By: Alex Kennedy Last Updated: 12/3/09 8:31 AM ET | 818 times read

The contrasting moods in each of the locker rooms an hour before game time said it all. The Orlando Magic players were cracking jokes and having fun. Mickael Pietrus found a mini motorcycle belonging to the Magic's street team and rode it through the Amway Arena's tunnels.

The New York Knicks, on the other hand, sat in silence and kept to themselves in the visitor's locker room. There was no smiling or laughing. The only noise in the room was coming from the big screen that showed footage from Sunday's home loss to Orlando. Players glanced at the video, shaking their heads in frustration at each mistake.

Last week, George Karl made headlines when he said that head coach Mike D'Antoni was being thrown to the wolves this season as they wait for the summer of 2010 to field a competitive team. "Losing will strangle a coach. I don't like the philosophy," Karl said. "Losing is painful. No matter how strong and tough you are it takes away your confidence."

Because coaches are judged heavily by their records, they carry each of their losses with them forever unlike players. But that doesn't mean that the losing atmosphere isn't impacting the guys that suit up for D'Antoni as well.

"The constant losing is painful, it's rough," Al Harrington told HOOPSWORLD. "It's not just one person that's losing though. We're all losing together so if one person is getting thrown under the bus then we all are."

These are players that have been winning their whole lives. Most have dominated at every level and have trouble adjusting to losing game after game. If you think a coach's confidence dips on the bench, imagine how the players feel getting beat night after night. Aside from their impressive win against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, the Knicks have only beaten the New Orleans Hornets, Indiana Pacers, and New Jersey Nets. These teams are a combined 13-37 this season.

And New York isn't just losing games; they're consistently getting blown out. Eleven of the team's fifteen losses have been by double digits and it's starting to take its toll on the players' psyche. Once a team that was considered to be goofy and fun like Orlando, the solemn locker room scene shows just bad things have gotten within the Knicks.

"Man, I'm tired of it. Everybody is fed up with the losing, it's bull****," a frustrated Nate Robinson told HOOPSWORLD before Wednesday's game.

D'Antoni knew what he was getting into when he joined New York. He understood that the team would suffer some down years until 2010. The players, on the other hand, didn't sign up for this.

Many have nothing to look forward too because their contracts expire after this year. Nate Robinson, David Lee, Chris Duhon, Al Harrington, Darko Milicic, and Larry Hughes come off of the books after this season. Unlike D'Antoni, these players are enduring the short-term failures with no guarantee that they'll be included in the team's resurgence. Who is really being thrown to the wolves in this situation?

"I'm not worried about that, 2010 will take care of itself," said Harrington. "Hopefully the majority of us are back but if we're not, we'll all move on and continue to further our careers but we can't worry about that right now. We need to right the ship now and just see what happens."

With that said, some players are frustrated that the team isn't making more of an effort to field a competitive team this season. They understand the team's plans but don't like the idea of focusing solely on the future.

"What if the world ended tomorrow? Let me ask you that. Then what? There you go, that's my answer to that," said Robinson when asked if the team has been focusing too much on the future and landing a star free agent rather than the current squad.

While this may be somewhat extreme, Robinson made his point. The team has spent so much time planning for next offseason but nothing is promised. As they pass on free agents like Allen Iverson or Ramon Sessions, they have put all of their eggs into one basket.

These are troubled time in New York. The losses are piling and the players are upset. They have been thrown to the wolves just as much, if not more, than the coaching staff and are finally getting fed up that the team is complacent sitting at the bottom of the standings. The world may not be ending tomorrow but at times, it does feel like the sky is falling in New York.

Man these players are such a damn joke, too bad it has no punchline.

A. consistency from any player except DLee

B. A lack of size and length--how can we compete against teams with two guys 7-1 and 6-11 with skill?

C. A true lead guard who can make plays. That's why I didnt care id Tyreke Evans was a PG SG--he's a lead guard who makes plays and people around him better. We dont have a lead guard.

Until we address size consistency and a lead guard--this will be a bad team with some guys who have nice individual talent--I think it's pretty simple. You need MANY components to have a great team

nyk4ever wrote:what a joke. If guys like Nate and Harrington are sick of losing they should try passing the ball on offense a bit more, rather than trying to steal the show every ****ing night. If David Lee is tired of losing, he should try putting a body on the player he is guarding instead of being a revolving door for opposing centers.

Man these players are such a damn joke, too bad it has no punchline.

what is your assessment of D'Antoni?

is he putting this team in the best position to win?

start with something easy: Lee guarding Howard...

McK1 wrote:

nyk4ever wrote:what a joke. If guys like Nate and Harrington are sick of losing they should try passing the ball on offense a bit more, rather than trying to steal the show every ****ing night. If David Lee is tired of losing, he should try putting a body on the player he is guarding instead of being a revolving door for opposing centers.

Man these players are such a damn joke, too bad it has no punchline.

what is your assessment of D'Antoni?

is he putting this team in the best position to win?

start with something easy: Lee guarding Howard...

The point isn't that Lee is guarding Howard (he's a starting big man so he should), the point is that he doesn't even TRY to play defense. You're right that was pretty easy, let's move onto something harder.

McK1 wrote:

nyk4ever wrote:

McK1 wrote:

nyk4ever wrote:what a joke. If guys like Nate and Harrington are sick of losing they should try passing the ball on offense a bit more, rather than trying to steal the show every ****ing night. If David Lee is tired of losing, he should try putting a body on the player he is guarding instead of being a revolving door for opposing centers.

Man these players are such a damn joke, too bad it has no punchline.

what is your assessment of D'Antoni?

is he putting this team in the best position to win?

start with something easy: Lee guarding Howard...

The point isn't that Lee is guarding Howard (he's a starting big man so he should), the point is that he doesn't even TRY to play defense. You're right that was pretty easy, let's move onto something harder.

guess you'd rather dance than debate. fine.

if david lee is such a non entity defensively why put him on the best center in the league? why not use Chandler whom is very good guarding post up players?

lol, dancing? Chandler WAS guarding Howard last night. Guess you missed that. He got abused, but you know what I give him credit because atleast he bodied him up.

McK1 wrote:

nyk4ever wrote:

McK1 wrote:

nyk4ever wrote:

McK1 wrote:

nyk4ever wrote:what a joke. If guys like Nate and Harrington are sick of losing they should try passing the ball on offense a bit more, rather than trying to steal the show every ****ing night. If David Lee is tired of losing, he should try putting a body on the player he is guarding instead of being a revolving door for opposing centers.

Man these players are such a damn joke, too bad it has no punchline.

what is your assessment of D'Antoni?

is he putting this team in the best position to win?

start with something easy: Lee guarding Howard...

The point isn't that Lee is guarding Howard (he's a starting big man so he should), the point is that he doesn't even TRY to play defense. You're right that was pretty easy, let's move onto something harder.

guess you'd rather dance than debate. fine.

if david lee is such a non entity defensively why put him on the best center in the league? why not use Chandler whom is very good guarding post up players?

lol, dancing? Chandler WAS guarding Howard last night. Guess you missed that. He got abused, but you know what I give him credit because atleast he bodied him up.

was stuck at work and missed last nights game. actually put Chandler on Howard?

Yeah he put him on a bunch of times. I'm not saying he exclusively covered him, because Lee did as well, but Chandler definitely got his share. The difference was though is that Chandler actually forced Howard into atleast 1 (I think maybe 2) offensive fouls because he was right up on him. Lee on the other hand, well you know how that goes.

McK1 wrote:SMH I was being fecetious when I said it. how can anyone defend foni for guarding Howard with Lere Chandler when Darko and his 7 ft 260 6 fouls having frame is collecting dust?

It's cool dude, no worries.

I agree Darko would have definitely helped, but who knows why he's in the doghouse. I mean things like that you can't really question since Darko could be in there for a variety of reasons.

Bippity10 wrote:Dear players and fans: The team has won 23, 33, 23 and 32 games with this same general core. Now I'm no math major but I think that works out to be about 6 wins per season over the past 4 seasons. When you put up results like that, there are no guarantees. If you want guarantees produce, stop shooting into the wrong basket, put your jazz hands away and win some games. Until then, you are in a rebuilding situation and nobody is guaranteeing you anything.

Now Bip has told everyone time and time again the main problem with this team. It started 4 years ago during the "it's okay to quit on LB because he is mean" year. During that year when the fans backed the players and the owner fired the coach we sent a message to the young players. We told them that the most important thing in basketball is not winning, but that you are comfortable in your situation. If you are uncomfortable it's okay to lay down your arms and surrender. The focus is not on winning and losing. This article and the players comments about winning and losing is a sham. If you really read what the players have said time and time again, is that they are worried about their contracts. They want that guaranteed money. That's what will make them play hard supposedly. It isn't winning and losing, its management not giving us what we want. The outside distractions constantly come up with this team and have come up since the beginning of the Marbury/Curry era. Mark my words YOU ARE NEVER WINNING WITH THIS SITUATION.

The media clearly doesn't get it, and many of the fans don't either. Bip is one of the few that does. The team is infected. You don't build on top of an infected team with MLE's and marginal players. You gut the infected team, get the infected away from your young players and start from scratch. This is what we are trying to do. If you decide to grab a Sessions or a Iverson and build on top of this current team and then fire the coach for not being able to get through to them, I will tell you exactly what will happen. 4 years from now you will love through 23, 28, 32 and 23 wins and you will be hearing Gallo and Hill and Douglas talking about "how they need to start doing things more consistently" and "why is the team worried about the 2014 free agency period" and "I'm sick of losing".

Management: continue along this path and gut this team!
Fans: Listen to Bip, he is trying to warn you!!!!!!!!!!

sometimes the coach is the cancer

McK1 wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:Dear players and fans: The team has won 23, 33, 23 and 32 games with this same general core. Now I'm no math major but I think that works out to be about 6 wins per season over the past 4 seasons. When you put up results like that, there are no guarantees. If you want guarantees produce, stop shooting into the wrong basket, put your jazz hands away and win some games. Until then, you are in a rebuilding situation and nobody is guaranteeing you anything.

Now Bip has told everyone time and time again the main problem with this team. It started 4 years ago during the "it's okay to quit on LB because he is mean" year. During that year when the fans backed the players and the owner fired the coach we sent a message to the young players. We told them that the most important thing in basketball is not winning, but that you are comfortable in your situation. If you are uncomfortable it's okay to lay down your arms and surrender. The focus is not on winning and losing. This article and the players comments about winning and losing is a sham. If you really read what the players have said time and time again, is that they are worried about their contracts. They want that guaranteed money. That's what will make them play hard supposedly. It isn't winning and losing, its management not giving us what we want. The outside distractions constantly come up with this team and have come up since the beginning of the Marbury/Curry era. Mark my words YOU ARE NEVER WINNING WITH THIS SITUATION.

The media clearly doesn't get it, and many of the fans don't either. Bip is one of the few that does. The team is infected. You don't build on top of an infected team with MLE's and marginal players. You gut the infected team, get the infected away from your young players and start from scratch. This is what we are trying to do. If you decide to grab a Sessions or a Iverson and build on top of this current team and then fire the coach for not being able to get through to them, I will tell you exactly what will happen. 4 years from now you will love through 23, 28, 32 and 23 wins and you will be hearing Gallo and Hill and Douglas talking about "how they need to start doing things more consistently" and "why is the team worried about the 2014 free agency period" and "I'm sick of losing".

Management: continue along this path and gut this team!
Fans: Listen to Bip, he is trying to warn you!!!!!!!!!!

sometimes the coach is the cancer

Sometimes they are. You are 100% correct. But when you see and hear the same things over and over and over again through 4 coaches. It ain't the coach. It's the players. It's an infection.

Now back to the LB year. LB did a horrible job here. He was mean etc. But unfortunately as a player you don't play for the coach. You play for yourself and you try to win no matter what the circumstances. Now you can understand the whole Marbury/LB distraction weighing on the players. What you cannot tolerate and excuse are the players rolling over and dying. When our players did this we did not get on them, we blamed the coach. In NY we have tolerated it over and over and over again, to the point where they don't know any better. Watch the body language on the court. Watch David Lee after he Ole's somebody to the basket. He pouts, puts up his arms as if he is amazed that Dwight Howard or Amare can make an uncontested layup. They are infected and they aren't changing unless placed into a winning situation with a true leader. Now unless you somehow can get lucky and bring in Lebron, the truth is that it isn't happening here. they must be moved and a new core, with new leaders must be established.