One day later after the now infamous Boston loss, the Knicks bounced back from 17 points to beat the Bucks. They have a really funny way of quitting on their coach. Any way for those who missed what has been called the "Boston Massacre", you might have also missed the "TNT Massacre". Horrible loss? No doubt. Quit on their coach? We’ll be watching closely for future TNT blowouts. Luckily for us, The Starting Five has been taking notes. Here is the transcript. Please take a look at it.
This is also worth repeating from yesterday’s post: "On the TNT broadcast we were shown that the 1998 Portland Trail Blazers lost to Indiana 124-59 — a loss by a whopping 65 points. None of the astute reporters told us told us that the Trail Blazers team actually made the playoffs that year. Even Reggie Miller, WHO PLAYED IN THAT GAME(see boxscore) couldn’t offer a counter nugget to the "quit on Isiah" theory. On a broadcast, shouldn’t viewers receive multiple perspectives? Isn’t that why you have a group to begin with? Or was it just another installment of "The Isiah Rules"?
Unrelated Note: The Sean Taylor coverage has been the worst mark against sports journaliam that I have ever witnessed. It makes that famous Jim Gray-Pete Rose interview seem positive. Sure the ongoing Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, and Pacman Jones coverage are all major media indictments of the highest order, but there are just some areas that are off limits to sensationalize the "Pacman as Black Man" tried and true formula to garner higher ratings, more website clicks, and more advertisers. When an athlete gets their own home broken into and gets murdered, it is time to stop playing the media ratings game. No matter what your reporting biases are there is a time for common decency. HUMAN DECENCY. COSELLOUT will weigh in much more heavily on this soon.
Modi,
To answer your question: Yes, just another installment of the Isiah Rules.
Even with the crack staff (including fact-checkers, Producers, former players, guys who have been around basketball for the past 20 years, et al.) none of them could avoid the irresponsible act of claiming that the showing was the worst they “had ever seen” in babasketball. Meanwhile, it was not the worst performance by the history of the NYK (Albert may have worked that game). Most likely, their retort would be that they were looking at the “body of incidences” surrounding the team this year. Let’s face it, all those announcers but for Ernie and Smith, had a “beef” with the NYK. Ernie was simply used as the provocateur–the twig in the pigsty stirring the vitriol.
But we move on as lovers often do (since you also know me as a Knicks Luvah). The quote by KG speaks volumes to the problems on our beloved team, the NYK. I will repost it here from the link you provided:
Garnett on the Celtics following a philosophy established by head coach Doc Rivers: “In order for this to work everyone had to give into what Doc (Rivers) is talking about, an African proverb very similar to Celtic Pride: ‘I can’t be as good as I am unless I help the next person.’ We have bought into it and it’s working for us.â€
From my vantage point, it appears that Stephon Marbury has decided that he is a NYer, that he can outduel Isiah in his backyard, and that he “needs the ball in his hands more to create” as the key to winning games. The clips we see on MSG-HD confirm this last point. Meanwhile, from what we read out of Crawford, Isiah the Coach has established a “different” style of play. Marbury has miscontrued the dictum from all the Isiahs (neighbor, mentor, friend, father figure, Coach AND GM) he has come to know. His contract status and the fact that there is no available upgrade outside the NYK make this a peculiar circumstance for the GM and the fans. The bottom line is that the team may have spoken about whether they will follow the Coach or one of the tri-Captains. I suggest here that the experient continues with a medical DNP against PHO.
Though Isiah selected three captains this summer (Marbury, Crawford, Curry) he is never shy about announcing who is the leader of the team. Isiah maintains himself as the leader which is his right as the GM/Coach. Still, it would be helpful to have an extension of that leadership delegated onto the floor. He may need to start empowering each and every individual player to “lead from whereever you are”–whether on the bench or on the floor. For starters, I would hope that it did not take the pronounced leader’s (IT) prodding to get Crawford onto the Mic and issue a mea culpa to the Mecca denizens. That was an act leading from where you stand and he rightfully since he’s a tri-Captain. There are reports from the NY MSM that Carwford also lit into the team following the mess in Boston. Lead on, Jamal.
Now how will the fiasco between Isiah the GM/Coach versus Stephon the player be resolved? That’s the 23 million dollar question. It may require for JD and Steve Mills to referee/intervene. Better yet, what about a “basketball lovers’ triangle”–Zeke, Steph and Magic?
I submit here that I will be among the critics (for what its worth) if Marbury buys-in to the MSM baits of access as tool to fight the GM/Coach. (It would be consistent with my pronounced support of the MSM media policy). It may have worked against the HOF saboteur 2 seasons ago (and with dilligent complicity by the GM, IMO) but it will not work against the GM/Coach this season.
These are my reads on the matter.
The MSM is building many strawmen in this period of chill and detente between the two men. So far, the GM/Coach is winning because of his body of work and his own leadership acumen. In other words, he knows coroporate America politrix. Marbury’s best laid plans will blow up before his very eyes if he allows the snakes in the media to coaxe him into continuing to go down this current path.
The shame of it all is that we’re seeing this continued destruction of Black men played out for everyone to see. Rise up men, there’s too much at stake here. Ask yourselves, “what would Malcolm do?” Best of luck to you all with your final decisions.
You know I’m not sorry for the “mini” Modi.
what is the overall point? i just don’t understand? yeah, 99% of the people we read in the papers and watch on tv think isiah should be fired. yeah, they’re over the top about it. but aren’t they also right?
the 2003 knicks roster was old, expensive and not that good. but you are wrong to say that isiah has created promise for the future. you’ve been fooled if you think that. you have to do more than score points to be a good basketball team, and too many of the players only score points. he has made tremendous draft choices in lee and balkman (though he could have gotten balkman in the 2nd round), but his trades have been terrible. he seems to be a pushover in trade and contract negotiations (he gave the bulls two 1st rounders in the curry trade and gave generous contracts to crawford and curry when nobody seemed to be going after them).
there are two teams making every trade, and in all the trades isiah has made, he’s only looking at the scoring average of the players he’s getting and ignoring everything else, while the other team is thinking multiple moves ahead and ultimately are far better off. i’m sure you don’t know this, but when isiah traded antonio davis’s expiring contract to toronto for jalen rose (with a full year left) and a 1st rounder that wound up being balkman, he cost the knicks about $30 million dollars only for balkman (since he cut rose before last season began). balkman is good and can become better, but for $30 million it’s just crazy.
as for his coaching, i used to think he was alright, but am not sure anymore. the knicks’ starting 5 (marbury, crawford, richardson, randolph, curry) is a terrible lineup that should never be on the court at the same time, let alone against presumably the opponents’ top lineup to start each half. for instance, if i had to play curry and randolph together, it would only be with balkman. and what was he trying do with marbury on the west coast trip? who knows.
tell your readers, however many there may be, what you want out of isiah, what you expect from the knicks, what you’d accept as true progress and success and what everyone on tv and the papers should accept as well. and don’t say that this isn’t what this website is trying to do. set some parameters for isiah this season. how is this franchise going to get better. do you see the promise here? or they just are what they are? at home they can beat anyone and lose to anyone and on the road they’ll lose to just about everyone. sorry i went on and on, but awaiting your response.
The knicks went from old, expensive, and terrible to young, expensive, and terrible.
That is a step in the right direction and money isn’t really an object in New York except when it comes to trade value for certain players. It’s not like Dolan has to pinch pennies here.
Let me repeat this for good measure. There is no need to care about the salary cap except with regard to the free agent lottery or trade value of certain players.
Curry and Randolph probably shouldn’t play at the same time except in desperation but it’s not because of ‘chemistry’ but because there are only so many shots and it would probably be more efficient to have Randolph scoring against the opposing bench and boosting the offence of the Knicks’ bench with all those scorers starting.
blsmao, here is the overall point, first and foremost, COSELLOUT is about : FAIR SPORTS MEDIA. Reasonable people can disagree about whether Isiah should be fired, but while Isiah is getting lynched in the papers and we don’t hear ONE FRIGGIN’ WORD about John Paxson’s job security http://www.cosellout.com/?p=167, then that should offend our sensibilities. Reasonable people can disagree about how we should view Barry Bonds achievements, but it should offends us when Roger Clemens gets a free ride despite uncanny parallels. Reasonable people can disagree about where Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring ranks in the annals of bad athlete behavior, but it should offend us when stories like Chris Benoit and Tim Donaghy (the first far worse, the second far more impactful to the sport) essentially get buried and should offend us even more that a PREVENTABLE genocide continues in Darfur and our nation’s media (and demonstrators) could give a flying fuck. The point is that I don’t give a shit how unpopular an athlete is, I expect the media to be fair and accurate. Shouldn’t everyone have this expectation? And if not, why not? But on to Isiah:
As Panzeh stated: the salary cap is meaningless to the Knicks so any Knicks fan really shouldn’t care how many millions Balkman cost, but only that he is on their team. Note: I was well aware of Balkman’s cost and I’ve already researched and wrote about the relative meaninglessness value of the salary cap. http://www.cosellout.com/?p=131
Yes, the Knicks have sucked this year, but Isiah has a talented young roster whose chemistry issues can be remedied with better line-up combinations and a trade or two, JUST LIKE THE CHICAGO BULLS. Weren’t the Celtics the very worst team in basketball last year? But they got Allen and KG because they had YOUNG TALENT. The Knicks are not done here, and this should be recognized instead of shortsightedness.
Ultimately, I don’t judge Isiah by the media, but by NBA HISTORY. When you examine similar rosters that were taken over to the 2003 Knicks one, there is almost no NBA precedent where a team was turned around before FIVE YEARS. http://www.cosellout.com/?p=129 When your trade chips are Othella Harrington, you do not have the luxury of worring about whether Jamal Crawford is a great defender, you simply make the trade. Same for Zach Randolph for Channing Frye and Steve Francis. Step one is to fill the cupboard with young talent, and step two is to build chemistry and make the pieces fit.
On coaching: we agree 100%! I’ve had all the same questions about his coaching this year. The marbury fiasco may easily be his undoing. If the media criticism was limited to ONLY his coaching, but not a referendum on his four year GM tenure, then I would have far less of a problem.
As for “parameters” on Isiah, I would like to see this year play out, but at minimum see December play out without any media intervention. I expected them to make the playoffs this year (which I’ve not given up on any more than any Bulls fan has), but will curtail my disappointment knowing that another trade or two is still necessary to make all pieces fit. I might answer this question more thoroughly in an upcoming article. But what makes your question so difficult is that so far I have a different opinion of Isiah the GM (quite positive) vs. Isiah the coach. Even if he gets fired due to bad coaching, he will still be a good GM which the next coach will benefit from.
But yes, I see tons of promise because they have the ingredients for the right trade: 1) a deep roster with young talent; 2) big expiring contracts in Marbury and Malik Rose in two years. Judging the turnaround against NBA history, I can’t complain.
Steady,
Good post and please know this about your mini. You never need apologize, you can comment as long as you damn please on this site and hell, if you want to write a full-fledged analysis, I’ll be happy to post your article on COSELLOUT.
Now all I’m saying to you Peaceman and everyone else ready to ship out Marbury is that a little more time is needed to evaluate whether the Marbury situation is not recoverable. Last November every Knick fan was saying the same thing, but he bounced back in the second half. Does this year’s tiff with Isiah make that impossible? Just want more time, that’s all. What if he turns in more performances like the Utah game?
My other issue is that I don’t believe that Jamal can run the point long-term no matter how much the teammates respect him as a leader. Perhaps Mardy in time, but he doesn’t seem ready despite progress made at the end of last year. I’m just requesting a little more time. As a lifelong Knicks and Yankee fan, I’ve learned that there are often calm’s after the storm. …Having stated that if the Bibby-Artest package comes down for Marbury-Lee, we do it. Period. Let’s continue the conversation after a few more games. If you guys are right, I’ll certainly acknowledge it.
A couple of quick thoughts: One, yeah… the broadcasting was over the top. That was to be expected – Marv Albert, Reggie Miller, Mike Fratello all have beef with Dolan/Knicks/Thomas… I’m surprised Larry Brown didn’t drop in to do some play by play, too! And David Falk or Jordan….
As for the solution to Marbury: Right now, they can’t do anything about. Isiah’s hands are clearly still tied – he could easily pull a move for a point, but isn’t. Mike Wilks just got waived. Brevin Knight is the ideal point guard for the Knicks – great distributor, great defender with length, doesn’t look for his own shot. Him or Sam Cassell on the Knicks = playoff team. Andre Miller?
Even Damon Stoudemire might be a good fit, and should be available (the Grizzlies have some good young points that need PT).
All those guys could be had for minimal value – an expiring contract like Fred Jones, and maybe a young talent like Wilson Chandler or Randolph Morris. Admittedly I wouldn’t want to part with either.
And there’s also Mike Bibby out there.
Finally, with regards to the Jalen Rose acquistion: Yeah, $30 million for Balkman is one way to look at it. But Jalen Rose’s expiring contract was an asset, too. Unfortunately, Isiah Thomas was handcuffed by James Dolan, who told him to prove he could win without making any more moves. Therefore, instead of being able to do something with Jalen’s expiring contract, like use it in a package for Iverson/Baron Davis/Artest/Marion/AK47, they just brought him out. Isiah might have also traded it for a pick and a contract that expires this year, as he had done the two previous years (so to have an asset for a trade this year, which could be used in a package for Bibby/Artest… see how that all ties together?).
Point being, James Dolan is more to blame for the $30 million “cost” of Balkman than Isiah….
This is great stuff guys. Conversation without name calling and stabs (subtle or otherwise). Seems Knick fans all want the same thing. Hang in there!
Modi
The thought I had Thursday night was how powerful narratives are. Once the narrative of Knicks dysfunction is set, everything is going to be filtered through that narrative. Sports media have a hard time seeing a single game as just a single game because narrative is their lifeblood. So, the debacle in Boston Thursday can’t possibly be a function of a team having a REALLY bad night: it has to be an outgrowth of the story we’ve been telling all along about the Knicks.
As I’ve mentioned to you, I am much less high on Isiah than you, but one thing I know – events in sports are closer to independent events than people can wrap their heads around. That the Knicks won Friday night after losing by 45 Thursday night is utterly unsurprising – teams bounce back from blowout losses all the time in sports, in part because professional athletes are better than most people at blocking out all but the immediate task at hand.
I do think Isiah makes a classic mistake – if batting average is the most over-rated stat in baseball, scoring average is the equivalent in basketball. GMs in baseball, though many are learning, still vastly over-rate batting average, and sports media follow suit. Isiah is the equivalent of the baseball GM who thinks batting average is the key to player evaluation and makes personnel (and line-up) mistakes as a result.
But, that’s not relevant to all the other stuff Isiah’s getting hammered on. If there is one thing I am sure is NOT happening to the current Knicks, it’s that his players have quit on him.
Modi, why do you keep repeating phrases about media and Paxon, while issue is on the another side, Isiah and Knicks.
I do not need media to want Isiah lynched, when I see how poor his team of other team’s rejects play. He is by far the worst GM in the history of this league, and would not get close to any other job when fired (soon I hope).
Repeating how he managed to get younger is nonsense. Any fool would get younger with the ownership of so many draft picks and mid-level signs in four years.
Praising about his drafting skills is another non-sense. Tell me who in the Knicks team came from draft is regular starter? Isiah is gone, and question is not If, but when.
You know you NEED a link to your recent posts – right??
Jonathan, thanks for stopping by and I hope that your personal research project is going well. Your writing certainly has been missed by anyone who cares about fairness in journalism. Your batting average point is valid and I understand the merits of isiah’s frequent “chemistry critics”. But the difference is that i don’t see the current roster as the final product, while others do. Also, isiah simply did not have the trade chips to upgrade talent AND chemistry at the same time. One can remark that Zach and Curry are redundant, BUT you just HAVE to make that trade to upgrade your talent on the front line. Now Curry is still a tradeable asset at 9M. Knicks have a deep roster, expiring contracts, and good young guys. …I’m less impressed with isiah the coach.
nenad, you and can say what you want about isiah the GM, but I need just a little bit more of an objective analysis than you. I have analyzed comparable NBA rosters to the one that Isiah took over in 2003. There are actually very few in comparison, but when you DO find one (aka 1999 Bulls) you find that it is usually a 6-7 year rebuilding project. If you want to tell me that he is the worst GM in history what you need to do is your homework. Here is my request: Find a few NBA rosters that with 4 years hindsight had not one single talented young player and no signigicant trade assets. The only remaining players in the league from that roster are Kurt Thomas, Antonio McDyess, Othella Harrington, D. mutombo, and michael Doleac. Find some useful analogies and get back to me. Then we could discuss just how good Isiah is.
T3, you’re right.
Modi says:
Find a few NBA rosters that with 4 years hindsight had not one single talented young player and no signigicant trade assets.
Let me tell you this first, Layden’s team that you are reffering to, had not lost any game by 40 points. I would take Aisley and Ward any time against Cancerbury. Many of players from that team are old now, so they would be replaced anyway. Isiah had clean start, neverending resources, draft picks, resources to acquire draft picks and what he managed was 30+ wins seasons and no play-off. Team degressed every single year. Isiah acquired drop-outs and salary dumps in trades. His draft picks have yet to make a starter. So called franchize center does not rebound and play defense. He is acquiring duplicate players on every position. There is a good reason Randolph was for free.
Isiah basicaly did 150% turnaround and we have a team that is still only a way to go towards playoff.
Compare that to Raptors and Brian Colangelo. He had Bosh, but Isiah traded his picks for franchize center Curry.
Brian made a turnaround in one year from non-competitive team to third team in Eastern Conference.
To think that is some achievement, you must be on Isiah’s payroll.
“Isiah had clean start, never-ending resources, draft picks, resources to acquire draft picks”
Isiah did not have even ONE MAJOR TRADE CHIP (Kurt Thomas was his only piece of ANY value). He had no young talent. please don’t make comparisons to Bryan Collangelo who walked into Chris Bosh (poor man’s KG), the number one pick in the draft, and a young trade chip in Charlie Villanueva. PLEEEEEEASE don’t make that comparison. Once again, can you find me a similar roster to the 2003 NY Knicks and offer a FAIR comparison. I have also noticed that most EXPANSION franchises start off with a far better roster but still take about 5 years to reach playoffs. Do you know the Charlotte Bobcats opened in 2004 with Emeka Okafor, Gerald Wallace, Jason Kapono, Brevin Knight, and Matt Carroll. Do you know that the 2003 Atalanta Hawks had Jason Terry, Stephen Jackson, and Boris Diaw and also had Shareef-Adbur Rahim, Theo Ratliff, and Nazr Mohammed who at the time were very tradeable.
I have offered you the closest that I have seen which is the 1999 Bulls and they averaged 19 victories for the next SIX years. If you are going to offer an analogy, please go back in time and offer some COMPARATIVE ones. The more you do this, the more you will find a 4 year turnaround virtually non-existent in NBA history. You want isiah to be better than virtually any GM who has ever taken over a siimilar roster. All you can do is fill the cupboard with talent under these circumstances. Now a trade or two can remedy the duplicative talent.
MODI,
do you know if Isiah had any Knick draft picks for the first two years here? I’m under the impression that Layden most of them away…
so if indeed that is the case, Isiah didn’t have draft picks either.
While the 2003 roster had limited talent, there were plenty of tradeable assets.
Houston was an all-star caliber player who could have gotton draft picks. Motumbo had a good contract and value to a potential contender as a backup center (I personally would rather have him even now over Curry). Harrington while a nothing as a player, did have an expiring contract. Van Horn had value as Isiah was able to trade him for Tim Thomas and Nazr. Both players had value and are still in the NBA. Yes, the roster was poor, but it also was winning games at a higher rate than most of Isiah’s subsequent teams.
A smart GM would have seen the relative lack of quality on the roster and decided that the best way to rapidly rebuild would be to dump as many of the players as possible for draft picks and bad contracts. This philosophy would have lead to a lot of losses immediately, but also improved draft position for the next few drafts.
Instead, he traded two draft picks for Marbury and essentially 1 and 1/2 picks for Curry. We lost out on THREE lottery picks because of Isiah’s lack of foresight. I am not saying that Isiah is the worst GM, but that he did a poor job of rebuilding because the team still cannot contend as currently consituted.
BTW, when Paxson took over the Bulls, he essentially had two assests: Curry and Chandler. Yet, he convinced the Suns to trade to them the pick that became Luol Deng; drafted Hinrich, Gordon and Duhon and saw Curry’s evidet flaws and traded him for two lottery picks. Personally, I would have picked Aldridge over Thomas, but Noah is a classic glue player, tough on defense who helps you win games.
Paxson failed as a GM by letting Chandler go for PJ Brown so he could sign Ben Wallace. Huge mistake. And, if the Bulls do not make the playoffs this year, he should be fired for it. However, Paxson has a pretty good track record in the draft and in trades. So, it is hard to say that he deserves to be fired just yet.
Hawk, I really want to give you a more thorough response, but you REEEALLLY lost me!!!
– Houston’s 100 million contract made him UNTRADEABLE! Even before the news about his knee! In fact, the Knicks made him available in the expansion draft, but the Bobcats wisely chose not to pick him up.
– You would rather have Mutombo then Curry? Let’s be clear, I’m talking 2007 version and not 1997. Did you really say that?
– Isiah flipped Nazr Mohammed into draft picks that became David Lee and Mardy Collins. Van horn who was used to get Nazr is now retired. i’d say that worked out pretty nice.
– The Knicks won more games the first year because they had a bunch of going nowhere vets who were good enough to win some games, but had no future. that is the WORST team to have.
– About Paxson: here is my extended take: http://www.cosellout.com/?p=167 Paxson has not been a better GM than Isiah, he just started off in a far better place. Yes, he had curry and chandler, but also crawford and the 7th pick (Hinrich) before he played a single game.
Yo Modi, I think this Slam article was coming at you.
http://slamonline.com/online/2007/12/how-the-east-was-lost/
Modi, I think you missed my point. The fact that Isiah flipped Van Horn into Thomas and Nazr suggests that Van Horn had trade value. BTW, I was NOT criticizing that trade as it turned out well once Isiah flipped Nazr into draft picks.
However, that trade amplifies my point. Isiah should have been seeking to trade everyone he could for draft picks and not worried about the talent or contracts he got back.
The team was way over the cap so that free agency would have been fool’s gold. The best way to rebuild was through the draft with high draft picks. That means destroying the team to get top picks.
And yes I said that I would rather have Motumbo than Curry even though Motumbo is ancient. Deke still can rebound and black shots although he cannot play major minutes any more. Look at last year when Yao went down and Deke got minutes. He can still play very effectively. Plus, he would be a great compliment to Zach Randolph. Curry is a sieve on defense. He has absolutely no instincts for blocking shots or rebounding. If he has not figued that out by now, he never will. So, Curry is a bad fit next to Zach who is the better player. Deke would provide better short term chemistry than Curry can.
As far as Houston goes, he had no value to the Bobcats as an expansion team, but there were plenty of good teams with some bad contracts who might have been willing to send us a draft pick for taking away their crap. If Isiah has proved anything, it is that no one is untradeable.
Finally, I thought it was Paxson who drafted Hinrich which was a move questioned by some after that draft. Like I said before, I think Paxson has made two BIG mistakes. First, essentially trading Chandler for Wallace. That was stupid for all of the reasons that you mentioned. I agree. The second was drafting Thomas over Aldridge. We also agree on that. Yes, it was easier for Paxson to rebuild because Krause left him some very good assets. However, Paxson initially made good use of the assets he had. Both the Curry and Crawford trades became a boon for the Bulls because neither player is a championship caliber player because neither is capable of playing quality defense (albeit there is more hope for Jamal) and he got two draft picks. Essentially, Paxson deserves a lot of criticism for screwing up the initially building project. However, you cannot dismiss the fact the Gordon, Deng and Duhon were all excellent picks who have provided quality minutes for a team that won a playoff series. Deng in particular looks like he could be a multiple all-star.
Trust me, I do not think Paxson is great. I just feel that he deserves a benefit of the doubt because he has made more good moves than bad and his overall philosophy for team building is strong.
Plus, one final thought, as you have pointed out, Isiah has a strong track record in the draft. If he had come in with the philosophy of loading up on high talent draft picks first and then look to acquire veterans to fill in, we would have the basic pieces in place to be truly competitive. At a minimum, we would have had FOUR high draft picks. With role players like Lee and Balkman in fill in with the FOUR high talent picks, we would be ready to contend within two more years. Instead, we still have a six year wait to contend because Isiah failed to acquire truly high talent level young players. The reality is that with the exception of Marbury and Zach, this is a team of role players. Marbury should be traded because he will be too old to be effective by the time this team can contend.
It is a bad mix because Isiah failed GM 101… when you have a bad team, dump the bad players for draft picks and get as many lottery picks as possible.
All I can say is this: Crawford is terrible unless he’s in open space or traffic looking for a shot. At all other moments and instances of the game, he’s just atrocious. I’ve had to kick it up a notch. Last night I was in the bar talking so some of the fellas and none of us can figure out why he has little concern for the ball. We think he may have been teased mercilessly as a youth for his dribbling – and instead of addressing the problem head on, he decided it was best to palm the rock every chance he gets. Whatever the situation, Crawford continues to amaze me with his uncanny ability to miss opportunities for entry passes. It is now a high art form.
Hawk, your post deserves a good response, but I’m running out now and will get you later.
T3, does Crawford palm more than Iverson?
Crawford has far less basketball since than Iverson, and actually does palm the ball more. And I like Crawford, he’s one of my favority players.
“T3, does Crawford palm more than Iverson?”
You must have overheard my conversation with Crawford last week at 40/40. “I know Allen Iverson. You sir, are NO Allen Iverson.”
I don’t know that anyone over the age of 12 (alive or dead) palms the ball more than Iverson, but…isn’t this AI’s first full season playing with bigs who can score?
Notice how I don’t even mention them in the same breath. Sentence with Crawford’s name, period. Breathe. Sentence with Iverson’s name, period. Breathe. Never, ever, ever in the same breath.
MODI:
We’re getting close. The Knicks are looking GOOD. Up 8 in the third quarter on the Nets. Big Freddie Jones siting! Look, look, it’s a Duck!
Awwwwww shiiiiiiii!*#$*%!
Looks like Marbury isn’t the only all-star point that abandoned his team for a game
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AkEZllGSdOeO9hVze8b905G8vLYF?slug=aw-kidd120507&prov=yhoo&type=lgns