A series of unfortunate transactions

The New York Knicks' ongoing mediocrity can be traced to one move: the trade of Patrick Ewing before the 2000 season.

For 15 years, Ewing had been the anchor of a successful franchise, and despite never winning a championship, the Knicks had been very good through most of the 1990s. New York routinely made the playoffs and advanced at least to the conference semifinals nine straight seasons. The Knicks made the finals twice, losing to Houston in 1995 and San Antonio in '99.

Fans flocked to the Garden and cheered on a tough, defensive-minded team that was led by Ewing, Charles Oakley and John Starks. The familiar refrain of the song "Go New York, Go New York, Go!" echoed through the Garden as celebrities lined up courtside next to Spike Lee to cheer on the Knicks.

But with Ewing in decline and in the last year of his contract in 2000, Knicks general manager Dave Checketts was faced with a choice – trade his aging All-Star for a package of other players, or let Ewing's contract run out and begin the process of clearing salary cap space and rebuilding. Checketts chose the former, trading Ewing for three players with large, long-term deals: Glenn Rice, Luc Longley and Travis Knight.

The theory in New York was – and still is – that you can't rebuild from scratch. With ticket prices higher than anywhere in the NBA, and an impatient New York audience demanding a winner, Knicks management has subscribed to the theory that you must reload, not rebuild. Thus the Ewing deal.

Unfortunately for the Knicks, the trade not only didn't pan out – Longley, Rice and Knight never made an impact in New York – but it led to a series of other trades that further hamstrung the Knicks' salary-cap flexibility.

Even after Checketts left and Scott Layden took over, the Knicks' "reload" philosophy remained, and one bad move was followed by another. Before you knew it, the Knicks were in a pattern of recycling bad contracts.

Like a dysfunctional family tree, Ewing's deal spawned the acquisitions of Howard Eisley, Shandon Anderson, Penny Hardaway and Stephon Marbury. Knicks management maintained a similar pattern when dealing with other players. Marcus Camby became Antonio McDyess. Latrell Sprewell became Keith Van Horn. Van Horn became Tim Thomas. One bad contract after another was loaded onto the Knicks' payroll, and yet the Knicks' roster was devoid of any real stars around whom to build a consistent winner.

Isiah Thomas, upon taking over the team last season, has continued the tradition. He made the blockbuster Marbury deal, which to this point hasn't panned out. He signed Vin Baker and Jamal Crawford to big deals. Last week, he added two more huge contracts belonging to Malik Rose and Maurice Taylor, meaning the Knicks will have a payroll of more than $110 million next season. And all they have to show for it is a last-place standing in the Atlantic Division – the worst division the NBA has seen in a long time.

At some point, the Knicks are going to have to go through the process they should have gone through five years ago – paring down their salary cap, letting contracts expire and creating financial flexibility. They'll have to take some lumps along the way, but it's the only way to get themselves into a decent position to move forward.

Salary-cap flexibility would get the Knicks into the free-agent market, where they have a huge advantage. Most players would love to play in New York City. A couple of down years for the team would also lead to high draft picks, which is the best way to acquire future stars.

The problem is that with each long-term contract the Knicks acquire, they fall further and further down the NBA's salary abyss – and further away from being able to create cap flexibility.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you really can't rebuild in New York. Maybe Knicks fans wouldn't stand for the difficult process. But I know one thing.

They surely can't be enjoying the process that's been going on the past five years since the Ewing trade.

this is just the weekly "I'm going to write about the Knicks sucking because I can" article.

Part of me hopes this group rallys like Lenny's Raptors did that year just to shut up these people that watch the Knicks twice a year.

Nothing new in this article. Anyone who doesn't know that the Ewing trade started a downward spiral hasn't been paying attention.

I don't know, maybe he wasn't targeting the die hard knicks fan with this article. Give the guy a break, it's a good article.

I wonder why now, so many people in the media outside NY have been paying attention to them. Is it Isiah, because the Knicks have been down for a long time. I mean, nothing against Kerr but what does he know about Knick fans, other than his days with the Bulls. I can understand if Albert wants to comment on the state of the Knicks, or even a Greg Anthony who spent time here and has an understanding. Kerr offered nothing new or no insight. I weary of all these former role players offering their opinions about the state of basketball. I mean I give credit for Kerr for being smart and playing on teams that win championships.