BigSm00th
Posts: 24504
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 12/9/2001
Member: #178 USA
|
It gets even more bizarre...
http://nypost.com/sports/knicks/28254.htm
TIMMY HAS NET SCORE TO SETTLE By MARC BERMAN
FOUL PLAY: Tim Thomas, hammered by Nets' Jason Collins during playoff series last spring, has gone into boxing ring to toughen up for next season.
Tim Thomas has spent the summer rehabbing in a boxing ring with his street pals from his old neighborhood in Paterson, N.J.
Coincidence? Let's just say he has not forgotten the cheap shot Jason Collins laid on him in Game 1 of the Nets-Knicks playoff series that ended his season. Rising for a dunk, Thomas crash-landed on his back after Collins' clothesline.
Only in the past three weeks has the Knicks' small forward felt 100 percent. The grudge lives on and Thomas threw some interesting innuendos at Collins yesterday.
"I'm still upset about it," Thomas said after serving as guest speaker at the Knicks' summer camp for kids at Chelsea Piers.
"There was no real reason for that. If [Collins] would've [gone] for the ball, it was something different. And that's just motivation for me throughout this summer to get right, especially the way I've been hitting that bag with the boxing stuff. It's motivation for me coming back in the right state of mind and doing what I have to do."
Thomas did not elaborate, but it's clear he'll be in a feisty mood this season. He said the boxing has strengthened his back and fitness. After the incident, he called out his teammates for not retaliating and incited more bad blood, calling Kenyon Martin a "fugazy," Italian slang for fake.
Asked if he regretted what he said, Thomas replied, "Not at all. Not one bit." In fact, Knicks president Isiah Thomas praised Thomas in their exit interview. "He was happy with the way I approached the situation," Thomas said. "Zeke understood it."
Indeed, Tim Thomas is one name never brought up in trade talks. Isiah still looks at him as their 6-10 rock at small forward.
Yesterday, Tim Thomas laid off Martin but took a shot at the Nets for not re-signing him.
"It's a slap in the face, for that guy to do so much for that organization and for them to just say, 'OK, we're not going to do nothing for you and get you out of here,' " Thomas said. "He should feel very disappointed. But I couldn't care less about the New Jersey Nets."
Asked if the Knicks have surpassed the Nets, Tim Thomas said, "We still have to go out and play basketball. On paper it looks good, but it means nothing if you don't go out there and do it."
Some teammates were privately put off when Tim Thomas questioned them and challenged his mates to strike back. He says it's a non-issue.
"The way I felt on the ground, someone to step in somebody's face and start an argument would've been enough for me," Tim Thomas said. "Watching the replay and just seeing that everybody came to help me get off the ground instead of approaching the other guys, I felt was wrong. But as teammates, we all talked about it and that situation is over. We're going to move forward from it."
#Knickstaps
|