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rvhoss
Posts: 24943
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Joined: 11/2/2004
Member: #777
Switzerland
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March 31, 2006
The Circus Is Still in Town
By HOWARD BECK
Fred Klein has lived through three hip replacements, ankle and shoulder
operations, triple-bypass heart surgery and two spinal fusions. His medical
record reads like a grisly episode of "ER." But Klein runs down his chart
with relative glee as he nods toward the Madison Square Garden court and
declares, without hesitation, "That's worse."
"That" being the Knicks, who are about as broken
as broken gets.
A season-ticket holder since 1960, Klein has generally seen it all - from the
Knicks at their most glorious to their most shockingly awful. But he was not
prepared for this. The Knicks have the N.B.A.'s highest payroll ($125
million) and its lowest victory total (19), a Hall of Fame coach on the
bench, and shame on the court.
"This is my worst disappointment in 46 years," Klein, 71, said Wednesday
evening from his second-row baseline seat. "There were years I thought they
wouldn't be good. This year, I expected big things."
Three hours later, the Knicks lost their 51st game, a 123-98 rout by the
Boston Celtics.
But no, you cannot have Klein's seats.
Larry Washington commutes by car and train from Hainesport, N.J., for every
Knicks home game. The 80-mile journey can last up to two hours. Washington's
seat, in Section 223, is usually vacant before the fourth quarter.
"A lot of times, I don't see the ending, because I get my heart broken,"
Washington said. "My daughter says: 'Dad, you've got to find some other
outlet. This is killing you.' "
But no, you cannot have Washington's seats either. He has no intention of
giving them up.
"I need brain surgery," Washington said, joking.
If that is true, New York-area hospitals might soon be jammed with 18,000
mildly deranged Knicks fans. Because even as the Knicks hurtle toward infamy,
the people who buy tickets and jerseys and $7.50 beers are, by and large,
still buying tickets and jerseys and $7.50 beers.
Call them loyal, stubborn, blindly faithful or sadly gullible. Knicks fans do
not appear to be spooked en masse by this historically bad season.
Attendance is down somewhat, 3.5 percent from last season, when the Knicks
went 33-49. But they have sold out 20 of 36 home games. Their average
attendance, 18,824, ranks eighth in the league - by far the highest among
teams with no shot at the playoffs. (The team does not disclose no-shows, but
there did not appear to be wide swaths of empty seats at recent home games.)
The MSG Network, which carries every game, reports a 1.3 rating - an 8
percent increase over the same period last year. By comparison, the Nets -
who have won twice as many games as the Knicks - are drawing a 1.0 on the YES Network.
The draw remains strong in cyberspace, too. Traffic on the Knicks' Web site
ranks eighth in the league, up from 14th last season.
There is palpable despair in the stands, but it is offset to a degree by an
almost irrational blend of hope and devotion.
"The problem really is if you're a true Knick fan, you're never going to give
up," said Washington, 60, a retired salesman and Manhattan native. Washington
plans to renew his $5,000 seat near midcourt, reasoning, "If you've gone this
low this season, next season can't be as bad."
That was the idea last season, too. The Knicks drafted three promising
players - Channing Frye, Nate Robinson and David Lee - hired Brown, and
traded for Eddy Curry. Yet the Knicks, at 19-51, will not match last season's
record. They must win 3 of their last 12 games simply to avoid tying the
franchise low for victories.
"I can't explain it," said Klein, who spends $21,000 for his two seats. "I
blame it on everybody."
On the Internet, the disdain is palpable. In fan forums, disgruntled fans
alternately rip Isiah Thomas, the team president, and Brown and Marbury, the
feuding coach and point guard.
No one gets hit harder than Thomas. Jail Isiah T-shirts are now being sold at
jailisiah.com http://jailisiah.com/ . Then there is "The Ballad of Isiah,"
a song posted on youtube.com http://youtube.com/ in which the singer
wails, "Putting your faith in Isiah is like dropping acid for a midterm."
The atmosphere at the Garden, however, is considerably less acerbic. Fans boo
now and then but still cheer loudly in the rare moments that the Knicks show
life - as they did in a recent upset victory over Detroit. There have been
some isolated "Fire Thomas" chants, but they have been lacking in
participation, volume and length.
Apparently, it might take another 50 losses to inspire a full-scale
rebellion, or to make anyone give up their seats.
Some hang on for the memories, to what the Knicks were, as opposed to what
they are. Fans trying to explain their attachment invoke the names of Red
Holzman and Walt Frazier, Willis Reed and Patrick Ewing
"They brought a lot of good years to the city," Calvin Ratliff, who pays
$2,500 for his seat in Section 338, said. "You can't quit on them because
they're rebuilding. You've got to go through that."
"Even though they're not doing it right," Ratliff added. "But they're still
rebuilding."
Surely, when the Knicks are losing by 20, it must feel like a bad investment.
"Never," Ratliff said. Surely, he must sometimes think of canceling his
subscription. "Never," Ratliff said.
The Knicks no longer have a waiting list for season tickets, but the open
seats are all in the upper-level 300 and 400 sections, according to Hunter
Lochmann, the team's vice president for marketing. There have been some
cancellations - Lochmann would not say how many - but anything that opens in
the lower bowl is quickly snapped up by a season subscriber in the upper deck
looking to move closer to the court.
"It isn't unprecedented for New Yorkers to fondly like their losing teams,"
said Barry Truchil, a Bronx native and sociology professor at Rider
University in New Jersey. Truchil, who studies sports sociology, pointed to
the 1960's Mets. "They were laughable, and we kind of learned to love them
and in fact were a little disappointed when they started to win."
The Knicks have not won a championship since 1973 but to many, this is still
a basketball town, Truchil said.
"It's my pastime and my passion," Washington said. "I love basketball."
Klein, a restaurant broker, has attended all but 32 games in 46 years and has
become something of an icon after being featured in recent Knicks TV
commercials. "It's a social thing to me," he said. "I just love to be here."
There is also the fear that giving up tickets now could mean missing out on
the Knicks' grand renaissance, whenever it arrives. Yet the longer the Knicks
go without a winning season - five years and counting - the more their
followers start to resemble Chicago Cubs fans, who for decades have flocked to Wrigley
Field no matter how awful their team was.
"We've kind of learned to endure and somewhat enjoy, to some extent, the misery," Truchil said.
Tony Monte, a season-ticket holder since 1992, has considered canceling his two seats in Section 200 and saving the $7,000 a year.
"I came close many times," Monte, a 40-year-old record company executive, said.
Yet Monte, like most others, keeps swiping the credit card and making the trek to Seventh Avenue and West 33rd Street, to watch the Knicks lose games by the dozen.
Is it misplaced loyalty? Is there a sucker born every New York minute?
"I get that all the time: You renewing this again?" Monte said. But he finds a gratification that supercedes the winning percentage.
"You feel a bit of New York, you feel a little bit about yourselves on the court and in the players," he said. "The Knicks have always embodied the sense and the spirit of what makes up New York. We want results yesterday. But as long as we see the progress, we're a loyal bunch and we'll stick with it as hard and long as we can."
[Edited by - rvhoss on 03-31-2006 10:16 PM]
all kool aid all the time.
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3/31/2006 4:16 PM
