http://bballaddict20.blogs.com/grey/2005/01/finally.html

I decided to go on my own little hunger strike due to the failures of my beloved Knicks. But I don't love em enough to miss a meal, so I decided I wouldn't update this thing until they won again. And finally, last night, against a LeBron-less Cavs team, they barely escaped the Garden with a win and some dignity.

I know it was odd of me (and according to some of you, rude) not to comment on Lenny "resigning".

No disrespect to Lenny, but I didn't and don't care.

It's not like it's going to make us a better team. And Lenny freaking Wilkens being fired in the middle of the season for no other reason than to make the owner feel important, just goes to show the strange bidness going on on 33rd. I mean, he's only a Hall of Famer.

Sure, I believe the man was fired. Just like his boy Dick Helm.

Don't think the Knicks forgot about the grumblings when Chaney was escorted out by security.

Don't think Lenny and the Knicks weren't concerned about their own reps.

"I resigned"

Nah playa, you was fired. And if you weren't, you sho was about to be.

I give Lenny and the Knicks credit for understanding that "Fire Lenny" would have just been cold and callous, even for New Yawkas. They just saved us the trouble of debating whether or not a member of the Hall deserved to go out the same way Layden and Chaney did, immortalized in one of the most flexible fan chants ever.

*Waits impatiently for the "Fire Blaze" chants to start this summer* Yeah, I know she's in the Hall too, but not as a general manager.

Anyway, I guess Dolan was a Dominique Wilkins fan.

I'm not saying Lenny did a great job here or that he wasn't at fault, but what does getting rid of him midseason do?

Unlike the Liberty, where the problem was obviously a matter of the coach being retarded for far too long and the team being talented and capable enough to turn around its season once he got the ax, what was the point for the lost Knicks?

The Knicks' problem is lack of talent, injuries and stupidity among its players with the coach's tendency to have brain farts late in games a distant second.

All of a sudden they're going to start playing defense because Herb said so? Doubt it.

So now that Lenny's been run out of town, the media has ganged up on Marbury and Knick fans and Isiah alike have redirected their attention to Allan Houston. Hmph.

We'll deal with Groovey Hou first. I don't like his 100 million dollar contract and the nightmare it causes whenever Big Name Free Agent is available, yet unavailable. But last I checked, he didn't give it to himself or hold a gun to the people that did.

Why blame him for cashing a check every 1st and 15th as if we wouldn't do the same? I can't say I'd work as hard as H20 does if someone was giving me 100 mil just because he thought I was a good person and the antithesis of the dude he hated (Spree)

It ain't like the Knicks were really bidding against anyone else for Allan's services. Dolan just liked the guy. But Dolan doesn't get blamed as much as Houston for some reason.

I think instead of hating, we should be congradulating the guy for his ability to blindly (and legally) rob the most incompetent family in NY sports history.

Instead of blaming the players for their enormous contracts, why not end the problem where it begins?

Get rid of Dolan, and Knicks, Liberty and Rangers fans along with Cablevision customers might just all up and die and go to Heaven. Because right now, where we live is worse than Hell.

If only there was a way to fire owners.

For now, I just continue to pray that he gets bored or everyone just cancels their cable at once and buys satellite dishes. Maybe he falls in love with some money grubbing gold digger with an expensive habit.

Any way for him to get out of the sports business is fine with me. Even if he just continues to waste money on his anti west side stadium campaign.

Hey, Dolan, waste millions. Hate the idea of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Jets actually in NY so much that you get so disgusted with sports and decide to spend the rest of your life on an island far, far away.

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr away from my Knicks and Liberty.

While you're away, take Blazejowski with you.

No need to take Isiah because he'll be leaving soon anyway. One way or another, I don't see his tenure here lasting past 2007.

Anyway, back to live action.

The media decided they don't like Steph anymore. Awwww.

Wasn't it just 2002 or 2003 when he was leading Phoenix to the playoffs that every article on Marbs talked about how he had matured and what a life altering experience marriage and his miniscule jail time was?

Weren't these the same people rejoicing that the enigma with all the talent in the world was suddenly less brash and aloof? A likeable family man with a great future in the desert. No longer Mr. All Alone 33 who wanted to be in NY so bad, he settled for Jersey and left the prospect of being Stockton to KG's Malone.

Him right?

But now we hate him again because he wrote a check his mouth has been bouncing since New Years.

Whatever.

For once in his life, Bill Walton made a good point during last night's Cavs/Knicks game. He said when Marbury became the 3rd best player on the Knicks, they'd be contenders.

I think even if he were the 2nd best, that would be the case.

Unfortunately, right now, Marbury is unequivocably the best player on his team. With Phoenix, you could argue that Stoudamire and Marion are just as important as Nash.

Fix your face, real fans. I said you could argue, not that you'd be right in that assessment.

But with the Knicks, there is no one else on that team that comes close to Starbury. Crawford's not close because his shot selection is even worse than John Starks in his early days. And need I remind you that this is the same Starks that even after he calmed down went 3-18 in the Finals?

I'm not saying Steph hasn't had me a little po'ed this year, but it'd be nice for him to have someone to pass the ball to.

Do you know the rage we would have been in if Patrick Ewing averaged 12 points and 8 rebounds? Yet we praise Nazr Mohammed for it. That's the situation we're in right now.

Forwards from Charles Oakley to Anthony Mason to Larry Johnson were expected to do the things we jump over each other to praise Kurt Thomas for doing.

This is what Marbury has to work with.

This is not Kevin Garnett, Richard Jefferson, Kenyon Martin, Amare Stoudamire or Shawn Marion.

This is us praying Crawford, Sweetney and Ariza continue to improve.

So I don't see what they're so mad at Marbury for.

For the record, the best point guard in the league wouldn't be 2-10 in January.

But like I said before, he didn't say we had to agree with his self assessment. Get over it already.

So I hear Phil Jackson and Larry Brown are in the running for this Knicks gig. Aim high and crazy, huh? Literally.

Just what the Knicks need. More neurosis. I thought Dolan, Zeke and Steph were quite enough personally.

Why not hire a guy like Jeff Bzdelik?

I'd even love to hear Michael Cooper got a call from Isiah. Give Bill Laimbeer a call so he can get out of the W. Yes, W fans, I'm sick of him. But I still think he's a good coach; I just can't stand him.

Since we're tampering with Brown anyway, why not try and pry Flip Saunders from Minnesota? He might be available by the summer time anyway if McHale insists coaching the Wolves consists of babysitting characters and clowns like Sam Cassell and Latrell Me-well.

This talk of Pat Riley also intrigues me. Oh yes, the man will leave Shaq and Wade to coach Marbury and ... and ...

Oh yeah, Gel and Armani will come back to the Garden without Ewing, Starks, Oakley, and the whole crew. Oh please.

No need to bring back the past. Jeff's in Houston, Ernie's in DC and Dave Checketts...where is Dave?

What next, the NY media suggest Hubie Brown and Rick Pitino?

First of all, I'm gonna need Isiah Thomas to stop doing what he does best...talking. Everytime he talks to the media, he spends the next couple of days clarifying what he meant in the first place.

I've been tired of him making himself a bigger story than the team since the day he got here.

Second, I'm going to need him to understand that with a $103 million payroll and the caliber of players on this team, all the pearly whites and pipe dreams are unnecessary.

The prognosticating and philosophying are annoying.

Call it what you must to keep Dolan signing your check Isiah, but the Knicks suck, and you know this maaaaaan. Don't want to use the word "rebuilding"? Fine. But we still suck.

Maybe they don't want to use the word rebuilding on 33rd because that would mean that we were actually building toward something. Hmmm. Maybe they fear that if they get us to buy into the theory, fans would expect to be better than 2-10 in January one day.

This whole belief that you can't rebuild in NY is ridiculous in my estimate. You can't tread in mediocrity in NY. In the words of every ambitious NBA groupie, "You can't suck without a purpose."

Rebuilding, however, is not sucking without a purpose. Ask Miami, Washington, Cleveland, and Phoenix.

The so called "most knowledgeable fans in the game" understand this, contrary to the beliefs of Thomas, Dolan and their crew.

Everyone hates on Layden, myself included, but what has Thomas done that is so revolutionary? Besides not look half dead like Layden did. Ok so he smiles a lot and raps about the city and the fans all the time. We still suck. And before you say he just got here, we were hating on Layden by day 30 of his tenure. So Isiah's had ample time.

The only difference is Mabury and Crawford. Ok, so instead of sucking and being boring, we suck and we're exciting on occassion. Yipee!

But we still suck.

Yes people, that is the moral of the story. All these hopes and dreams later, all the excitement of last January that was rekindled over the summer, all the shots of Isiah lurking in the tunnel, Don Chaney, Lenny Wilkens and a bunch of assistants gone, we suck.