http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/story/103657p-93819c.html

This is dead on. What have I been telling you people? This is a corporate culture. If you expect Layden and Dolan to be concerned with championships or fan-favorites, you will always bang your head against the wall.

Either get with the corporate program and accept their methods, root for another team, or come back when Cablevision sells the team, several years from now. Layden is not clueless. He knows exactly what he's doing, which is what Dolan wants him to do, and that's what matters most in corporate culture, doing what the boss wants. You are the clueless ones, who don't understand that we are owned by corporations and are subject to their rules. Your ideas of sports being about winning are outdated and outmoded. It's about product. And Dolan wants a family-friendly, suburban-style product that wins more than it loses, but is not a true contender (too much financial risk involved in trying to build one.) That's what he's getting from Layden, and he is happy about it.

If you want something different, you'll have to go elsewhere. But stop whining like schoolgirls about it, already. That won't change anything. Layden is performing to Dolan's expectations, so unless the Knicks miss the playoffs again, Layden will not be going anywhere.

Once you accept your corporate masters, life will become easier for you. You will not get upset about these decisions. You will grow to see them for what they are. It's about running a stable organization with a safe product.

That was a very good article.

i am a lakers Fan.

if we cant whine about the team why have a website.

i stll think layden is clueless, but i agree that dolan is the chief source of the problem.

i didn't read the article but it's fairly obvious, all the media reports and link were made to infuence the reader about spree, you got a lineuup with doleac houston, horn ward it's pretty clear whats going on. If i can find a way to get cable\satelite with out giving loo to msg i will.

I have been telling these guys from the daily news this all along, that it's Dolan who calls the shots. But they don't hear me doe! TRY FIGHTING THE CORPORATE CEO AND SEE WHAT YOU GET. Poor mewell, he'll never learn!

And if we fail miserably this year, we get a top pick...so...?

I really don't think anyone wants to switch allegiances to another team, nor wave a white flag in defeat. And I will definitely NOT EVER wear a Lakers Jersey...

I think the issue is probably more of HOW people want the improvements to be made. Even if we suck miserably this season (Which I honestly don't think we will) we'll end up with another good pick, and I have no problem with stocking up on young talent. Especially while waiting for the albatross contract to end.

Van Horn, good or bad isn't here to be a cornerstone. We all know that. We have to wait for a cornerstone from the draft or 'real' free agency. KVH has a shot to still be young enough when that day comes. Spree probably doesn't, imho. Once again, good for Spree, good for KVH, and wait for Allan's contract. (Or find a way to trade Allan too, but good luck.)

There are extremes of anger and complacency - I think everyone on this board is somewhere inbetween...

while spree is going to a playoff contender there will be hell to play if the knicks go to another lottery

Posted by ICEMAN:

while spree is going to a playoff contender there will be hell to play if the knicks go to another lottery

That is correct, which is why Layden makes just enough moves to get the team into the playoffs, whether they get past the frist round or not.

i read the article and i read Sebstars post, i agree 100 pct with what sebstar said, except for the cowards that join the lakers band wagon.

Me personally i a Basketball Fan first, Knick Fan Second. No player or coach will ever be bigger than the game. I unlike most people who post here or other internet sites can play ball, i play every week, i'm not bragging i am just saying i watch the NBA to see talent on a different level that i play with in the park. this is why i intend to get the league pass this season for the first time. i don't have time watching a inept boring team, when the superior athletes play in the west. i will only watch the Jets over any NFL team cause i am a Jet fan first than a footbal fan. even when the jets suck. but to mebasketball is a religion, so i cant tarnish it watching doleac and knight, i rather put on hoop dreams or play nba live.

DEF N REB, That was a "CLASSIC" illustration on what most of these postas can't except. They think people around the way(da hood) are the only ones nba owners are trying to draw to their arenas. Why can't they just stop the whining about something they can't change it's starting to sound like a Rikki Lake Show or something up in here!

Good to see that you cant take somebody attacking your opinions without you throwing a tantrum and invoking this I’ve posted more then you garbage…That and a nickel will get you a Milli Vanilli CD. You forgot dork, fuddy duddy head, and other 5th grade compatible insults, that you will find on any elementary campus…Damn, I don’t know where to begin with this post, you ol’ Lt. Nettiqute

The NBA, and pro sports, is losing viewers left and right. LA Lakers are NOT a family safe product now that Kobe is in trouble. Ratings are dismal. I got news for you, pal, die hard basketball fans watch the game anyway, but they are a minority compared to people who watch just to idolize pop culture icons. MJ was an icon, and people watched just to see him, not because they were basketball fans.

Sigh…I just knew you couldn’t resist the Kobe cheap shot …And this is coming from Mr. Criminal Justice over there…Lets just forget about this recent ALLEGATION, who by the way was a corporate world favorite. Were the Laker’s not family safe before? I am sure you are more or less referencing the dismal NBA finals ratings…Um, that may have to do with people not being appealed by lamb’s going to slaughter…Everybody knows the East has no shot…My rebuttal is the Kings/Lakers series in 2002..That drew monster ratings…Not because people plopped down and said “gee wiz, this is family friendly stuff”…It was because it was a kick a** serious packed with great basketball, trash talking, & insane drama. Where is this correlation between bad basketball, and white people loving it????

MJ was an Icon not because he was some antiseptic non athletic boring player (I.e Knick roster) , it was because he was the greatest basketball player anybody had ever seen, with game out the ying yang. That’s what sports revolves around, greatness. And even he proved that he wasn’t perfect off the court. Its only once in a life time when you get an Icon who transcends sports.. Ratings being down are caused by a myriad of things, more channel choices, low scoring unappealing games, expansion that has watered down the league, and yes the evaporation of MJ’s prime.

Dolan and Layden aren't trying to make a great basketball team, they're trying to make something to get the WHITE PEOPLE to buy tickets. Get it? Most white people (the middle-aged ones with the money) don't want to see a bunch of tattooed, gold-chain wearing ETHNIC PEOPLE (including all the foreigners, which doesn't help drive ticket sales) play sports.

There is a word for this…Its called racism…Great to see that we have finally pushed the euphemisms aside and gotten to the crux of your ignorant argument. What is this basketball by David Duke?

If you are correct in this “corporate agenda” (and unfortunately you may be) then we have a straight up bigot owning the team, which would explain everything. If Dolan doesn’t want black players who are great players and law abiding, but have a gold chain, wear baggy pants, and have a tattoo (like white players don’t?) then we have grounds for Dolan to be removed immediately. The Kings/Lakers/and Mavs seem to being doing just fine with “Ethnic” and “Foreign” players that you seem to hate…Damn, I need to check my dictionary, didn’t know family friendly meant xenophobic and bigoted.

Of course, genius, people pay to see a winner, but putting together a true winner is much harder than putting together a stable, fan-friendly (fans being affluent middle-aged white people from NJ/Long Island/Westchester and their kids) mediocre team, that makes the first round or two of the playoffs

Are any white people out there getting offended. Do you mind being characterized as a bunch of KKK members who don’t know jack about basketball…People who feel comfortable with a bad basketball team because there aren’t any “black” or “foreign” players around. You, need to get a better grip on what the suburbs are, it is not some “Leave it to beaver” monolith where nobody even so much as jaywalks, the suburbs practically support hip hop financially. Focus in on your quote “putting together a true winner is much harder…than putting together a stable fan-friendly team”. Translation: Its too hard to put together a great team. You’re right, us Knicks fans should stop “whining” about a racist, lazy, incompetent regime

Hell, the Clippers are selling out tickets and can't make the playoffs

Why are good honest middle class white people paying to see young gold chain snatching tattooed black and foreign players on the Clippers…what self respecting white family would do that?

I’ll just ignore most of this drivel in the last paragraph, which is right out of some bad C level movie script - “Corporations own you…They will spit on you…You are nothing if you don’t conform…Do as they Say… BWHAHAHAHA” Man, somebody must have done a number on you. You are just throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks, one minute you are talking about Corporations owning our soul, Kobe’s rape case, ratings being down…everything but what is at the heart of the matter, terrible NY Knick decisions, which by your own admission is rooted in racism, incompetence, and laziness. By your own revealing words, if Knick fans, and basketball fans all across the world don’t confront this regime, it would be practically immoral for them not to.