To Dream the Impossible Dream
February 18th, 2010 Once upon a time, in an NBA far far away…an organization would draft a player, then another player, and another. And then sign a free agent or two and then practice and play games, and eventually a team would form. A team in the truest sense of the word. Truer than what was seen in the NFL or major league baseball. There were no offensive or defensive units. There was no pitchers and batters. Five players on the court unselfishly weaving in and out, defending and attacking together, and becoming one. Once upon a time….

That NBA is gone. It is no longer necessary to have a TEAM to win. It is now much more important to have a star. Kobe. Lebron. Garnett. Duncan. Take these players away from their teams and you have…well, you have the Knicks. This is the new NBA: Rebuild every year until you get a star. Tank and hope you win the lottery. Get a special player, and then surround him with enough supportive talent to win. Every sport evolves. The NFL has evolved into a passing league. And to paraphrase Mr. Eddie Vedder, teams realized that they need to “Do the Evolution”, or suffer.

Of course, the Knicks… well, they suffered. Under Isiah Thomas, they spent five years regressing. Anti-evolving. A stubborn man refusing to play by the new rules. It was like the world was riding around in cadillacs and the NY Knicks were looking at the wheel and saying “Nah, it will never catch on.” Today, under Donnie Walsh, the Knicks traded unproven players/draft picks for Tracy McGrady and a chance to own Doc Brown’s flying DeLorean. (Lebron James is the DeLorean by the way). Heck the Knicks can even get two of them now.

Listen, I’m not saying this strategy guarantees success. Giving up Jordan Hill and the next two years draft picks could be a HUGE mistake. Is Jordan Hill gonna be Lebron James or Dewayne Wade? Probably not and thankfully, Walsh was able to put some lottery protection on the draft picks in the event they get crazy lucky. The Knicks HAD to take this chance. They had to try writing the fairy tale ending to the horror story of the last decade. Today the Knicks handed in their rough draft. “And Sir Lebron James and his brave companion Sir Chris Bosh, having slayed the evil Western Conference Dragon, hoisted the trophy over their heads and paraded down the Cavern of Heroes.” Once upon a time…