N.Y. Knicks: London Braces For A Royally Bad Show

From the desk of:  DUTCH PANTS CAN'T JUMP

The Knickerbockers are well on their way 

towards the franchise's first ever 60-loss season.

If they keep up this rate of futility, 70 losses is not out of the question.

NEW YORK KNICKS: Team Half Way Through Historically Inept Season; Phil of the Future Said, Blame Me.

...Okay, Phil.  Consider it done.

He nailed it when he spoke of this team's loser mentality though.

I became a fan of this team just after the championship years; right around 1974-75.

That year, they posted their first losing season after eight winning campaigns, and a pair of NBA titles.

Just my luck, right?

I watched that team either retire, or get dismantled.  I caught the back end of the careers of Earl the Pearl Monroe, Bob McAdoo, Dave DeBusschere, and agonized over the trading of Clyde Frazier.

I also watched their team mate, Knicks president Phil Jackson's playing career fade into the sunset.

I caught Red Holzman as coach, when Willis Reed took over, and when Red Holzman came back.

I dealt with the disappointment of Michael Sugar Ray Richardson, lived through the Hubie Brown days, and felt a sharp pain when Bernard King went down.

I was also one of the fans chanting - Fire Al Bianchi - and of course, endured the tenure of Isiah Thomas.

Who could envision this organization getting even worse, and making those seem like the good old days?

The present day Knicks have lost their last 15 in a row, and 25 of their last 26 games.  So far, they own an overall 5-35 (.125) record this season.

They need to post a 15-27 record the rest of the way just to avoid becoming the first ever Knicks team that failed to win at least 20 games in a season.  With Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith already gone; Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani, and anyone else not named Melo on the endangered list; not to mention knee surgery looming for Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire struggling with his own knee problems; there are few who believe they can pull it off.

Another way of putting this into perspective: this franchise has never suffered the indignity of a 60-loss season, although they came close several times.

Before my time on this planet, the Knicks of the early 1960s were terrible (and only played 80 games a season):

• 1960-61; 21-58 (.266)
• 1961-62; 29-51 (.363)
• 1962-63; 21-59 (.263)* All-Time Franchise Worst
• 1963-64; 22-58 (.275)

The good times didn't roll in until the late 1960s and early '70s, when they moved into present day Madison Square Garden.

Then I came onto the scene as a young fan, and watched the 1970s close out with some pretty funky basketball.

After Red Holzman's last hurrah in 1980-81, Hubie Brown rode Bill Cartwright and Bernard King to a pair of playoff appearances before the franchise tanked again (after Bernard King's knee injury).

• 1984-85; 24-58 (.293)
• 1985-86; 23-59 (.280)
• 1986-87; 24-58 (.293)

Then, with Patrick Ewing, Mark Jackson, and Charles Oakley, coached by Rick Pitino, things started getting markedly better.  The Knicks made the playoffs every season from 1988 through 2001.  Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy led them to respective NBA Finals, but each fell short of a title.

Then came the Isiah Thomas era.  I'll say this in his defense: I was agreeable with his initial appointment, and at the time, totally on board with rebuilding the Knicks (which knowingly required patience).  However, his time here requires an entirely different conversation.  His relationship with James Dolan was a sad and destructive time in Knicks history.

What we need to know for this post, is that under Zeke, the Knicks twice matched Hubie Brown's mark for team futility:

• 2005-06; 23-59 (.280)
• 2006-07; 33-49 (.402)
• 2007-08; 23-59 (.280)

The funny thing is, a team composed of Zach Randolph, David Lee, Nazr Mohammed, Trevor Ariza, Jamal Crawford, and even Nate Robinson, would destroy this year's Knicks, even with a healthy Melo and Amare on the floor.

I digress....

Of course, then came the sacrificial season under Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni.  But, not even that season stood to be as bad as this unfolding one seems to be headed.  If you remember, at one point Donnie Walsh stripped the roster down to just 8 or 9 bodies, while he and D'Antoni pulled the plug on Stephon Marbury's playing time, and even reduced him to civilian clothes.

• 2009-10; 29-53 (.354)

Thursday's game is the official mid-point of the Knicks season, and they'll mark the occasion with a game in London, England, against Jason Kidd's Milwaukee Bucks.

Since when is trying to avoid a 16th consecutive loss considered exportable, much less prime, entertainment?

What on earth did the Brits ever do to the NBA to deserve this match-up?  We screw them the same way with NFL games.

Blimey!

...Cause in sleepy London town there's just no place for........the New York Knicks.  No.  Get down! - stuff Mick Jagger might say.

Mike

N.J./BKN Nets ~ Team Lacks a Head of State

From the desk of:   THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

Neighborhood view; Barclays Center from Bergen Street.

N.J./BROOKLYN NETS:

On This Snowy Morning, Brooklyn History Was Made.

The Nets' Owner is Far Away and Took the Team's Only SIZZLE With Him.

With the Knicks in distress, Mikhail Prokhorov should be present and leading his team

through the duration of the season.

On the court, the Nets already have more problems than a math book.  And now cracks seem to be appearing in their foundation.  Their principle owner; Mikhail Prokhorov; for the moment at least, has better things to do.  If his Russian political aspirations turn out favorably, he has announced he will indeed sell his team shares into a Blind Trust; which effectively takes him out of the picture, without having to relinquish ownership of the team.



While the Net owner's quest to be a benevolent modern day tsar is not new, his endeavours none-the-less detract from the organization's dwindling level of whatever cache they still have in light of their move to Brooklyn later this year.  And in my opinion, his absence has hindered..., or, has done little to sway the opinion of two players who seemingly want to play in Brooklyn.



Prokhorov's arrival on NYC's basketball landscape sent shock waves throughout James Dolan's monopolistic empire; more so than Bruce Ratner created with his initial announcement to move the Nets to Brooklyn.  There is no denying since Prokhorov took over the Nets, it's hard to talk NYC basketball without mentioning both teams now.  He came to town and added sizzle.  That's more than the Nets organization could ever lay claim to before.  Last season, the Nets and Knicks off-court battle for Carmelo Anthony brought good exciting anxiety to the city as well.



Today, not so much.  At present, the media scours through a thesaurus seeking synonyms for the word futility when ever the conversation turns to the area's state of basketball.  Additionally, much of the initial skirmishing between the competing capitalists has long since subsided.  The Billboard Wars are something from before the Lock-Out, and since threatened with direct competition due to the construction of Barclays Center, Dolan's haste to renovate Madison Square Garden is well underway.  These days, both teams quietly remain in their neutral corners and left to deal with their own  respective problems.



It's increasingly becoming more critical to the Nets' immediate future that Mikhail Prokhorov again becomes an in-area presence in order for the Nets to gain a sure footing in Brooklyn.  The Nets need that media presence and the sizzle he added to the newly created inner-city rivalry.  James Dolan is on the hunt for microphones and TV time again as evidenced by his latest N.Y. Rangers press conference. But for the Nets, an on-site owner like Dolan is needed as well.  Merely being available for comment or to do a radio spot could go a long way towards keeping the Nets relevant in light of a poor season thus far.



Any proactive measure right now couldn't hurt.  The Nets situation with Deron Williams is tenuous at best.  On the one hand he's very open to staying and signing on with the Nets.  But not if the future looks bleak.  Deron Williams has displayed open dissatisfaction with the state of Nets right now.  Brook Lopez may not only be injured physically.  By now he must be injured emotionally as well with all the proposed trade talk.  All other plans remain stuck in the mud until the Dwight Howard situation comes to a head, or Deron Williams leaves first.  The clock is ticking.



To borrow an old Cold War phrase, for the Nets it's two minutes to midnight.  Mikhail Prokhorov's newest problem on the Howard front is not what trade package Orlando might accept; Orlando themselves; or anything of the kind.  The problem is now Patrick Ewing's attempts to convince Dwight Howard that New York and Brooklyn are staunch Knickerbocker loyalists, and that the Brooklyn Nets have no real chance of building nor enjoying a dedicated fan base of their own.



The Nets' owner is dropping the ball right now.  He needs to be on hand to at least reinvigorate  interest around town and bring back some of the sizzle he brought last year.  If he doesn't, Dolan surely will.  Jimmy Gigs may not know basketball OR hockey, but he knows show business and owns his own channel and cable network.  So who knows what he's liable to do.



Truth is, Reality has both teams in one hand and slapped them across the head with the other.  This is precisely why it's a prime time for Mikhail Prokhorov to be a visible head of State.  James Dolan's Knicks are reeling, and have been for years now in spite of their roster overhaul.  Someone with Mikhail Prokhorov's swagger can potentially one-up James Dolan when ever the need arises.  But he must also be an active member in creating an environment; and not just an arena; where marquee players will want to play in.



Owners do that.  Not General Managers.  Lest we forget the Knicks still don't have one.  Just watching James Dolan trip over himself is proof enough that Mikhail Prokhorov has had a tremendous impact in Dolan's life.  And right now, the Nets are in dire need of some new sizzle.  They need to give Deron Williams a reason to stay and Dwight Howard a reason to come here.  Patrick Ewing has been promoting himself as somewhat of a Brooklyn expert lately and telling Howard how WE can't be a viable fan base.  As a former player; one of the NBA's Top 50 All-Time Players; and being a former Knicks great; maybe that carries some weight in Howard's eyes.  That's why Mikhail Prokhorov must be at the lead and ensure the first steps this team takes into the Borough of Kings are taken with strong confident strides.  Those steps are taken by Owners.  Not General Managers.



Something happened over the night that has never happened before in the history of Brooklyn.  For the first time ever, snow fell and accumulated on the roof of an arena where the Borough's new professional basketball team will play starting later this year.  Unless Mikhail Prokhorov puts his rubles where his mouth is, his prediction of a championship within five years has as much a shot as the Germans did in the snow drifts at Stalingrad.



Both teams are floundering right now.  Therefore there is nothing to rave about.  But Mikhail Prokhorov brought to the area what no Net player, nor anyone else in the organization has thus far.  He brought some sizzle.  For right now, he's the only one who can bring some sizzle back until something else gives.  And by that, I don't mean the roof of Barclays Center caving in under the weight of it's first ever snow fall.

All buttoned up for Winter.

Flatbush Avenue

Mike.BTB