Posted by tomverve:

Posted by BlueSeats:

Posted by Bippity10:
DJ what major flaw to your post. When we signed Houston/Childs there was no salary cap. All we had to do was keep raising the figure until noone else could match.

Incorrect

Bippity may have been referring to the fact that when we signed Houston, there was no such thing as a max contract. So the situation was indeed rather different. Nonetheless, we did sign Houston relatively cheaply for his first contract with NY. I believe the way it played out was that Houston took NY's offer without bothering to tell Detroit about the offer and allowing them a chance to match or exceed it.

Posted by tomverve:

Posted by BlueSeats:

Posted by Bippity10:
DJ what major flaw to your post. When we signed Houston/Childs there was no salary cap. All we had to do was keep raising the figure until noone else could match.

Incorrect

Bippity may have been referring to the fact that when we signed Houston, there was no such thing as a max contract. So the situation was indeed rather different. Nonetheless, we did sign Houston relatively cheaply for his first contract with NY. I believe the way it played out was that Houston took NY's offer without bothering to tell Detroit about the offer and allowing them a chance to match or exceed it.

Posted by BlueSeats:

Posted by Bippity10:

Most importantly when we signed these guys WE WERE WINNING.

I fail to see the 'most important' significance you place on that.

Please reread my original post(see below) and write a two page synopsis of why I made that statement.

"No free-agent is ever going to want to play for us when we are losing. This notion that we can cut cap space and sign a couple free-agents is ridiculous. REad the papers. Listen to the fans. What star is going to sign in NY in a rebuilding situation when he knows he is going to get the blame for everything that happens. It's a fallacy in NY that we fans grasp onto because it's never happened we still believe that it will."

-A quote by Bippity11

Posted by Bippity10:

That's BS attaboy. Ewing's leadership was always questioned. He was called a ballhog and selfish and unwilling to sacrifice his game so that his team can take it to the next level. It's all the same. We Knick fans destroy our stars and then wonder why free-agents say they want to sign here for less and then go elsewhere.

No free-agent is ever going to want to play for us when we are losing. This notion that we can cut cap space and sign a couple free-agents is ridiculous. REad the papers. Listen to the fans. What star is going to sign in NY in a rebuilding situation when he knows he is going to get the blame for everything that happens. It's a fallacy in NY that we fans grasp onto because it's never happened we still believe that it will.

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by BlueSeats:

Posted by Bippity10:

Most importantly when we signed these guys WE WERE WINNING.

I fail to see the 'most important' significance you place on that.

Please reread my original post(see below) and write a two page synopsis of why I made that statement.

"No free-agent is ever going to want to play for us when we are losing. This notion that we can cut cap space and sign a couple free-agents is ridiculous. REad the papers. Listen to the fans. What star is going to sign in NY in a rebuilding situation when he knows he is going to get the blame for everything that happens. It's a fallacy in NY that we fans grasp onto because it's never happened we still believe that it will."

-A quote by Bippity11

Come on, in the past two years have we not heard of Crawford, Curry, Dampier,
Webber, Walker, Carter, KG, etc, all extremely interested in coming to NY? And that's the tip of the iceberg - you think they are the only ones with cajones?

And the guys who can't take the heat in the kitchen we don't need.

Posted by attaboy2005:

Posted by Bippity10:

That's BS attaboy. Ewing's leadership was always questioned. He was called a ballhog and selfish and unwilling to sacrifice his game so that his team can take it to the next level. It's all the same. We Knick fans destroy our stars and then wonder why free-agents say they want to sign here for less and then go elsewhere.

No free-agent is ever going to want to play for us when we are losing. This notion that we can cut cap space and sign a couple free-agents is ridiculous. REad the papers. Listen to the fans. What star is going to sign in NY in a rebuilding situation when he knows he is going to get the blame for everything that happens. It's a fallacy in NY that we fans grasp onto because it's never happened we still believe that it will.

My point is that with Ewing we were a winning team regardless of the question of his leadership, and on the matter of Ewing taking this team to another level we had one person in our way the majority of the time, and it's not Ewing, it was Micheal Jordan!. So you choose to forget certain things to make your point. So it's not BS on my part, you just want to win or come out on top with your point and everyone else is wrong.

Your statement about FA's valid in some respect, but the fact is we have been way over the Salary Cap to sign any big FA, so that this team losing isn't the real reason they don't come to NY, we just can't afford to sign with them out making a huge trade to get them, so that makes it hard to get these guys without up rooting the whole team.

My point about the way we treat our stars has nothing to do with winning or losing. We treat them like crap regardless. Ewing was treated like crap, Houston, and now Marbs. Three guys who between them may have 2 or 3 minor indiscretions. Three guys who have never been accused of not playing hard, of not playing through injuries. Three guys who gave it there all and at least two(if not all three) are respected around the league. Yet we as fans tore them apart. Our media tore them apart. We boo'd them. We chanted for them to be traded. We cheered when they left. We boo'd them at charity events. They all presided over different regimes. Teams with awful records to near NBA finals victories. Yet we treated them all the same. As a free-agent why would I want to be next? Do you think this is just my own opinion?

As for the big name NBA stars moving teams without a trade. It's very rare. Tough to build your hopes around that. For us to have carried it out consider that we would have ahd to go from approx. 2003-2007 with an Eisley led team. Been the laughing stock of the NBA and then turn around and sign a superstar free-agent? I'm just not seeing it as a definite like some on this site seem to think getting under the cap would have done.

Posted by Bippity10:
But don't you think for a team that has never won anything in 30 years that this is a very arrogant road to take. I have no problem with fans being critical. No problem when fans get on players for the things they do wrong. But Ewing and Houston were to players that if anything should have been respected from the moment they got here, instead fans cheered when they left. You don't think other players notice this? You don't think this has affected our success over the years. Just like there is a reason most players have chosen the Yankees over the Mets for the past 10 years there is also a reason why thinking the free-agent market for the Knicks is a risky way to go. This route is not a guaranteed success like some seem to think. All it is, is an alternate route from the one that was taken and has not shown to be any more successful than any other way.