter your opinion of this team....i challenge you to pick out 3 warriors. Not guys that you hope to one day become warriors. Be realistic and you will see what we have to do to improve this team. We are not as close as we thought we were.

Still...the motto is always "go knicks". Show us the pride on the court and the fans will show respect on and off the court.

Off-season starts now for the Knicks

Nothing on the basketball court mattered as soon as Shumpert went down with a torn ACL in game one. That moment was just a testimony for how horrible our team is. It was like the basketball God's smitted the Knicks for thinking they had a "Mobb Deep" bench. Then Stoudamire swings and accidently slices his hand, like he was going walking in the gym dropping 25pts and 10 rebounds a game. It didn't matter if he played or not. Game 3 proved that for the last time. To add insult to injury (baddum bum), Baron completely shatters his knee on a simple drive to the basket. Baron was crowned the savior at the begining of the year. Anyone remember that? Even if Baron stayed healthy...did anyone believe he was going to all of a sudden put on a Golden State Warrior jersey and carry the Knicks on his back (baddum bum)?!?!?

Numero Uno...Landry Fields is a bum. When guys start getting hurt, other guys need to step up. That guy should be Landry Fields. 15pts a game is all I ask. He should already be walking in the gym dropping 15pts a game even with Melo and Stoudamire out there. You just watch him looking for someone to pass it to. You look at him cringe at the sight of contact. You see his broken jumpshot. You see is horrible beard. How can you expect the team to have heart when a major rotation player, a starter, has the heart of a slug. If the Knicks had Mike Dunlevy, Jamal Crawford or anyone else with comparable size and skill to Landry the Knicks would have had a better chance. The Knicks must replace him. The Knicks are not in a position to give guys another chance. We know what we have in him. I would give him a qualifying offer for a million and nothing more. You do not lock him up for more than that. It's roster suicide, unless you plan to trade him.

Numéro deux...Amar'e Stoudamire can't rebound the basketball. He doesn't control the paint unless guys are letting him bully them to the basket. Effort kills Amar'e. Every team has thrown an effort guy at Amar'e and he continued to get killed on the boards. It really doesn't matter who it is. New Oreans, the Bucks....they throw no oame guys out there and they make Amar'e look washed up. I hear alot of excuses from Amar'e, from injuries, to coaching, to the death of his brother. He's got to play his position and control the paint. That's his job. He has to do his job, period. If he can't? They he shouldn't play. How do you fix that? The Knicks must find a back up power fwd that the Knicks can lean on to produce when Stoudamire disappears. You can't put this on the fact he doesn't have a point guard since Jeremy Lin went down. Will a point guard help him rebound? That's the point I'm trying to make with him. Knicks might already have the answer in Josh Harrelson, but they have to play him more minutes.

3號...The Knicks can't go into the year with the future resting on Jeremy Lin's back. Shumpert is going to come back strong. That kid has the heart, determination and confidence to do it. What he doesn't have is the ability to play point guard when Lin is not in the game. His rightful spot is at the shooting guard spot next to Lin. With this said, the Knicks need a proper backup. Mike Bibby deserves brought back after not laying down against Miami. Still the Knicks need a guy that could start on any team in the league if they had to. The Knicks don't have the cap space, but they do have shot at getting guys like Johnny Flynn, JJ Barea or Kyle Lowry due to their injuries, etc. It doesn't have to be them but it has to be someone that could start. I would try to move Landry and the chicken without a head Toney Douglas to get this point guard.

That to me is it. The Knicks need to find Amar'e and understudy, aka a spot starter that can clean up Amar'e's shortcomings. Carmelo Anthony needs another guy to help take the scoring pressure off him. The Knicks need to solidify/strengthen the point guard situation. They simply can't continue on with the limited players they have now.

In Grunwald we trust...

Knicks need to cash in reality check

A'mare Stoudemire was "stat city"....he put the city and the team on his back and said "the knicks are back". It was all good just a year ago.

A'mare ruined his back trying to touch the top if the back in last years series against Boston. This year he punches a fire extinguisher case and almost bleeds to death. He might have seriously ruined his hand in the process. Was he mad because he disappeared against Miami? Is he mad because he can't seem to grab rebounds? Is he mad that Haslem, Bosh and the rest were beating him to every ball? Was he mad he wasnt getting touches?

This is where we are. The reality now is this is Carmelo  Anthony's team. This is not a bad thing. The bad thing is the team is not functioning properly around his talents. Landry Fields is the hands down X factor in this series but the man is scared to death to make an impact on the game other than moving the ball. Knicks need him to drop double figures attacking the rim and making shots. He's been a like a basketball wife, a non motherf'in factor. Poor Chandler has been sick but has been giving more effort than anyone not named Carmelo. Baron Davis had been horrible and the guy everyone has written off in Mike Bibby has been steady at point guard. Jared Jeffries is playing his best basketball right now in short minutes.

With A'mare now out with Shumpert, perhaps the knicks need to utilize a bully in Dan Gadzuric. Dan has a mean streak and will protect the rim and rebound. Toney Douglas needs to be used at shooting guard finally. Shump going down is a sign to play Toney in his natural position as a chucker. Knicks need someone to get hot. Knicks need someone that is going to put someone on the floor when they drive the same way Miami is doing it to them.

Bottom line: Start Melo at the 4 no matter if A'mare its healthy or not.  Landry at the 3. Chandler at the 5. Start Baron and Jr Smith in three backcourt. Put Toney back out there in an instant offense role off the bench. Utilize Bibby more. Let Gadzuric and Jared foul out rebounding and defending.

Protect our house and beat the Heat....we'll deal with A'mare after the series.

Knicks vs. Miami: its only right

I'm to nervous to give an in depth analysis of this prophesied playoff meeting between Knicks and the Heat. Not nervous in my confidence that our Knicks can win the series in 6 games ;-) ....I'm more worried that my words will somehow cause a reign of bad luck and it would be my fault! Ah such is the life of a fan of sports.

I got my gear on and I will be gathered in front of a TV like the rest of you. Let no negative thought cross your mind my good people. Our boys will be ready.

The 5 year season

What a year we've had! Its great to be finished with it and exhale a bit as we prepare for the playoff showdown with the Miami Heat...its almost like it was meant to be. Its only right that the Knicks face off against the three queens(lower case on purpose). After the season we've had? Man listen....

This year was suppose to be D'antoni's year. He was a coach that had a rep for being an offensive genius. He is the offensive coordinator for team USA and had a book written about his philosophy for crying out loud. He was made to play babysitter all these years with the promise that he would eventually get the talent he needs to succeed. 2010 was the year son! Knicks didn't get the biggest prize but they did get A'mare Stoudamire and eventually Carmelo Anthony. To his credit he never had a real training camp with players that were actually in the plans for the future. Kinda hard to win like that. Fans and "experts" killed him daily about his approach especially on defense. The knicks held him down though and brought in Mike Woodson this year as an assistant coach to handle the defense. Its sad though....cuz Carmelo Anthony threw D'antoni under the bus by not playing his hardest. Melo did not want to play D'antoni's style. A'mare, Chandler kept hinting that guys weren't buying in. The only player that could possibly be the culprit was Melo because the rest of the team proved they can win in D'antoni's system.

Anyway, D'antoni was sure to get fired and his body language and babbling in pre/post game interviews suggested that he have up as well. Then came the emergence of Jeremy Lin like a Phoenix rising from the Ashes....Phoenix? How ironic? All of a sudden the system worked again. Is it a coincidence that Melo was hurt at the time? 7 game winning streak...Melo comes back? 6 game losing streak. Disgusting if you ask me. Bam down goes Frazier...I mean D'antoni. Enter Mike Woodson as coach. That was destined to happen as soon as he was brought in. Since he has been the cook stirring the pot, the knicks were 19-8. That's good for second best during that stretch....in the league.....sigh.

What can we do now? Finally we can focus on the task at hand....winning this championship. Knick fans have seen it all. The last 10 years have been hard on the soul. This past season seemed to be the worst yet because we finally have all world talent yet we saw then underachieve. We lost a good 4-5 years to the 2010 plan. This year was suppose to be ours straight out the gate. Everything seems to be in place now. The Knicks are a 7th seed that should be the 3Rd seed at least. We have that lightning in the bottle. We do have the worlds most famous arena....and yes we have the best basketball fans on the planet. We got this....we damn sure deserve it.

Go Knicks!

Its a star stunted league

Something big happened in knickland. I guess its time for another blog. After almost coming to the brink of doomsday, Linsanity rose from the Ashes like a Phoenix to save the season. The drama thickened as a injured Carmelo Anthony lurked on the bench through our 7 game winning streak. When he came back they still won a little...then came a 6 game losing streak lead by Carmelo acting like the Grinch that stole Christmas. There's quotes in your favorite paper where he denies being a "coach killer". At the same time he talks about getting back to letting the scorers dictate the game. Now, I'm not retarded by any stretch. I'm hoping my readers aren't punch drunk either and just taking his word for it. Carmelo says its "not fair" to talk bad about him. At the same time please buy his Jerseys and hang his posters up in your kids rooms. Don't forget to buy his sneakers and his cell phone too. Remember you have to understand....its a business.

In the end of it all, this is a superstars league. The ownership do not dictate what happens on the floor. The players are not the same group we all grew up watching. There is no loyalty. There is no honor. What rests in its place is alot of ego, alot of drama and alot of bullshit. The day the knicks traded the farm for Carmelo they should have fired Mike D'antoni. It was a joke to think Carmelo would play the team game and sacrifice for the sake of winning. No he is not good enough to be coached. No he doesn't want to fit in to a team concept. He is the team. I am not a D'antoni guy. I saw him as stubborn, yet too friendly with his players. He was too loyal and too old school. Its a new day.

This is the age of the AAU camps/tournaments. You do not coach any more. You get God gifted talent and you put their friends around them and you shower them with gifts. In the AAU circuit, you give them free sneakers, pay their parents bills, and give them pocket money to buy new gear and tattoos. As a pro, you give them max money and endorsements. They ride that train until they become Allen Iverson. Staying on topic, this is what we all have created. We can't get upset when Melo comes in and hijacks our team. You can't get mad when losing games on purpose so you can get your way is more important than playing to win. That is very fair. After all its a business that we all created.

Now what do we do now? We watched Lebron James hijack the league with his espn special announcing that he was taking guys talents to South beach. This season we had to hear all the drama surrounding Dwight Howard. Our knicks even after 10 years of disaster, we still have more room for Melodrama. What do we do? Do we forget? Do we cheer? Will winning make us forget these sucka moves  because of our need to birth superstars in our society? If Melo brings us a championship do we forget this drama the same way we forgot the slap and dash he did to Marty Collins? Do we honor him the way we do warriors like Ewing, Oakley, Starks, and other guys from the 90s era? This era crowns the death of team. No more Willis Reed and Clyde.

I blog for fun. Its not really fun if the play on the court is just as embarrassing as their "basketball wives" counterparts. Don't even get me started with that. In the meantime, I will continue to teach my kid and future kids pride and humility. After all these years Charles Barkley was right. He is not a role model. His generation gave birth to this one.

Let's go knicks! Never lose focus. Win you cocky pricks!....but you will still get the side eye from this knick fan.

A'mare is NOT real

What kind of power forward that makes the money he makes, with the resume he has, ends up with 4 rebounds in any game when they aren't in foul trouble? It makes you wish that you had David Lee out there again. At this point, I'd rather have Jared Jeffries out there. It pains me to say it but if you watch games you believe it too. A'mare is absolutely useless to the knicks unless he's getting the ball on the move. He doesn't compete for rebounds and he's a non factor on defense. He is a liability out there. There were two plays where he  ignited the crowd and his teammates.  One where he made that flip shot while falling underneath the basket, and that dunk he caught on Humphries off a Carmelo Anthony lead pass. Other than that he was invisible. Humphries beat him to every rebound last night and that cost us the game. 

Is that pointing fingers at one player and accusing them if letting the team down. Yes. A'mare is the one that proclaims who he is. He made up his own nickname "Stat" and said he was a beast before the year started. His focus has to change because he is not going to get a zillion pick and roll touches like in the past. He's got to reinvent himself and make things happen off of rebounding and defense. Right now Jared is out playing him. Poor Jared was not blessed with coordination and power. One thing he does know how to do is play this game of basketball. He rebounds, draws charges like crazy and blocks shots off his help defense. If Jared had A'mare's gifts he'd be the best power forward today.

In this league if stars, guys are more concerned with stats. Deron made a point last night to prove he was better than Lin. He over played Lin on defense and was looking to score every time he had it. The coach even ran plays where Deron tried to camp out in the pain waiting for a pass for chippy baskets. Lin, unflappable, never lost focus and continued play the team game and finished with his regular linsanityesque stats. Deron scoring 38 pts was not the reason the knicks lost. The game was lost inside the paint. Tyson Chandler was fighting for his life inside. He was battling Humphries inside, and banging with Sheldon Williams. A'mare was content with just being out there. Close games are win on the boards. You can't complete the comeback without the ball.

If A'mare wants to keep his self proclaimed nickname he's got to start trying to get 10 rebounds per with the same ferocity Deron had trying to make his point on Lin. That's his domain. Tyson and A'mare should make a game out of it. Whoever gets the most rebounds gets a cookie, or wherever motivates a millionare basketball player. Bottom line he's got to get the job done. Can't win games without the ball.