Posted by misterearl:

cosmic - I have no idea whose direct quotes you are pulling from but allow me to 'splain myself:

As much as 82-0 would indeed be spectacular, lets not get ridiculous. It's not about expectations or predictions. I sit down and watch, hoping for my beloved Knicks to win the game that night. I don't go in expecting to lose.

Take last night for example. You could not get one person to give the frazzled Knicks a shot against one of the best teams in the NBA. Not one. Does that make them experts or smarter than the next person? Nope. Dumber? Not at all. It simply translates to one stone cold fact that none of us can predict the future.

This season is playing itself out with the plot twists and counter-espionage of any Knicks season which is fueled by the corporate shenanigans, power struggles, and player chess moves that date back to the days of Eddie Donovan and Gulf+Western.

You need to ask how on earth I could handle Howard "Butch" Komives, Luther "Ticky" Burden, Marvin "The Eraser" Webster and Ken "The Animal" Bannister.

The sun will shine again on these troubled, self-inflicted gunshot-wounded, tormented, villified and despised Knicks. Like a good friend said, "every time Renaldo Balkman hits a three, an angel gets its its wings"

... and Zach Randolph DOES play with the same lefthanded style, tenacity and mid-range jumper of Willis Reed,, and he's brand new to the New York mind games... as well as his teammates, so yeah, I'll watch so long as I have cable, a Barq's Root Beer and a fresh batch of Jiffy Pop.

I'll even dare to cheer when they win. Because you gotta win one to win two.

The quotes are paraphrased but the theme is the same. Those two quotes are Isiah Thomas discussing with the media upcomming games. They're from last season but he used them both several times each suggesting don't expect a win (and here is why). He did it a lot. So, given that, the coach you support does something that would cause you to brand him a loser. Just sayin'........


As to last night I gave them maybe a 5% chance to win thinking the Jazz might be drained and if we played a good game we could catch them off guard. In the end both teams played a pretty good game and we came out on top. Unexpected, yes. There's a reason for that: We've been a horrible team for Isiah's entire tenure and for two+ years prior to his arrival. So, yes, the open optimism of expecting a victory has long since died.

I don't go into games expecting them to lose but I don't go into games expecting them to win, either.

As to suggesting they're just in a rocky patch and it will resolve itself and they will become a winning team all I can say is every single season Isiah has been here there's been these rocky patches and they never resolve themselves and they never become a TRUE winning team. So why expect it this year?

Knicks need to prove it. Being 4-9, having barely beaten a horrendous mess of a Bulls squad, and playing only their second truly good game of the year out of 13 games last night - is NOT enough evidence to suggest all the turmoil is behind us and we're about to see .500+ play emerge as a result.

The cliche of what does not destroy you makes you stronger DOES NOT APPLY to this squad of players. They've done this before and they'll do worse all over again.

They want respect from fans? Start winning more games than you're losing, try putting forth effort EVERY PLAY and EVERY GAME, try playing both sides of the ball, STOP making excuses for bad play, and generally, please STFU and just go out there and play PROFESSIONAL basketball and DO IT for a LONG PERIOD OF TIME.

Only then will they win the "haters" back over. Until then a win is nice but it is NOT a statement. They want to make a statement? Find a way to be 25-25 after 50 games, erasing this 4-9 mess, and by then be winning 2 out of 3 games.

Until then....they'll get the proverbial "golf clap" when they win and they'll get boos and jeers when they revert to form and get embarrassed off the court.

Posted by Cookdcokehop:

This would be a statement win!