In the lowest of the losing, Mike D’Antoni delivered history lessons to the New York Knicks. Only the Knicks coach wasn’t pitching the past of Madison Square Garden, Red Holzman and Clyde Frazier and Willis Reed, but a self-proclaimed genius born of the desert sun. Before his players, sources say, D’Antoni had started down the don’t-you-know-who-I-am route and recited his résumé of 60-victory seasons and scoring records and revolutionary basketball.

He let it be known, too, that the non-believers among them should feel free to march into Donnie Walsh’s office and demand his dismissal. More than one Knick privately laughed that they didn’t know there was an "I" in coach

D’Antoni can call the bluff of his boss today, but he’d better be careful tomorrow. The Knicks are a mess, and League friends of Dantoni believes he has deep regrets for passing on Chicago for New York. He let his ego and agent push him out of Phoenix, and let his desire for money over winning pass on Chicago. Make no mistake, though: That was two months ago and this is now. New York has a Garden winning streak of six games, and New York isn’t on his case for the holidays.

Through it all, the Bulls coach was probably on the Knicks’ bench on Tuesday night. He should’ve been in Phoenix, in Chicago, anywhere but New York. His boss passed on Brandon Jennings(notes) for a stiff forward, Jordan Hill(notes), who can’t crack the rotation on a lottery team. His system might have worked well with the Bulls, but it never happened. Two years later, Reinsdorf is still waiting on a return call, and truth be told, Vinny Del Negro is waiting on one his own.

This isn’t an appealing arrangement for the Class of 2010, but so it goes in lottery land. However arrogantly, D’Antoni could still reach back and tell his players that his system worked, that he had the clout to bully them into belief. For Del Negro, it isn’t so easy. He has nothing to fall back on, nothing to shake his fist into the air about and say here’s the proof it works. He holds onto dear life in this job, and D’Antoni holds tightly to the myth that LeBron James wants to play for him.

Nevertheless, Del Negro got a break in Chicago, and D’Antoni got a fortune in New York. Maybe that’s what they both wanted, maybe that’ll just have to be enough for them.[/url]

You ever see this guy talk? Watch him on a yahoo video...he says "you know" every 4 words.

"well, you know, blah blah blah blah, you know, uh, blah blah blah blah you know, you know??" Get the EFF out of here with that weak ****, Woj. No respect from OBM, you can take that to the bank.

already been posted with a link to the actual article...

http://ultimateknicks.com/forum/topic.asp?t=33385

secondly, this is a plainly pathetic sensationalist piece. playa, you are losing respect from me on all things kicks (despite other views that i believe make sense) on a daily basis with this silliness.

tabloid-ism at its worst...

wojo - "hmmm...i need an article to meet the deadline...knicks don't usually require me to think much...let's rail on them...non-ny fans & usual ny fans who obsess about nyc sports and expect championships every year with no exceptions because (this is mfing nyc!) will eat this ish up, and then cause a stir with knick fans who will disagree and are desperate to see positive results when one of their fans posts this on one of their very popular fan forms....perfect to get me attention..."