Amid a Woeful Circus, Basketball’s Lowly Strivers Carry the Knicks

Excellent article but what's not captured is the devotion to the franchise now versus the days of yore when the Knicks were really bad and had a solid nucleus of defensive players but not enough scoring and were the previous record bad in Ws. Those seeing about 5,000 or so lost souls show up against the NJ Nets to see Ken "The Animal" Bannister, a center in name only and not even a player who could make it in the D League today back in the mid-80s.

Of course the NBA had not yet entered into its new heyday led by the remarkable Michael Jordan. When he arrived on the scene, the NBA media engine turned full throttle from having the finals shown on CBS video delay to the average person and women saying they sat in the blue seats at the Garden to see Michael Jordan which is more akin to seeing ants working an ant hole. (Heard this one myself.)

That was about the time my friend who toiled with me to dozens of games would overhear a woman on the subway sincerely ask, "Is Thurl Bailey a legit power forward?" The NBA had arrived.

The difference then and now, not meant as criticism of the well done piece here is the deep pocketed fan support. The Knicks draw even with a collection of bench enders. Teams field a top five and a second unit but the Knicks have been playing with a whole team of second units.

Hard to feel sorry for the franchise when they are banking money and live for another day. One can only hope some of the players find a happy haven in the NBA here or elsewhere.

Looks like the Knicks are just a rebuilding project and the owners will have to make some decisions...wait for draft picks and do some really good trading and Development league and international player scouting. Having never been an attendee at their games, I have watched the same dwindling teams in Philly and Boston live in this same basement level standings. Beware that Miami is approaching, if not already descended, into the same abyss....and how quickly that happened, post-Lebron. Best to the men in NYK uniforms for their professionalism ..and let the circus atmosphere continue...how many days til Barnum and Ringling come to town?

A horrific season to be sure -- eased a bit by the discovery of Galloway. Looking forward, however, this season will be forgiven if it results in the restocking of talented players through the draft and free agency. I still believe in Phil (and Clyde).

A salute to these young men is in order for sure. As hoopfan noted, these guys are immensely talented players by any measure. I appreciate their effort - especially the big guys, you can see them fighting for rebounds.

What I dislike about this season is two things: Phil Jackson's aloofness and the lack of accessibility to tickets. Where is Jax? Why is he getting paid $12M to be on his ranch? And he is distributing $1m+ jobs to his henchman as favors. How many NCAA tournament games do you think he saw? I am sure he will be on a NYK-paid trip to the south of France or Portugal in the summer scouting talent.

And both the NYK and their corporate clients have a missed a great opportunity to distribute tickets to the underprivileged this year. If they do not want to do so for a hot ticket on a 60-win team, I get it. But they should have taken advantage of distributing these tickets to kids. The underprivileged have long been priced out of MSG, at least it could have been a thank you for their cable payments over the years! Alas, they do fit in to the new MSG. Anyone who has attended games for years has noticed a sea change in the crowd - I understand the economics, I just find it a lot less fun.

These Knicks players on the roster at the end of this season-long nightmare have more heart, character, and class in their hangnails than the entire front office has had in their entire lifetimes. I truly hope that we see at least some of the current roster develop as players and contribute to the team's performance in a meaningful way. Their greatest benefit will be to teach incoming players the meaning of rising to a challenge and overcoming adversity during trying times. The front office could learn a few things from watching this team play basketball, but that would imply that they actually care about the things that this team can teach them. Little things like carrying yourself with distinction, giving your best in difficult circumstances, and not cheating the fan out of an enjoyable experience.

In a Spike Lee book, he kept referring to Derek Fisher as Dexter Fisher... LoL
I guess Coach of the Yr Fisher left an indelible impression on Spike.
(Anyway, the book has lots of tidbits about MJordan that's why I glanced thru it.)

I've been waiting for this article. Amid a 64 loss (and counting ) season, the Knicks try and conjure up excitement through dopey fan give-aways and specials on Walt Frazier's 70th birthday party. At this point I'm surprised that Clyde himself hasn't joined the team just to squeeze out another drop of nostalgia from the team of 45 years ago. Sadly the Knicks are masters at building a graveyard of failed coaches, GMs and losing records. Phil Jackson is constructing the largest headstone. Some fans absurdly label NYC as the "Mecca" of basketball. Nonsense. The Knicks rely on the roll of a ping pong ball while the rest of us watch re-runs of the Willis Reed games.

I remember my father taking me to see the Knicks from the top of the Garden in the late 60s and early 70s when it was a high privilege to call oneself a Knicks fan.

The Knicks have been chumps for many years, now.

But I salute these young men who do what they can every night under impossible circumstances in order to preserve the Knicks draft pick.

These may not be the most talented players in the league. But I respect their tenacity and their hope that lightning may strike and some of them can be given one more year to do what they live to do.

At least they will always be able to say they played in the NBA and in Madison Square Garden--no small accomplishment even if few folks are willing to regard it as one.

Keep the faith, young men......

I agree that Chris Mullen will eventually be the Knicks' coach. A team such as them need a New York coach to teach the New York game.

Give the gladiators their due. The least skilled players in the NBA are still among the best in the world, and it takes real professionalism to give your all, night after night, when you know that this team's best will rarely be good enough to win. Without a bit of sarcasm, I salute this squad. Some may play in the NBA again next season, most realistically will not. For the rest of their lives they can say that they were Knicks, and they never backed down.

The game of basketball requires an interesting mixture of athleticism, teamwork, heart, guts, smarts and emotional intelligence. The end-of-the-year Knicks team are more interesting to watch than the highly paid start-of-the-year team because the mix is a lot better with them.

As admirable and stoic as these not-NBA players are, no one deserves more attention than the down-trodden fan. The players have a year at best to suffer in the mecca of basketball. The fan lives in an endless nightmare, year after year, watching a train wreck that only grows more horrifying and somehow manages to hit new lows.

There is not one player on the current team sans Carmelo that would be lower than a 10th to 12th man on the bench on any team in the NBA. For a team to have one of the top 3 ticket prices in the league to put out a product on the floor such as this unwatchable bunch, the blatant deceit from 2 Penn Plaza is an affront to this loyal fan base. Taking advantage of corporations who throw their tickets away to people who ordinarily could never afford to step foot in MSG, the Knick ownership again shows their true colors.
When Larry Brown won 23 games and was summarily thrown out after one year, how long will Coach Fischer last if not for Phil Jackson protecting him?
St. Johns is grooming our next coach.