Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by Rookie:

Posted by Bippity10:

I disagree. Stand by your principles. It's the only way you raise standards and change the culture.

Meanwhile, the list of players on the roster who can't play or won't be played is growing instead of decreasing. Good thing we have a soft schedule in the month of December because one or two more injuries and we're in deep doo doo. How are new guys supposed to learn the system when we can't even field ten players for a practice squad?

Adversity is a tough thing. It sucks being shorthanded. But adaversity sometimes makes the team. This type of adversity can bring the team together and galvanize them. The team could work even harder to help TT and Al into the fold. This could bring the team together if it doesn't kill them. Seeing there teammates struggling should encourage JJ and Eddie to work even harder to get back in the line-up so that they can help. Of course it won't. So instead if Mike plays them when they are out of shape what message does it send to them? I never have to work to get minutes. This is why they are who they are in the first place. Because everyone has given in and given them minutes.

Yes, great post. It is a timing thing though....wait to long and you lose everybody. Unfortunately, there is only one player on the floor who is signed past 2010. What are they fighting for, the same thing every ball player fights for....that special chemistry that defies the odds. It's what raises a team above the individual star player...it's a bond that can't be broken. Do we have that?

....that special chemistry that defies the odds. It's what raises a team above the individual star player...it's a bond that can't be broken. Do we have that?

Rookie - whatever bond is in process, it will be tested (short term) this week in three consecutive games.

Long term - can the Knicks next 6'7 shooting guard be injected with the mad intensity of John Starks?

Or can a 6'11 Marcus Camby clone be vaccinated with the rugged CIAA funk of Charles Oakley?

Piece of cake.

Posted by Marv:

Knicks' James yearns for a chance to get on court
BY ALAN HAHN | alan.hahn@newsday.com
December 1, 2008
As exiled guard Stephon Marbury attempts to negotiate his basketball freedom in a meeting today with Knicks president Donnie Walsh, another player who has been similarly buried by the new regime quietly bides his time with far less attention.

Jerome James knows what he is in the eyes of Knicks fans. He also knows his days are numbered. But all he wants is a few spare minutes before he goes. Seconds, even. Just to shake a little of that reputation as the 7-1, nearly 320-pound center who took a $30-million midlevel exception contract from Isiah Thomas and then treated conditioning as a leisure sport.

"I can't leave New York without at least making my stamp and letting New York know I wasn't here taking money," James said. "That's not me. I've always had a passion for basketball and unfortunately, due to injuries, I wasn't able to show 'em that side of me. I want to show them that side and then I'll get my -- out of here. I'll leave."

Along with Marbury, James is the other player on the Knicks' roster who has yet to see a single tick of playing time by the decision of coach Mike D'Antoni.

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all right you brutes. who can read this and not have a little tear come to your eye?

Look at James trying to spit game.

They don't call him big game for what he does on the court. They call him big game because he talks a big game. I could just imagine how he smooth talked Isiah into this contract in the first place.

Posted by Bippity10:

We are already seeing results it's just not obvious yet. DAvid Lee, Nate, Wilson, Q, Malik, Duhon, Al are all bringing it despite the circumstances. They hate the distraction but are playing hard.

On the other side: This change and raising of standards have led to JJ begging for time without working for it. Curry coming to camp out of shape and Marbs bickering yet again. Raising standards reveals a lot about who you have on your roster. This is a good thing

I'm all for raising standards. I don't even have a problem with the Marbury issue. What I have a problem with is - The Marbury issue, the James issue, the Mobley issue, the Curry issue, the Galinari issue - all at the same time. There are to many issues and not enough resolution. It needs some proactive management.

"These aren't the things that we want to come off the court and talk about," Richardson said yesterday during a nearly five-minute session with the media in which all but one question hurled at him was about Stephon Marbury. "We want to try and talk about Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge, tomorrow and the Portland Trail Blazers."

Same As It Ever Was

Leave what exactly all on the court?

Marv, Marv, Marv... you fail to account for the unsurmoutable expectations for the Lebron Bell Curve. There is not a chance in hell that he can live up to expectations as the savior for the entire franchise. Every flaw in his game or personna will be magnified times 30.

Ewing becomes a much more sentimental figure AFTER he left. Same with Starks. And we loved Starks for dunking i=on Grant and Jordan, not so much for head-butting Reggie or going 3-16 against Houston.

The first free throw Lebron misses in the clutch will have the angry press mob forming with pitchforks and torches.

No way is he a hero by himself.

What's the scenario?

Lebron answers questions over the next year and a half and the public grows increasingly weary of the repitition anticipation. "Are we there yet?" becomes the new chorus.

Lebron drags out the salary negotiation and he is portrayed as a self-absorbed narcissist. "Fuggedaboudit, he thinks he is too good for New York?"

Lebron does not sign with the Knicks and he is branded a tease of the highest order. Knicks sign Duane Wade.

Lebron signs with Knicks and he does not deliver a championship within 2 years. He is labelled a fraud of the highest order.

Lebron reports to Knicks training camp a week late in 2011 due to bad weather shooting a movie with Spike Lee in Capetown. He is fined by Walsh and benched by D'Antoni for the season opener.

His agent requests a trade. Walsh fields offers for draft picks and salary matches, of which there are few in the depressed economy. Lebron bolts New York, moves to Washington DC, as the Wizards are interested. He stays in shape with an occassional breakfast club pickup game at The White House with Scottie Pippen, Kenny Smith and Luol Deng.

You heard it here first.

Marv - so, I can quote you on the theory that after Lebron arrives in New York, via the Cablevision corporate jet, with another innovative Nike campaign in national rotation - and after he holds his first press conference in Times Square on the red steps in front of a New Years Eve sized crowd...complete with the "Lebron signing countdown" basketball drop

("hey, that idea doesn't suck that bad!")

... with NBA store Knicks jersey sales breaking all-time records on the same day

... and then promptly goes out and tweaks his knee in the second pre-season game identical to the way Antonio McDyess tweaked his...

... and returns too early in November, trying to prove his manhood and toughness to the New York media, by playing through the pain - with marginal results

he is "good"... championship or not... and not villfied for being a phony?

c'mon.

ha. earl, you're coming up with all the worst-case scenarios now, but you started this off just by stating that

If Lebron does not deliver a championship by 2011, he becomes more analyzed, dissected and villified than A-Rod. Guaranteed.

that's what i'm respondng to.

well i'd say you’re certainly right that absolutely anything can happen in gotham and with the whirlwind of drama that especially surrounds this franchise. but i'd say that lebron has demonstrated thus far a pretty remarkable ability to deliver on and off the court under tremendous spotlight and pressure. not ny back page pressure on a daily basis, true. but starting with nationally-televised high school games through and including taking what may have been the all-time worst nba finals supporting cast on his back. i'd say he seems focused and resilient enough to stand a pretty good chance to overcome even the ny propensity for grind em up and spit em out.

Posted by misterearl:


You think Eddy Curry is a pariah? You ain't seen nothing yet. If Lebron does not deliver a championship by 2011, he becomes more analyzed, dissected and villified than A-Rod. Guaranteed.

no way would he be more villified & dissected than ARod... Ewing was looked upon as the Chosen One when he got drafted #1 & while the NY Media was tough on him, he didn't get the same treatment ARod's gotten... ARod is a walking tabloid... it's not even sports journalism when you talk about him, it's National Inquirer garbage you might find at the checkout aisle at your local supermarket.