Continuity Is The Word (number three in a funky series)
The Spurs’ coach has for years been affectionately known as Pop. In Dolan’s Garden, coaches and assorted executives, though handsomely paid, have been treated like children.
Since Pop, or Gregg Popovich, took a seat on the Spurs’ bench in 1996, the Knicks have had eight head coaches, including Herb Williams, who handled the team for one game in 2004 and for 43 as an interim coach in 2005.
Since the management duo of Popovich — who also holds the title of team president — and R. C. Buford, the general manager, united in San Antonio, the Knicks have had six men in charge of their basketball operation. Three have called the personnel shots in the last three-plus seasons. Donnie Walsh was downgraded from president to long-distance adviser after digging the team out of a salary-cap hole the size of the Grand Canyon.
The latest change — Steve Mills in as president and Glen Grunwald out as general manager — bizarrely occurred on the eve of training camp, months after the Knicks won those 54 games and their first playoff series since 2000.
Under pressure from an impatient public — but also from Dolan’s dictums and ever-rising ticket prices — the Knicks invariably dwell more on the inadequacies of a promising talent, like Iman Shumpert.
Walsh made the call on signing Amar’e Stoudemire and his fragile knees before jettisoning David Lee, but it can be argued that the franchise instability and style-over-substance ethos made that risky and now-ruinous move inevitable.
It is well known around the league that Popovich demands a certain kind of player, or at least players with the ability to assimilate into his team-first system. At the Garden, Dolan has welcomed too many heralded saviors turned saboteurs.
San Antonio’s owner, Peter Holt, is seldom talked about. In New York, Dolan is a continuing topic of bewildering and derogatory conversation. And that is not good, no matter the context.
- Harvey Araton, NYTimes journalist
Is it true that Anything can be fixed?
for playing STAT so many minutes when everyone said his minutes needed to be monitored. I also blame them for rushing him back to play in a meaningless playoff game.
11/12/2013 6:59 AM