BigSm00th
Posts: 24504
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Joined: 12/9/2001
Member: #178 USA
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Knicks: Dead team walking
With nothing left to play for and with little hope for the future, the Knicks spend a lot of time on the Green Mile playing "what if?" these days.
What if general manager Scott Layden didn't obliterate the Knicks' salary-cap situation for the next decade by signing all of those stiffs like Allan Houston, Shandon Anderson and Clarence Weatherspoon to such mind-boggling, Enron-esque contracts? What if Layden found a way to keep Jeff Van Gundy under house arrest? What if the Knicks would've passed on the big stiff Frederic "Frenchie" Weiss?
And what if the Knicks could have found a way to bring C-Webb to the Garden?
"He would've been a nice piece for us, but I think there are a lot of guys who could've been a nice piece for us," coach Don Chaney told the N.Y. Post. "He would have been a nice luxury for us, because he does so many things. You have a big guy of that caliber it makes a big difference of how you play."
"I was definitely close to going to New York," Chris Webber said during the All-Star Game weekend last month. "I think New York had to make a decision of whether they wanted me and Allan together and me and Latrell together. I would have much rather have gone to New York with Latrell."
Alas, Webber is in Sacramento and the Knicks are in the cellar. No playoff games in the Garden this year. It's the equivalent of the death sentence in New York. There will be no last-minute pardons.
The pain, the pain. Like Superman with a mouth full of Kryptonite brownies, Knicks fans are feeling a little too human right now. N.Y. Timesman Charlie LeDuff writes that the Garden is groaning.
"The Knicks' implosion may be a pinprick in the cosmic scheme of things, but pinpricks hurt, too."
Outside of New York, NBA fans everywhere have a reason to gloat. The Knicks now longer have the swagger. When Chaney recently tried to criticize Karl Malone for being a dirty player, Malone countered with a rare swipe at a treasured team in free fall.
"Here he's worried about me playing -- he needs to worry about what he's got to coach, and worry about them," Malone said. "That's what guys do: They put so much emphasis on other guys, and players, and [bleep] -- they ought to try to coach theirs. ... [Bleep.] He's on borrowed time. Dead man walking. Dead man walking. Dead man walking."
#Knickstaps
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