mlby1215 wrote:This is something I thought about for a few months but I didn't really feel like I was prepared to write it down since I think I
have seen something rather hard to explain which is related to the community as a whole. Knicks fans, in general, are a bunch of weird animals. We seems to love and hate people for no obvious reasons. Such as Cole Aldrich, I still don't understand why people was madly in love with him at the time. He was not a bad guy. He was a okay guy. That is it. The hate lists includes someone like Jose Calderón, Sasha and Noah. They are okay guys too. Gentlemen. Sometimes they played badly but who wouldn't when he was a Knicks? Knicks fans tend to be player-oriented, and it really shows. I don't think Melo fans are not Knicks fans. I don't think they (or KP fans or Willy fans or anyone) pretend they are Knicks fans. I think they are all real Knicks fans. But for some reasons, they cares about their particular players to a extent that it is not easy to explain.
I have a theory and It probably needs a lot of examination but I think the reasoning behind it is strong. It is all due to the difficult situation this team are always in. New York Knicks was and is a bad team. Bad team are everywhere but I feel like we often lost in a very embarrassing way. We often just gave it up, like having 12 - 32, in first quarter. The team sometimes played in a way that it had no pride, almost like the team wanted the game finished faster and then go home.
Frustrated, anger, emptiness. I think Knicks fans are familiar with those words.
In short, I think we try to escape from those negative emotions by narrowly focusing our attention on a few players instead. When looking at a single player, we again start to feel better because of his own successful story. ( If you are playing in NBA, you are already successful. )
I am going to use an example to illustrate this.
https://www.postingandtoasting.com/2017/10/8/16445768/nets-117-knicks-83-scenes-from-an-injury-marred-blowout
It came from postingandtoasting.com, another knicks fans site. The writer is Joe Flynn a.k.a China Joe. He is super anti-Phil, pro-Melo but it is another topic.
The writing is a short report about that preseason game, Nets 117 Knicks 83. I think people still remember that game and probably no one wants to, though.
Honestly, what could he say about that game? "We suck" is only two words. He needed to write a little bit longer than that. So he wrote about something positive, like Willy had 17pt and 12 rebounds , THjr had some turnovers but okay, Dotson was okay, something something. At last, he showed some highlight of KP to pump up the morale.
The writing is very typical. Nothing special. We probably talked about that game like he wrote. However, it perfectly shows the psychological shift I am going to talk about.
When the team is bad, embarrassingly bad, we just avoid to look at it, and then we try to refocus on something else, like a good performance from a individual player. It is just a human nature. People want to be related to a winner (a player), not a loser (the team). I mean, no one wants to be a loser. Everybody just want to escape from this feeling.
So it means the more loss the team has, the more we just focus on a few good players. At the past, the guy was Melo - for some basketball reasons I am not good enough to explain - it almost looks like he played balls in another dimension. He could play extremely well but the team lost or he could play extremely bad but the team still won. In short, he was the perfect guy for our mind to escape into. If the game is too ugly to watch, how about we just watch him play? Sometimes it seems he could score in a impossible way. His talents is truly amazing, sometimes. (sigh)
Typically, people probably talk like that.
"Today, Knicks lost again."
"Yeah, I know."
"But at least Melo had 25pts. "
"Yeah, KP had 4 blocks too. "
"Sure. They are our only hope. "
Then we look at a player long enough, we start to have attachment to that player. We feel like we really love him, like he is the only light in the eternal darkness. I THINK it is how a knick fans turns to be a Melo fan. Keep in mind that that guy still is a Knicks fan. I am pretty sure there is no fake Knicks fan in this world. I mean, come on, who would want to pretend he is a Knicks fan? We are not GSW.
Looking someone long enough, it turns into a habit, and then it turns into devoted love. KP is our new target. I don't necessarily a bad thing. I assume it is what a sporting fan does. But it has some very bad influence to the team, and the community. And I am going to give an example at below.
We always needed a point guard. Last season, when Knicks realized D.Rose was not suitable for that job, they wanted to make a trade. People threw around a lot of names. (Keep in mind that I am not talking about here. I mean in the internet , in general ) People really hated D.Rose (yeah, he is on the hate list) because they thought he didn't pass the ball to KP. They wanted to find another point guard.
Now we step back a little bit and look at other contenders. In "modern brand of basketballs", almost every good team has a very offense-minded attacking point guard. (Phil called it decisive attack guard? ) The guy is always the first or second option to his team.
Curry: 1 or 2
CP3 : 1 or 2
Kyrie : 2
Thomas: 1
Westbrook: 111111
The only exception was Rocket (They have one now) and Spur. But Harden actually was the one holding the balls on offense and Tony Parker is still very dangerous. So it seems that if you want to play "modern brand of basketballs " instead "slow outdated triangle", you should find a first or second options attack guard , right? Knicks fans would suggest something like that, right?
NO.
People threw around a lot of adv. stats and win share or something fancy to against old stupid Phil but suddenly they wanted a pass-first point guard, like Ricky Rubio. He is very good at everything except shooting the ball. He would be the fifth option at best, behind Melo, KP, Willy and Lee. His type is dying. There is no Jason Kidd anymore.
It is really weird. When it comes to the duty of point guards, suddenly we all went old-school. We think he should just pass, and let other score.
The reason is that while we are all Knicks fans, we are also a fan of our favorite player in secret. A lot of us wanted a PG who could pass the ball to Melo, KP or other favorite player to score, to pump up their stats. We talked about building a team, but actually we wanted to build a team which is a perfect situation for our respective favorite sons.
Here, keep in mind that I am not calling names or I am not saying anyone has done anything wrong. I just try to illustrate the problem. In the age of internet, what the mass wants have a lot of power to the decision makers, collectively. It really affects the game plan, like decrease the trade value of our players or increase the trade value of another players. (Everyone and his dog knew we wanted to throw away D.Rose to get Rubio, of course their stance was tough and hard. They knew we badly wanted it. )
It is just the first drawback when you devoted love is too strong for one player, but I am going to hit the send button, then take a break and write the second part.
Boy I dont think this is true at all. Maybe the Knicks think that way? I think most fans--I mean a high majority dont care about the name on the back other than KNicks.
This will be an interesting year in terms of fans psyche. We have been bad while not trying to be bad--this is the first season they are coming out and saying---"we bad" so the KNicks fan will have to accept it for the greater good.
The main things I want to see out of the year
A. and its by far the biggest. Can KP stay healthy and play a nice team basketball game that raises the level of play. Id be happy with something less than a franchise player--Im not putting him on that level bt Id like to see CLOSE to it. The more I think about it--can he give me a career similar to Lemarcus Aldidge with a little more 3 point shooting and a % better block shots? Can we stone him into the 4 slot--know hes going to play 75 games and playoff ready--and get back 18/20-8-2.5-1.5 --I think that is attainable. Key is health
B. We need a season long evaluation on our guards. No names needed
C. Lets see what Kanter can do with 30 minutes--hes still young --so we need a full season to look at him with an open mind
D. Make Willy G the 4-5 back up--so that KP gets 27-30 Willy gets 23-27 Kanter gets 30 and one of Noah Oquinn etc.. mop up the rest.
E. Keep an open look out all season for a 3--I dont think we have a long term solution on the roster. We couldve had Troy Williams early last year--kind of fits the mold of what we are looking for at that position
F Be opportunistic--take reasonable chances on cheap players but steer clear of a major deal that involves draft picks over the next 3 years. If there is one bit of evidence we can look back at--trading draft picks that are unprotected is not a smart idea.