Well, the New York Knicks lost again on Tuesday. The Knicks lost?? But I thought their season was over?? Oh, they might not be playing games anymore, but that hasn’t kept them from being losers. I bet you didn’t realize Squints from The Sandlot was actually talking about the Knicks….
But seriously, the Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves finished tied this season with a record of 31-51 (stellar I know). And two days ago, the Knicks lost a ping pong ball tiebreaker (those are 4 words I didn’t think I was going to say today), leaving them 7th in the draft order, 1 spot behind the Timberwolves. This is assuming neither team lands a top 3 pick when they select the draft lottery on May 16th. But Dave, it’s only 1 spot, why are you making a big deal about it? First, 1 spot can mean the difference between Stephen Curry and Jordan Hill. Second, it represents the Knicks’ culture. The Knicks are, for lack of a better term, ‘stuck in the mud’.
This losing culture starts and ends with Knicks’ Owner, James Dolan. Little Jimmy Dolan, as I like to call him, inherited the Knicks from his daddy, Charles Dolan. And despite biting the hand that feeds him, Little Jimmy is still The Chairman of Madison Square Garden Company. This means he is only in charge of the things he couldn’t screw up if he tried (financially speaking that is). However, he has screwed up the Knicks’ franchise, mightily.
Dolan hired Phil Jackson to be President of the Knicks 3 years ago. Let me start by saying, I don’t care who you are or what you say, no one in the world thought this was a bad hire. But after 3 looooooooong years, there is only 1 header that can rest atop Phil Jacksons’ performance review; DUMPSTER FIRE!! Phil Jackson is regarded as one of the best coaches in NBA history, but unless he plans to scale down the 8,490 foot ladder from his golden pedestal to start coaching again, it’s time for him to pack his bags. Only problem there is, James Dolan refuses to fire him. Dolan, aka Einstein, has repeatedly stated he must honor his contract with Phil for 5 years. Yeah that’s great, but you had an opt-out written into the contract. This gives either side the legal right to part ways after 3 years (which last time I checked is NOW). Sooooooooooooo Jimmy, what are we waiting for? What if Phil literally set fire to the Garden? Would that be a fireable offense? Well, let me run through the things I call fireable offenses:
- Don’t address the media for 2 and 3/4 years and when you finally do state the obvious that your best player would probably be better off elsewhere
- Hire “your guy” Derek Fisher, and then unceremoniously fire him a year and a half into a 5-year contract even though you were clearly tanking
- Everything you have done, said, or thought about saying as it pertains to Carmelo Anthony (Melo’ is who he is – a great scorer who gets rebounds by default because he’s 6’8″ and has no interest in playing defense; whatsoever)
- Insane stubbornness to run a wildly out of date system known as “the triangle” even though numerous NBA players have publicly stated they have zero interest in playing it
- Attending Shaq’s statue unveiling (even though I’m a big fan of The Diesel) while he should have been attending the Kentucky/UCLA Sweet Sixteen match-up. I mean, it’s not like there were 11 NBA prospects in that game….
- And last but not least, signing Joakim Noah to an obscene 4-year, $72 million contract. Need I say more?!
There are way more things Phil Jackson has done wrong in the past 3 years, but I ran out of paper. The solution to this problem is simple: Fire Phil, hire someone competent (like me), collect draft picks rather than give them away, build through the draft, and once you have a base of 2 or 3 solid players attract free agents. Period, end of story.
Have a solution to the Knicks’ problems? Tell me in the comment section below.
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Dave Talks Sports 