Other than Berman, is there any national or local reporter who thinks this is a good hire?
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martin
Posts: 80110 Alba Posts: 108 Joined: 7/24/2001 Member: #2 USA |
5/12/2008 5:37 PM
http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/ny-spbarker0513,0,3888809.column
Hiring D'Antoni makes sense for Knicks Barbara Barker I'm going to write something nice about the Knicks today. And I swear I'm not doing it because owner Jim Dolan or someone else from Cablevision will soon be the person signing my paycheck. I'm doing it because for the third time in six weeks the Knicks have done something that's big, that's splashy and that also makes sense. The Knicks have gone out and bought the best available candidate for a job - not just someone with a name like Isiah Thomas or New York ties like Stephon Marbury or an affable personality like Don Chaney. In less than two months, the Knicks have hired Donnie Walsh as team president, removed Isiah Thomas as coach and outbid the Bulls to get Mike D'Antoni. That's more good moves in six weeks than the franchise has made in the past six seasons. Yes, the Knicks are still stuck with a disjointed, strange and unaccomplished roster. But for the first time in years there is solid reason to believe that they are past the bottoming-out point, that they are formulating a plan and that the plan has a realistic chance of working. The plan is not about next year. It's not about the year after. It's about 2010 and maybe the next 10 years after that. It's about landing LeBron James and restoring the excitement that has long been gone from the Garden. It's about luring James with a system that is perfectly suited to his style of play. It's about making a Knicks ticket the hardest one to in town to get again. There's been a lot of noise out there about how D'Antoni's style is not suited to this Knicks team, about how they would have been better off with a disciplinarian, someone who could knock some sense into their heads and get them to play a little bit of defense. The reality is who cares what this Knicks team needs now? And where exactly would you go to get a coach who matches this dysfunctional group? Isn't it better to grab the most talented coach out there, and then start looking for the right pieces to complement him? Isn't it better to scrap the whole thing and start over? Because the Knicks now have an accomplished, savvy and respected basketball executive in Walsh there is actually a good chance they might pull this off. Walsh knows how to judge talent, and he knows how to move players off the salary cap. Walsh showed his worth over the past week by his ability to woo D'Antoni, by his ability to convince him that it was better to take on a long-term project like the Knicks where he was really needed than go to Chicago where they had a better roster but a management group that might be less supportive of his needs. Of course, the Knicks have the cash, and they came up with a plenty of it to land D'Antoni. They could have had Mark Jackson, a local guy, a good guy, for a lot less. Hiring Jackson would have been painted as the right thing to do, as a move that would return the team to its New York roots, yada yada yada. This was the harder move to make, and it was the right one. Jackson may end up being a very good coach one day, but he still hasn't coached a game in the NBA. D'Antoni, until he recently fell out of favor with his owner in Phoenix, was considered one of the best coaches in the game. He's going to be earning every cent of his gigantic contract next season. But that's OK. If things start going the right way, for the first time in six seasons, Knicks fans will be getting more than their money's worth. Official sponsor of the PURE KNICKS LOVE Program
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AI
Posts: 20121 Alba Posts: 0 Joined: 1/31/2004 Member: #579 USA |
5/12/2008 5:40 PM
Posted by martin: She is probably sucking up to Dolan but I do like the hire. |
Other than Berman, is there any national or local reporter who thinks this is a good hire?