Knicks have history of quick-shot stars
by Mike Vaccaro

In the New World, you don’t have to wait a few hours — or even a few minutes — to hear the groans. In the New World, Carmelo Anthony can take a quick dribble and launch a 20-foot jump shot — and make it, by the way — and no more than 10 seconds later something like this can appear on Twitter:

“Here we go again.”

And this is where you start to wonder about the so-called sophistication of basketball New York. On a night when Jeremy Lin’s magical mystery tour finally hit a speed bump, when he was 1-for-11 from the field with more than twice as many turnovers (eight) as assists (three), when the Heat’s big, physical backcourt often made him look like a very tired CYO player, there still was a side conversation happening.

One involving Carmelo Anthony.

“I know I missed seeing the ball-stopping,” came another tweet, maybe eight seconds after the first one. “Didn’t you?”

You know what we need to do right now, for the good of Anthony, Lin, the Knicks, and everyone that cares about what will become of them across the season’s final 31 games?

We need to stop placing them up next to an unfair standard. In New York, that standard always begins and ends in one place: with the sainted, fabled, lionized 1970 world champions.

In memory and in lore, those Knicks never took a bad shot. They never even thought about breaking their man down off the dribble. Five guys always touched the ball — always. Every single possession, every single game. Oh, they played defense, too, don’t worry about that, but it was on offense where those Knicks achieved a higher plane, a rarefied air.

The surviving members of that team are not afraid to remind you about that, either, have never exactly been shy about turning that team into all manner of metaphor. And, look: I am not here to diminish what they accomplished by one ounce. But it ought to be OK to point out that team did average 115 points a game, meaning not every possession went to the shot-clock buzzer as they whipped the ball around the picket fence, Norman Dale style.

(Oh, yes: They also allowed 106 points per game. Sure, it was a different era, but is it legal to point out this season’s Knicks — defensive scofflaws by reputation — allow 11 points a game less? Is it possible the 1969-70 Knicks unwittingly ignored the crowd’s constant pleas of “Dee-fense!”?)

You know what you should do sometime? You should have a look at the signature game in franchise history. The Willis Reed Game, May 8, 1970, the night when all the good the Knicks stood for was realized in a 113-99 thrashing of the Lakers. You know what you will see when you run that video?

On the Knicks’ first possession, Reed gets the ball at the top of the key with 19 seconds left on the shot clock. He doesn’t hand the ball to Clyde Frazier, standing behind him. He doesn’t feed Bill Bradley in the corner or Dick Barnett on the wing. He shoots the ball. And makes a basket. And while the audio is admittedly fuzzy, you can’t hear even one fan yell “BALL-STOPPER!” above the din.