MSG and the Comedy that is the Knicks

So when the 101D and the Underdogs rolled into New York, there was one thing on everybody’s mind.  MSG.  Madison… Square… Garden.  The Mecca of all sporting venues in America and the self proclaimed (yes, a building can actually proclaim itself something) “world’s most famous arena.”  Since its first year in 1968 the Garden has pretty much hosted every possible kind of indoor entertainment.  The Ringling Brother’s Circus, The Westminster Dog show, and virtually every popular music act.  And now... they had us.  

The 101D set up at the Theatre at MSG.  The WaMu theatre they call it.  And yes, it’s the very same stage where Lebron James shook David Stern’s hand in 2003… Downstage center.  (It’s also where Knicks fans booed Isiah’s selection of Renaldo Balkman in 2006… ah NBA draft drama :)  But most notably, MSG is also the home to the New York Rangers, The New York Liberty, and… the (no championships since 1973) New York Knicks.  Working at MSG has its perks.  The 101D Dog trainers housed our Canine pals on the third floor in close proximity to the court, so we could go visit them when we wanted (always great fun!)  

What up DX, Gracie, Jada, Phoenix, Lacy, RV, Murphy, Forks, Burt, Frankie, and Jackson?!!  Y'all are the REAL underdogs!  Inspiring in every way… oh and by the way, right up the stairs from my doggs?  The team that needs the most inspiration.  That's right… Your New York Knicks!!!  The Under D’s got to hit up the last two home games of the season at the Garden against the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards, and that was lots of fun too.  Because as most Knicks fans know… finally there is hope.  But before we get to the present day…  Let’s talk some Knicks history.      

No one could write enough about how bad the Knicks have been in the last ten years.  If you had a million monkeys at a million type-writers there would not be enough combined letters randomly key-stroked to adequately illustrate how miserable the last ten years have been for New Yorkers at the Garden.

And the primary figure for the Knicks during this period was General Manager and coach Isiah Thomas.  In 2003 the franchise was blindly entrusted to Thomas by owner Jim Dolan, in one of the most egregiously baffling and comically-long-lasting travesties in sports management history.  Never before has any team in any American professional sports league endured such a consistent stretch of terrible-ness.  In every way conceivable.

Isiah Thomas was the worst man for the job in NY; a terrible GM who compiled (and severely over-paid for) a collection of “good players” who didn’t fit together well or fit any kind of offensive system… mostly, because a system wasn’t ever instituted!    

Instead, Isiah would stand on the sideline and smile knowingly at his confounded team (as they racked up another loss) almost as if he was a dad… bemused by his wayward young sons who just aren’t getting it.  “Aw! but they sure are trying hard!” Basically, everything was left to chance.  Like rolling dice and hoping it adds up to something.  Not what you would expect in the (again self-proclaimed) basketball-capital-of-the-world right?  So how did it happen?  Jim Dolan.  The rich kid who inherited a Billion-Dollar empire (that included the Knicks) and simply didn’t’ seem to have much interest in basketball.  His company makes so much money that the Knicks didn’t have to be good and clearly this guy didn’t care.  In the single biggest slap in the face to Knicks fans (and that’s a tall order folks) in March of 2007 Dolan rewarded Isiah with a three-year extension before the Knicks finshed the season at 33-49.  Was he even paying attention???  Clearly, no.     

For those of you who don’t follow the NBA very closely, they have a salary cap and maximum amounts allowable for player contracts.  So, unlike the Yankees, or Red Sox, or… Cubs in baseball (what’s wrong with that sentence?) the big markets aren’t assured the best players (or in the Yanks case, lots of them.)  Simply put, small market teams can compete with the huge market cities, provided they are smart.

Now that’s not to say that money tells the whole story in sports.  For instance, I often complain about how much the Yanks are able to spend each year ($206 Million in 2010) in effect, buying another World Championship; Pittsburgh is last on that list at under 35 Million (or about what A-Rod makes by himself!)  Kinda disgusting right?  But, as my man Ray is quick to point out (usually when I’m complaining about the Mets throwing another season away) if my logic was solid the Mets would have been in the World Series last year along with the Yankees, because the Mets came up second on that list.  And although they were still a good $70 million or so short of their Big Brothers in the Bronx, it certainly should have added up to more than a Last Place finish in the NL East.  Ouch.  And because I can’t resist another dig… the CUBS were a close third on that list with a 135 Million-Dollar Payroll last year, and they finished 67-95!  Surprised?  No, of course not.  Ray is Right.  Money can’t buy championships.  You also have to be good… and Smart. 

Even though there is a Salary cap in the NBA, teams are allowed to exceed it.  Essentially it is a soft-cap where teams are allowed to go over the cutoff to sign their own players.  So if they have a player at a relatively low salary and he becomes a big star, they are still able to resign that player at market value when he becomes a free agent.  It’s better for the league for the stars to stay on their own teams.  Some teams have been smart about this over the years (see: San Antonio Spurs) and some teams have not (see: New York Knicks.)    

In 2006-07 the NBA salary cap was at $65.42 Million.  The Knicks had an NBA record high, 142 Million-Dollars in player salaries that year.  So including penalties (teams have to pay the league a luxury tax for being over the cap) the team shelled out almost $191 Million for their players, half of which weren’t even playing at the time.  And the final outcome?  The Knicks missed the playoffs and had a 33-49 record.  Dismal.  And that is just a glimpse of how atrocious Knicks management has been... it's been ongoing.  

To be fair, the Knicks bloated payroll isn’t completely Isiah’s fault.  He inherited plenty of ridiculous contracts from the almost equally spend-happy previous GM Scott Layden.  Layden and Isiah both hid behind the conventional wisdom that sports people have preached over the years; you can’t rebuild in New York.  In other words, other cities would stomach a few bad seasons while management planned for the future and assembled a team that could compete for championships, but not New York.  The city and its sports fans are too demanding.  So in ten years of “not rebuilding” the Knicks have a record of 327-493... that’s a .385 winning percentage.   The “wisdom” seems faulty wouldn’t you say?

So the light at the end of the tunnel for all of us Knicks fans has been that finally two years ago the obvious became reality.  Dolan fired Isiah (although he’s still paying him… gotta love rich kids) and hired Donny Walsh (a proven GM and respected basketball mind) who then hired Mike D’Antoni (a brilliant offensive coach who’s system brought enormous success to the Phoenix Suns) as coach.  Then Walsh basically conceded the past two seasons by trading away all of the Knicks best players to obtain valuable “cap space” for the summer of 2010. Finally the Knicks are far enough under the salary cap to significantly improve.  If you are into the NBA you know that the most exciting two-word phrase you can utter in this league is “Cap-Space.” And Why?  Because of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and the greatest free-agent class in NBA history.

Buuuut, mostly it's just about LeBron.  

The whole world wants to know… Will he stay in Cleveland or land in the Big Apple?
Tonight's extremely well Hyped up Game 6 in Boston will tell us a lot about LBJ's future.  It's HUGE!  What's it gonna be BronBron?
Gracie wants to KNOW!!!
  

That’s coming up NEXT!      

On the UnderDogs :)