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Knicks' debacle

My peeps are telling me that the mess that currently is the New York Knicks is also getting the attention of NBA commissioner David Stern .

Apparently, Stern wants the Knicks to clean up their act and get their house in order. To say the least, the Knicks are an embarrassment to the NBA.

That means Stern would love to see the responsible party for this poor excuse of a team to disappear ASAP -- whether it's team president Isiah Thomas or Brown. For sure, it's debatable.

Some think that Thomas has done a terrible job of assembling players. Want proof? The Knicks suffered one of the worst seasons in their history and they don't have a first-round draft choice this season. Zeke dealt it away. Others believe Brown, a former Pistons coach, has been stubborn and unwilling to work with the roster he currently has. Want proof? Brown signed off on the deal to get Steve Francis and then didn't use him.

It's not surprising Stern would stick his nose into the situation. Most leagues thrive when big-city franchises are flourishing.

When they don't, TV ratings and merchandise sales are usually down. That's never a good thing for a commissioner.

It's not that the league secretly wants the Knicks to win a championship. It's just that Stern wants them to be at least competitive. Even though the Knicks haven't won a championship since 1973, they were in the mix for about 15 years when they had Patrick Ewing and you couldn't get a seat at Madison Square Garden. Now, you can get a section at MSG.

Imagine Stern trying to woo big-time advertisers to his league. The last place he would want to take them is to a Knicks game. How sad.

To make matters worse, Stern's three biggest markets -- New York, Chicago and Los Angeles -- aren't exactly basketball Meccas these days. The Knicks, Lakers and Bulls aren't in the NBA's elite class. In the league's heyday, those teams were powers.

Instead, the nation's media capital hasn't been compelled to watch the postseason in five years. Ouch.

I think they forgot to mention Dolan.

I'm curious - does the league have any power over individual franchises? Can they do anything about the type of mismanagement the Knicks have suffered over the past few years? Force Dolan to sell?

Posted by BRIGGS:

Posted by BasketballJones:

I'm curious - does the league have any power over individual franchises? Can they do anything about the type of mismanagement the Knicks have suffered over the past few years? Force Dolan to sell?

whyb would the other owners want to force dolan to sell? hes giving 65mm this etc... to the pool of teams under the 61mm $ cap thats roughly 3mm per team from the knicks----the knicks are trying but they spend money like a teenage girl with their daddy's credit card --inchorently and abusive

so we trade them an expiring for jalen. which saves them $16 mil next season (and cost's us $32). we ALSO give them a check for $3 mil b/c of luxury tax. so we give toronto $19 mil...and all we could get was the denver pick? why are we everybody's tampon?

[Edited by - djsunyc on 05-20-2006 2:16 PM]

I guess other teams are probably ecstatic that Dolan is destroying the Knicks franchise. They might just kill the goose that lays the golden egg though, if the Knicks continue suck and affect television ratings.