The Knicks Fix

Somewhere over the southern mid-west, en route to Denver and in the midst of some annoying turbulence that has the pilot continually apologizing. He says we might dip down to 12,000 feet, so that means I might have to change the title of this entry. Or assume a crash position.

That’s a hilarious scene in Airplane.

Here’s another:

Ted Striker (Robert Hays): Surely you can’t be serious.

Dr. Rumack (Leslie Nielsen): I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.

OK, enough. During Islanders games and practices Peter Botte of the Daily News, Evan Grossman of the Post and I would shout out movie lines and bust into laughter. It always was the best way to get through the monotony of a long season.

OK, focusing back on the Knicks. . . .

We start another road trip, the second of four this month, with three games over the next four nights. I guess we’re not supposed to expect the Knicks to win any of these games, at least that’s what Isiah Thomas continues to suggest. It’s kind of infuriating to hear a coach already giving his team an out. And that’s why you have what happened in the first half of Monday’s loss to San Antonio, a passion-less performance by the home team against an NBA elite. It should have been viewed as a challenge. Let’s try to knock off the Spurs. Instead, the Knicks regulars hardly competed and can you blame them? When your coach is suggesting you probably won’t win, what makes you believe you can?

To be fair, Thomas did also say that the Spurs are “a good basketball team” and paused before adding “they’re not unbeatable.” But that’s hardly a motivating battle cry before a home game that followed a clunker of a home opener.

Look, I know my stuff in the paper today was garbage. I had a bad night, too. I don’t think I told a good story and I know my sidebar was weak (thanks to veteran editor Greg Gutes for picking up the slack). I guess I was distracted by the one thought kept coming to my head as I watched (and typed and took notes) the game. Maybe I should have hammered it home more than I did:

Benching unproductive players. What a concept. Accountability. Why is this not a given around here? Why are we talking about this three games into a season?

Thomas sure talked the talk after the Spurs game, when he said, “if you’re not going to fight and compete, then I’m the president. We can give you a pink slip too.” He reiterated it today at practice.

But my question is, when it comes down to it, will he? And, more importantly, why hasn’t he already?

To me, success and failure always start at the top. Always. So my point is this: What type of precedent are you setting for the game if you’re not starting your best and most cohesive five-man group, not a backcourt that you feel compelled to start no matter how much it has forced Stephon and Steve to change their games? And what about the message you send before the game when you talk as if you’re conceding the victory to a better team? Thomas did this before the Spurs game and also talked about possibly not having legs for the home opener – not being up for the home opener?? – even before the team played the second game of the season at Atlanta.

I just find it confusing that the team is supposed to be trying to win – that is the idea of sports, correct? –
yet the coach has not developed an environment where the expectation is to win.

It’s the culture around the Garden that needs to change more than any player or coach (or president of basketball operations, for that matter). Gregg Popovich made reference to how the Spurs are working with former Knicks center Jackie Butler to “show him what it takes to compete at the highest level.” With that comment, Popovich suggests that Butler clearly he didn’t get that in New York.

Hard to argue.