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Andrew
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12/10/2001  1:24 PM
Escape from New York

The move surprised just about everyone . . . except perhaps Jeff Van Gundy. Van Gundy said he knew Friday that he would give up his job as head coach of the Knicks.

The bigger surprise may be the lukewarm reaction players and management alike are giving to the loss of their coach.

With the exception of Latrell Sprewell, players sounded genuinely relieved Sunday, just one day after the announcement.

Allan Houston was basking in the glow of his new laid-back coach Don Chaney. "It's definitely a more relaxed environment," he told the New York Times. "It's kind of like going from one extreme to the other. As we move on, it's going to help. Everybody needs to be relaxed, and you need to be having fun when you're at your best."

Marcus Camby, who was never really on board with Van Gundy, sounded giddy. "With coach Chaney, it's like night and day," Camby said after Sunday's practice. "We still work hard, but at the end of the day, there's more smiles around here now. It's been more laid back, more loose over the last two days. Hopefully, that can be a good sign, and guys can just relax and play their games."

They weren't the only ones. A source inside the Knicks told ESPN Insider Sunday that although management respected Van Gundy as a coach, it agreed it was time for a change.

With most of Van Gundy's guys -- Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, Larry Johnson -- gone, only Spree was left to mourn the loss of a friend.

"It's going to take some getting used to," he told the New York Daily News. "I don't want it to get too relaxed. It's nice to be a little more relaxed but we still need to have a certain discipline about ourselves."

When asked to give his new coach an endorsement, Spree balked. "I think that's yet to be determined," Sprewell said. "We just have to wait and see. It's too early to tell at this point."

The Knicks have some major decisions ahead of them. Chaney will be named head coach today, but the team will give him a contract running only through the end of this season. They didn't have much of a choice -- there are no other coaching candidates out there that made more sense.

Knicks president Scott Layden knows he has the path of least resistance to trading Spree. He's the only player on the Knicks with serious trade value. Spree was already seriously depressed with the direction of the team before Van Gundy left. Now that his friend is gone, it doesn't take rocket scientist to see that Spree will step up the pressure to escape from New York.

A source close to Spree told Insider Sunday evening that Spree is willing to give Chaney a chance, but he ultimately believes that the best thing for both parties is to work out a trade that gets the Knicks a big man and gets him to a more serious contender.

Another of Van Gundy's guys, Charlie Ward, also should be packing, though he'll be a lot harder to move than Spree.

The New York media seem stunned over the whole event. Not one of the tabs even speculated that Van Gundy was ready to bolt before the announcement and none could agree afterward whether the move would ultimately be a good thing or a bad thing for the Knicks.

The N.Y. Daily News' Frank Isola writes the definitive piece detailing how Van planned the give-n-go and why the Knicks will ultimately come out as losers. The N.Y. Post's Kevin Kernan was a litte harsher entitling his column, "Finally, the Little Whiner is Out of Here," while Mike Lupica thought the move was the best thing for Jeff Van Gundy and the best thing for the Knicks.
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Knixkik
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12/10/2001  3:31 PM
Thats a very interesting perspective and while i agree in most areas, i don't believe Sprewell is really that close to wanting to leave. He wants to be in new york and i don't know why sources, such as espn, as trying to convince people otherwise. Let this team stay together and see how they play. Minor changes are good, but for now it's not a good idea to separate Sprewell, Houston, and Camby, our big three because the team is one of the hottest in the east.
MCfan23
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12/10/2001  4:26 PM
Thanks for the interesting article, Andrew.
We suck.
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