This is the NBA, not CYO. If you don't have great players, you're not winning games. Period. It doesn't matter how good of a coach you are, this is not Hoosiers. That's what separates this year's Doc Rivers from last year's Doc Rivers.

Another advantage that no one ever wants to discuss is that EVERY successful coach has a very good staff, not just Phil with Tex. It was true of Byron in New Jersey with Eddie Jordan, it's true now of Phil with Rambis and Shaw, it's true of Doc with Tom T. (who should have been named coach of the Knicks), it was true of the Van Gundy/Riley Knicks, Pop in San Antonio, Nate in Portland, Sloan, Avery, etc. They all have good staffs who know their roles very well and compliment the head coach. Now, what the Knicks have is a bunch of guys who want each other's jobs and much like the roster, don't compliment each other at all.

Byron's problem in New Jersey was two fold. One, Eddie Jordan is just an all around better person to be around on a daily basis and his work ethic is 2nd to none. He's comparable with Jeff Van Gundy in his preparation AND the players got along with him. He's a down to earth, regular cat who knows the game inside and out and will work his ass off to win. Byron wasn't like that as a head coach, although his work ethic was great as an assistant all those years before. He got to the top of the mountain and developed a superiority complex, even as a rookie head coach. He walked around like he was Pat Riley. His personality is that of someone who has spent their entire adult life in the NBA. He's a d**k. There's no two ways about it.

Two, Jason Kidd. The rules that are for everyone else have NEVER applied to this guy. Not even in high school. For one thing, Jason wasn't feeling the college type practices and training camps that Scott runs as a product of Riley. Scott thinks every day is boot camp. That works when you've got young guys or the Showtime Lakers who want to run, run, run. Not so much when you've got a guy who feels like it's just as effective for him to grab the rebound and throw an alley oop from 80 feet....and can and will do it successfully. And as we've seen over the course of this season, when Jason doesn't want to work for you, Jason doesn't work for you.

Jason is also a notorious back stabber. He falls in love with a coach, then falls out of love just as quickly. Look at how he did Lawrence Frank in the past week alone: He tells everyone to back off of him, that it's not his fault and that he's riding with his coach....then goes out and demands a trade. Kidd always thinks the grass is greener on the other side or that he knows more and should have more power than his head coach. That's why I can't wait to see what happens if he actually does go to Dallas. He doesn't want it with Avery.

Chris Paul is completely different. He respects the role of his head coach, respects him as a former player and save for that incident with Hodges, Chris is a stand up guy who'd only bail on his coach if the guy was completely incompetent and preventing them from winning games. Kidd is the type to be on the golf course with you one minute and in Thorn's ear the next. Jason is a master manipulator. He and Byron are too much the same.

Also, Byron has probably changed a lot as well. He failed to realize that 9 times out of 10, the organization is always going to back the star player, especially when that guy brought an entire franchise back from the dead. He wasn't dealing with Stephon Marbury anymore. Jason Kidd has a ton of credibility. Going back to needing great players in order to be successful, he probably should have had better communication with his point guard before it snowballed into a Kidd led mutiny. It didn't help that he lost Eddie Jordan, again, going back to having a good staff. His was considerably weakened by that. But, you get fired, you learn from your mistakes. Phil Jackson's not the same coach as he was in 92 either.

I'm sorry did you just say Kenny Smith is a smart dude with his commentary. That guy has no ****ing clue what he is talking about and makes generalization off of the 2 knicks games he watches all year.

That's another dude you don't want near the franchise