(truth be told... I sent this writer an email last week about in-season coverage of Knicks basketball. Did she read it? Who knows?)


Still, while the sample is too tiny to say for certain - four games, two wins, a 112-102 loss to the versatile, high-flying Magic last night - there is something likeable about this team, slight glimmers that suggest the season might not be as dreary as the months that preceded it.

"Just give us a chance and make a decision (based on) our record and the effort we give every game," Curry said the other night, after the Knicks won their home opener. "This is a likeable team, I really think you're going to see that. We have character. You won't see us quitting in the fourth quarter, I know that."

Balkman is a fair parable to the Knicks as a whole. Born in Staten Island and reared in Florida, he dreamed of playing college ball in the Northeast, preferably at St. John's or UConn or even Temple. There was one problem: he didn't care much for schoolwork as a child, and poor grades forced him to enroll in four high schools. By all accounts he wasn't a bad kid, just disinterested and lazy when it came to homework.

"I was always playing basketball," Balkman said before last night, as his toddler son kept trying to steal the ball from dad. "It wasn't the best choice but I learned from those mistakes and made it to a place where nobody thought I'd be."

Balkman isn't the fastest or the strongest, but he might just be the hungriest. He missed the entire preseason with an ankle injury, kept in shape by pretending he was Lance Armstrong on a stationary bike, and watching him bounce around the court like a kid on a sugar high makes you recall Curry's promise, and realize he's probably not wrong.

The Knicks have character. They're likeable. They might even be pretty good. They won't go undefeated at home, but we won't hold it against them

- Lisa Olson

Girls can't play basketball.

I believe that if we're patient with this team in the end they'll give us a lot to cheer for. The thing is that too often people expect perfection from this team and they want it immediately. We all know the players are flawed and this isn't the most disciplined group of NBA players. Still there should be a lot of winnable games and I expect this team to win more of them this year than we have before. NOT ALL OF THEM, just more of them.

I'm glad that there's been just the hint of a change of heart from the media when it comes to this team. It's not a big wave of support yet, but here and there you read some who seem to believe this team is better. How much better we'll have to see.

Daily News Smaily Mooz

Ms olsen got in the truck.

Posted by misterearl:

(truth be told... I sent this writer an email last week about in-season coverage of Knicks basketball. Did she read it? Who knows?)

mr earl, do you work in the knicks pr office?

Posted by misterearl:



nyk4ever - is there a problem with having an opinion that doesn't match the rest?

Geez Earl it was a joke, hence the smiley.

Doggone it, people like these Knicks.