The Knicks Fix

Have you seen this hanging on the famous exterior of Madison Square Garden?

It's bad enough that Knicks and Rangers radio broadcasts were evicted from the legendary Marty Glickman memorial radio booth at Madison Square Garden so it could be -- what else? -- sold as a luxury box for $500,000. It's not enough that the beat reporters were moved out of their traditional place courtside next to the visiting team's bench so those seats could be sold for $2,500 a pop.

But now the World's Most Famous arena has finally been completely embarrassed and degraded.

For on three corners of the building's exterior (31st and 33rd at Eighth Avenue) hangs a gigantic banner with the image from the ad above promoting Eddy Murphy's upcoming movie, Norbit.

The slogan, "Have you ever made a really big mistake?" should also apply to the Garden executive who approved this banner for the once-proud arena.

You can almost hear the venerable Garden let out a defeated sigh Friday night as I walked up Eighth Ave. with this ridiculously undignified ad dominating the facade.

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On to basketball matters.....

Once the euphoria of David Lee's miracle Tip against the Charlotte Bobcats on Dec. 20 subsided, I was killing Charlotte coach Bernie Bickerstaff to anyone who would listen for drawing up his team's final possession to put the ball in Matt Carroll's hands. He had rookie Adam Morrison (whose shaggy hair and mustache make him look like a bassist for a 70s rock band) on the bench and several other arguably better options on the floor. But it was Carroll who got the ball. And it was Carroll who lost the ball to Stephon Marbury, who dove on it and called timeout with three-tenths of a second left in overtime. One Jamal Crawford inbounds later, the Knicks ran off the court with a win.

I just kept saying: "Matt Carroll? You have the chance to win the game and you draw a play for Matt Carroll?"

So as the Bobcats were putting the finishing touches on their 126-110 win over the Knicks at the Garden on Friday, a night when Matt Carroll scored twenty-freaking-three points and was 8 for 12 from the field, Jeff McInnis kept glaring at the media table and yelling, "Yeah Bernie!"

Guess Bickerstaff knows his players better than I do. Guess I, who shares some of that Irish-Catholic blood that runs through Matt Carroll, fell into that trap of not expecting much of the fair-skinned white boy with that textbook shooting form.

So I took it upon myself to get some education. Who is this Matt Carroll? Why would Bickerstaff have so much confidence in him?

I called on Wikipedia for the facts.

Matthew Carroll was born Aug. 28, 1980 in Pittsburgh. He played at Notre Dame. Played his high school ball at Hatboro-Horsham, as if that means anything to me. His brother played at St. Joseph's. His grandfather, Don Graham, started a basketball camp that teaches the fundamentals of - ah-ha! - shooting.

He is Notre Dame's all-time leader in three-point field goals made (301) and attempted (762), as well as the most career games (133) and starts (125).

Dude even had a cup of coffee with the Knicks in the 2003-04 training camp (I was covering hockey then), before he was cut. Bounced around a bit, spent some time in the NBDL, too, and earned MVP honors in 04-05. That still wasn't enough to get him a regular NBA gig (Golden State cut him after the preseason...what's up with that Chris Mullin? This guy is like your clone!).

He was eventually signed by the Bobcats in Feb. 2005. That's perseverance. That's determination. But signing mid-season with the Bobcats? That's also about as last-chance as you can get.

And now, at 26 years old, he walked into MSG as Charlotte's go-to guy and dropped 23 on the Knicks. He's averaging 21.7 points per game in Charlotte's past six games. The Bobcats are 4-2 in that stretch, including wins over Detroit, Indiana and the Lakers. And now Matt Carroll is getting respect.

"I think [teams have] been kind of noticing I've been hitting some shots out there," he said after the game. " I've just kind of noticed it lately.”

Consider yourself noticed, Matt Carroll.

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Random Thoughts You'll Never Read:

I was disappointed by the mild reaction Johnny Newman received from the Garden crowd when he was shown on the scoreboard during Friday's game. J-New was one of my favorite Knicks back in the day. Yeah, he was streaky, but before the Knicks were legit, he was exciting to watch. I can still see him soaring for that dunk over Manute Bol . . . Anyone else as disinterested in the whole Chris Webber thing as I am? Once it was made clear he was looking to go to a contender, the Knicks were easily ruled out . . . I think it's great Stephon Marbury is going to have his own talk show on FSN. But if he's going to do it, I say go for the shock value so you can get some ratings. I want to see Larry Brown among the guest list.