The Knicks aren't the only professional basketball team playing at the worlds most famous arena. The NY Liberty is a storied franchise thats been around for 13 years now. Its sad that not many NY basketball fans really follow the team. Don't get me wrong because the Liberty have a strong fan base that pack the Garden during the summer. I'm just saying you'll have a hard time hearing any drunk guys debating about them at the local pub. Regardless of that fact this team is currently 17-11. They have the 3rd best record in the WNBA and are in second place in the Eastern Conference. That's a little misleading because they Lady Libs are currently riding a 6 game winning streak, 8-2 in the last 10. About 15 games ago they were a losing team, as in below .500. These Libs have come along way. There's no fluke here because they have alot of talent. Most of the talent on the roster was aquired this off-season. This is where the Knicks similarities begin.
Just like the Knicks, the Liberty were only returning 5 players from a team last year that missed the playoffs. Janelle McCarville was the lone star. With a game similiar to David Lee, she was the fan favorite. Essense Carson and Leilani Mitchell also returned this year after coming off up and down years. Kia Vaughn and Sidney Spence also made the 2010 from last year. Neither player saw much minutes and didn't seem to be in the plans going forward. Liberty fans were praying for a miricle. With Carol Blazejowski as the Liberty GM the fans weren't expecting much of anything, especially since the GM traded away their 2010 pick for Sidney Spencer the season before. Yikes.
Well the Liberty fans prayers were answered and the chips began to fall. With the contraction of the Sacramento Monarchs franchise, the Liberty were able to pick up Nicole Powell in the dispersal draft. Nicole Powell was the Monarchs Leading scorer and one of the better players in the league. They were also able to sign super veteran Taj Mc Williams-Franklyn to anchor the center spot while drafting Kalana Greene who was an outstanding player for the national champions at UConn. What really suprised fans was the trade that brought in Cappie Pondexter to NY. The team traded away 2 fan favorites to get her, but the Liberty have the WNBA version of Dywayne Wade in return. All this talent and 15 games ago they were fighting not to fall too far below the timeline that they would not have a shot at making the playoffs.
Relating to the Knicks, they too are bringing in alot of talent that has never played together before. Alot of these players haven't even played key roles for their teams yet. There are tons of unknowns. With the unknown, many fans are extreamly optimistic about the upcoming season. Only time will tell and what's telling is there will be a learning curve. For example, Nicole Powell was amongst the lead leaders last season with 16pts per game. This year for the Liberty she's only averaged 8pts per. During their 6 game winning streak she drop a few 20 pt games so it took her roughly half a WNBA season to get her act together. I'm expecting the 2010/11 Knicks to struggle the first 20 something games trying to get used to their new teamates. I'd say around Christmas time, these Knicks should have shaken the cob webs and gotten the ball rolling. It's going to take patience. That's the difference between the Liberty Fans and Knicks fans. If the Knicks start the season 8-12 the newspapers are gonna cry bloody murder and the fans will be ready to jump ship.
You gotta walk before you can run...Knicks are gonna need us to do more than boo like spoiled brats...but eventually they will do just fine.
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