Road Cooking
Authored by Louis Roxin - 30th November, 2006 - 11:08 am


Disappearing Wrinkles?
I went to MSG on Monday night to write a piece on LeBron James and the Cavaliers, but a near miss on another comeback suckered me into another article about the Knicks.
Christopher Reina. 14th November, 2006.


After the first month of the 06-07 season, perhaps New Yorkers should pause a moment and think about rehearsing the following chant: “Fire the Garden Crowd!”

Through a difficult and heavy schedule at the start, the Knicks have maintained a 5-5 record on the road while stumbling to a measly 1-6 record at Madison Square Garden. The home crowd has been intolerant and unrelenting, booing a largely young squad that is plainly tentative and flinching at the prospect of making mistakes in their own arena.

Consequently, the Knicks are still shaking off a hangover from the misguided Larry Brown debacle last season, when the head coach hurled the team into an emotional freefall.

Brown attempted to tighten his grip on the team at the expense of producing a quality product, and the consequences were disastrous. The team became demoralized, the fans watched in horror, and everything spiraled down from there. Isiah Thomas has done an admirable job of beginning to repair the damage while also putting down the basketball foundation the team needs to grow its capable nucleus.

At least on the road, the Knicks take on the look of a far more cohesive unit. The road-home disparity is most notably embodied by center Eddy Curry, who has now posted four straight 20-point games (three of the four away from MSG). Curry is one of the main targets of Garden fan frustration but he is still learning the tempo and positioning needed to be a consistent force at the NBA level.

Besides recognizing that Curry is still a baby at age 23 – as well as a more relaxed and dominant presence on the road – the Knicks’ base of fans might also want to grade Curry on a curve for another reason: B+ plus centers who can score the ball down low with back-to-the-basket offense are more valuable than almost any other type of A-level player.

Teams that keep their head above water at or around .500 on the road should expect to win more than lose in their home arena, adjusting for the bump of a crowd that is hostile to only the opposing team. If and when that happens for the Knicks – and the flashes of fluid play and confidence on the road are displayed even more emphatically on the Garden floor – Thomas will meet owner James Dolan’s mandate that the Knicks show significant progress under his leadership. And he will do so with room to spare.

http://realgm.com/src_feature_article/117/20061130/road_cooking/

chill

it's a good article....for me too POOP on.

Posted by djsunyc:

it's a good article....for me too POOP on.

^ great. now i gotta go into my 1.00 meeting unable to stop laughing.

I would love to tell this guy to go **** himself!

No one boos when the effort is there, when the team comes out flat opening night, and doesn't try on occasion thats the only time the crowd is heard from, other than when they make a frantic comeback and fall short....

We pay a lot of money, all the crowd asks for is hustle especially from a young team, a center that is going to box out and do the necessary things to win

Nobody seems to boo David Lee or Balkman or Q etc and these guys make a lot of mistakes as well. If the rest of the team can give their effort at home the booing instantly stops.

Posted by Bippity10:

Nobody seems to boo David Lee or Balkman or Q etc and these guys make a lot of mistakes as well. If the rest of the team can give their effort at home the booing instantly stops.

There were boos after Lees 7th turnover the other night!

sugarray - an advantage and disadvantage is how something is perceived.

why do you continue to post about curry and fight the good fight? b/c you like him and you want others to see that.

you could easily not post about him anymore after MS does one of his dirty madlibs posts cursing him out.

but you take that as a challenge and keep posting and arguing about him.

it's a trivial example but you get the point. if the knicks use the booing as a motivating factor, then what is a perceived disadvantage can then become an advantage.

The Knicks should be feeling no pressure. None. 23 wins last year. 35 wins this year would be acceptable. I guess I'm just having a hard time understanding where the pressure is. If they tighten up to that kind of pressure what are they going to do in the playoffs? Just play hard every minute and the rest will take care of itself. Stop worrying about the fans and work on your game.

Posted by djsunyc:

sugarray - an advantage and disadvantage is how something is perceived.

why do you continue to post about curry and fight the good fight? b/c you like him and you want others to see that.

you could easily not post about him anymore after MS does one of his dirty madlibs posts cursing him out.

but you take that as a challenge and keep posting and arguing about him.

it's a trivial example but you get the point. if the knicks use the booing as a motivating factor, then what is a perceived disadvantage can then become an advantage.

To answer your question I figure with 100 Curry bashers I need to balance things out a bit. I wouldnt post about Curry 1/50th as much as I do if he didnt have 100 bashers/haters. Jcraw has been my fave player for 3 years but he doesnt have as many bashers. Lee is also one of my faves but he doesnt get bashed.