Chris herring was the NY Knicks beat reporter for the wall street journal. excellent writer in my opinion because he would write about random topics (kind of reminded me of malcolm gladwell). however, many knicks fans didnt like him because he kept it TOO REAL. recently he's been on more and more podcasts, because he has access to the players. anyways, he will be writing for ESPN - 580.com website with nate silver. got a chance to talk with him while watching the game, here are some brief notes:
- melo was a genuine and cool dude. every star has a PR team that "protects" their star. when chris started on the beat, they "baited" and tested Herring with some low hanging fruit to write about (melo and his love of watches). however, chris didn't care about watches, he wanted to genuinely talk and pick his brain about basketball. melo respected that and later opened up to him more.
- D. rose actually loves to talk - he just isn't as articulate. therefore he doesn't feel comfortable talking to the media.
- he roots for JR smith and is happy for him. he truly believes that JR had a real problem in NYC - alcoholism
- two underrated role players who he thought were shrewd signings for the knicks were jason smith and oquinn - he admits that he was wrong about both
- Porzingus is special. PERIOD
- Amare was a good guy but "tried" too hard to be liked. He would often buy the MSG staff xmas gifts. However he would make sure his PR team made it public that he did these good deeds. It still was a nice act - but it just seemed less genuine. no need to go to his retirement conference - he had already announced it, there wasnt any news to cover. (btw he was jealous of melo too)
- Lastly, it was interesting watching the game with him to watch how his brain works. We were watching free throws and then all of a sudden he was like "i wonder what the shooting percentage of SECOND free throws are? that could lead to a fast or 2ndary break". me "i dont know chris, ive NEVER thought of that before!"
In general, he was never really a knick fan or even an NBA fan (his first love is baseball and you can tell by his love of stats). I always thought he would "outgrow" basketball or sports in general. He truly has a deeper type of analytical mind. He said at fiveeighty.com his job will be to discuss and write about statistical trends in the NBA and think of why they happen.
Knicks should be improved: win about 40 games and maybe sneak into the playoffs. Melo, Rose and even Noah will have some nice moments however this team should be about PORZINGUS. the sooner they make him the primary player, the better
11/5/2016 11:09 PM