Posted by Allanfan20:
Rem, just to let you know, my stance is this. I do think the fans have patience to go through a rebuild, and I know, b/c they are still attending games through these losing seasons
I respect your opinion, Allanfan, and while I once shared it, I have a tendency to lose faith in an opinion when there is little to no evidence that backs it. MSG at times last season was a ghost town, and the people who did show up went to boo the team. Chicago continued its string of sold out games through the early phases of its rebuild (I don’t know about after the second season, but I suspect it continued). I went to a game there in those early days, and I can’t imagine that the fervent energy and support from the fans was significantly less than it was when Jordan was on the court. Is it because they rebuilt the “right” way? Under Krause, I don’t see how one could hold that opinion.
this has been an ugly as heck rebuild.
We’ll see how it works out for Portland, but I can’t think of a rebuild that was pretty. No, Isiah’s plan to rebuild while contending, attempting to use Indiana as a model, has not had results in the win column. Its failed, frankly. But we know for sure that rebuilding the only way this team could, sitting tight while our contracts came off the books, would have resulted in even fewer wins.
People have some fantasy of blowing up the team so that it rises like a phoenix majestically over the city of New York to capture former glory. The reality is very different. First, blowing up a team of contracts no one else would trade for was simply impossible. Who was going to give us a nice ending contract plus a few draft picks for Allan Houston? Second, rebuilds
are ugly, and I don’t share your faith that this fan base would sit tight if things didn’t all go as planned. We know how Frye was panned as a bust in his second year. What if we had picked Bynum, or even Bogut? Bynum wilted under the spotlight in LA, who is to say he would have done better in NY? Bogut’s numbers have been unimpressive so far (Eddy Curry had better numbers at a younger age the first year he got comparable minutes) I can already hear the Bippity’s wailing about a 6-11 guy only getting 7 rebounds. And don’t even talk about his defense.
I am not saying I wouldn’t have preferred to go in this direction, I wanted to rebuild since 2000. But I
don’t think it would have been pretty, and I
don’t share your belief that Dolan is dead wrong in thinking it is too big a risk in a market that feels it is entitled by birthright to wins.
So I don’t take the young potential on this squad for granted, and I’m patient enough to see how it works out. Its patently ridiculous to suggest, as some bone-heads here have, that this is because I am satisfied with the current state of the Knicks. Its because I understand how long it takes to build something, and yes, I do see progress.
Its like a groupie website, or bitter ex-wives club. -Sebstar
7/24/2007 9:40 AM
