sunday wrapup: Roll of the ‘Dyess’
…when injuries derail a season!

·For the Knicks, it started with the 2002 NBA draft, when management gambled and traded its first round-pick and the injured Marcus Camby for Antonio McDyess.

In hindsight everyone criticizes this trade and then-GM Scott Layden never recovered from that transaction, because McDyess was never healthy enough to contribute. A similar thing happened in Orlando when the Magic signed free-agent Grant Hill who was coming off ankle surgery.

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Thursday, January 27, 2005

No Love for Serena!
…sounds from the Australian Open

Serena vs. Sharapova in a Grand Slam tennis semifinal needs no special build-up, no villain. Last night, listening to the commentary provided on ESPN2, Mary Carrillo and Dick Enberg, one would think Serena stole something, and did not deserve to be there.

A day after defending her sister and family’s name with the statement, ‘we have nothing to prove’, Serena Williams found herself playing an error-filled first set.

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Wednesday, January 26, 2005

KNICKS & NETS - Midway Predictions


Make your midway projections!Simply go to nba.com and look for your team's schedule!

With 41 games left for both the Knicks & Nets, I have the balance of the schedule as:

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Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Will the Sun set on Marbury’s Knicks’ Tenure?

Consider yourself lucky that print columnists are there to sell advertisements, and are not financial research analysts, telling you which stock to pick.

With the Phoenix Suns in town to play the Knicks, the coverage is all about Steve Nash vs. Stephon Marbury. Reading today’s New York daily newspapers and Chad Ford’s espn.com column, you’d get the idea that the Knicks should trade Stephon Marbury, so next year’s team can win 50 or more games, make it to the playoff, and win (WAIT) a championship.

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Monday, January 24, 2005

"Not the herb you're looking for…"

Recent reports out of the New York papers hint that fireworks could be in the horizon for the NY Knicks, because new head coach Herb Williams is not one with whom players should fool.

Williams has been labeled a “player’s coach”, yet is not beyond publicly stating who messed up at any given time during the game.

Though he has a new contract in hand, Herb is not expected to coach the team next year.

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Sunday, January 23, 2005

sunday wrapup: The Buck Stops Here…

In this first edition, I intone on three topics: NY Knicks, NFL Playoffs, and the “reality” show, Strange Love.

· JAMAL CRAWL before you… jack up three-pointers and other ill-advised shots to start the game.

Until the Feb. 24th trade deadline passes, I can start every Knicks’ column commenting on Nazr Mohammed spotting the opponent’s starting center with 2 quick, first quarter fouls. I will not because once the deadline passes, Nazr will either be gone, or play better because he's comfortable that he wasn’t traded or that expectations have been lowered since he is now coming off the bench or earning his DNPs.

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Saturday, January 22, 2005

Lenny and the Sword

After a heartbreaking, last-minute loss to the Houston Rockets last night, Lenny Wilkens decided it was time to resign as NY Knicks head coach.

The first I heard of it was on television channel ESPNnews nearing (or shortly after) midnight.The reporting was credited to Stephen A. Smith, as ‘Wilkens expected to resign’. Though the Knicks’ organization was said to have given Wilkens the night to mull it over, the word was already out; thereby making it impossible for him to change his mind.

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Friday, January 21, 2005

That Familiar Feeling...
...of loyalty, rigidity, and stability

The Houston Rockets will be in New York tonight, but it seems like New York is always in (or with) Houston.

When GM Carroll Dawson hired Jeff Van Gundy to coach, I don’t think he knew JVG was going to be such a ‘homer’and bring all these folks with Knicks' ties to the franchise.

Another aspect that Dawson never anticipated: JVG’s rigidity in his coaching style.

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Thursday, January 20, 2005

DEAD(line) that talk!
a message to underachieving NBA teams

The day after the Knicks fell apart in the fourth quarter versus the Toronto Raptors, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News wrote trade prospects Donyell Marshall and Jalen Rose may have ruined that deal, due to their spectacular performance.

I’ve been hearing about various Knicks’ trades involving these two players for weeks, and want no parts of it.

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Tuesday, January 18, 2005

‘Soft in the Middle’

Those words came from Eddy Curry of the Chicago Bulls in describing the NY Knicks, after Saturday’s (01/15/05) game. Though I knew why he would say such a thing, I still felt it was an odd statement from a player who had very little success in the game.

Yes, he did hit the winning layup, and scored 17 points; but as they often say in sports, “the numbers lie.”

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