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BlueSeats
Posts: 27272
Alba Posts: 41
Joined: 11/6/2005
Member: #1024
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I'm trying to think when it actually occurred....
It happened sometime after Chaney was allowed to lead practice only later to be led out of the Garden and up to the gallows. "Strange fruit hanging from the poplar tree..."
It happened sometime after Isiah blew the chance for Fratello and decided to go with Lenny Wilkens, apparently with the intent of playing him like a puppet.
It came sometime after Marbury and Wilkens didn't call a time-out, and we lost, so they blamed Shandon Anderson because the fans needed them to, or Isiah told them to.
It came sometime after giving the the Nets the first two playoffs game without any effort whatsoever. It came after Marbury played valiantly for 30 mins of the next two games only to throw them away in crunch time.
It came sometime after Marbury demonstrated zero ability to work with the all-star "athletic" types, which everyone said he needed to be at his best, in the Olympics. It came sometime after Brown almost got him sent home from Athens for being uncoachable.
Those first 6 months they got more than a pass from me, I was their biggest supporter (on the basketballboards.net). I think BigC can attest to that. Up till then I was as big a starphucker as anyone. I would have preferred a strip-down rebuild, but somehow I thought Isiah/Marbury could be almost as good. I thought they had NY moxy.
Ha! Pitiful me.
Then came that summer of free-agency, where it seemed Isiah might get every FA on the market. At one point it looked like we might get Kobe, Vince, Crawford, Sheed, Webber, Dampier, SAR and Walker... all of them!!! With little more than expiring contracts and the MLE. Talk was in the air of Isiah for executive of the year, if he could only get that stud of studs... Dampier.
But of course, all we got was Crawful and Gin Baker. Reality was hitting home.
I assure you through this time these happenings did not go unnoticed by me. Cracks were starting to form in my armor, but I was still a lover, because my soul waas weak. Like many of you, I wasn't in my right mind. I was a junkie in need of a fix after being strung out for years under Layden, and Isiah and Marbury looked like the the hero, the heroine and the needle.
Then started the new 2004-2005 season.
It came sometime after we realized TT would always be the one true Fugazy.
It came sometime after every backup PG in the league had their best games against Steph, and it wasn't because they came pumped to play in the mecca, it was because Steph likes to rest on D.
It even came after Marbury declared himself "the best" and the team quit on him. It happened, in fact, immediately after that.
That was around the time that Marbury was telling Wilkens to take his coaching and shove it. It was around the time Marbury was making speeches about togetherness and self-sacrifice but then heading for a massage while the others scrimmaged. It was around that time that Kurt, the last of our old-school warriors, was telling Marbury he wasn't afraid of him (an obvious reference to Marbury's indulged relationship with isiah) and he'd kick his butt. It was around that time that Marbury was telling his friends and nepotistic cousins that he ran the team, not that "black 'ho". It was around that time that Isiah was harassing and firing coworkers. It was round that time that Isiah was Lording over Wilkens from the tunnel and telling him who to play and who to sit.
Yes, all that turmoil was brewing and I could sense it, there was something foul in the air and the record reflected it. Wilknes, the scapegoat of the day, knew it was time to get out, so he did. It didn't matter if he quit or got fired. it wouldn't work and it couldn't work. And this soulless vessel tanked to the bottom like a ship without a hull, and it's yet to recover because the demons who sank us are still manning the bridge.
Larry couldn't save us - and even if he could, Isiah wouldn't let him. Eddy can't save us, and Zach can't save us. Not even the the Great White (role player) Hope, Lee, can save us. This isn't just a company without a "head" - it also lacks backbone and integrity. It was created by the "third-base kid" and a popcorn magnate during a drunken toga party. Dolan wanted to sleep with Magic but he wasn't available so he took home Isiah, Magic's sexy friend. Why not? She was pretty and available. And if Isiah wasn't available he'd have gone with Arsenio Hall or Tom Cruise - anyone with a smile bright enough to turn the lights back up on Broadway, that's who Dolan would set up in his Playboy mansion.
There is no leadership, direction or cause. It's about having money and spending it to look chic and keep up with the in-crowd. We're expensive but cheap. We've become the Paris Hilton of basketball franchises.
Dolan isn't trying to give us a team we can take home to mom and dad, to love and to marry... he's giving us an expensive whore to give us a quickie - and to hell with us if we get stuck with the crabs or genital warts. That's the price you pay to get off.
[Edited by - blueseats on 10-15-2007 01:21 AM]
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10/14/2007 3:40 PM
