CHARLESTON, S.C. – The last thing I wanted to hear late yesterday afternoon as column deadline closed in fast was that the Isiah Thomas sexual-harassment suit jury reached a verdict. Who needs that kind of pressure on my second day back to work!
The bad news is, y’all, in light of yet another adjournment, I must apologize for being forced to 86 the trail and actually deliberate your Knicks’ tribulations (or not) as they launch training camp today in one of my top five (Paris, Scottsdale, Seattle and Sag Harbor) favorite cities.
First things first: While many Knicks fans remain doubled over in anguish from the Celtics’ acquisition of Kevin Garnett (“If only I’d hung out with Kevin McHale instead of Bill Walton,” Larry Bird must be thinking) I’m here to ease their pain a bit.
Guess which team comes into New York to kick off the season? That’s right, the K.G.-less Timberwolves. If that doesn’t make you twitch excitedly, brood over this: The last time the Knicks won an opener at the Garden was Oct. 2001, Michael Jordan’s first game as a Wizard.
They’ve lost five straight since – Boston, Milwaukee, Boston again, Washington and last season Indiana, Thomas’ former team, made him stumble and fall out of the coaching blocks.
How important is it to hit home base winning? It’s no big deal, of course, if you’re the Spurs or the Suns or the Pistons. But it’s unimaginable how meaningful it is to the psyche of team whose players and franchise and environment are afflicted with negativity and bogged down by a losing mentality. Which is why four of the Knicks’ first five are in New York.
Last season the Knicks stuttered to a 4-9 false start, then 5-11, before coagulating to some extent and playing .500 ball until three (Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson and David Lee) of their top six donned business casual due to various injuries.
Even those who’ve tuned out the Knicks or have been turned off by them, if forced to be objective, would have to admit they had it reasonably going on during a particularly solid January/February stretch at the Garden. After nearly beating the Suns, they took out six out of seven (OK, so the Lakers were without a suspended Kobe).
Then suddenly Crawford needed knee surgery. Then Richardson needed back surgery. Then Lee suffered a mysterious stress reaction knee injury and didn’t regain his health until the summer.
The point is, even I veered off on a positive tangent regarding the Knicks. Even I had to concede Stephon Marbury was scoring and defending better than ever.
While Marbury’s shameless, unwholesome off-the-court attitude makes it impossible to wish him well (unless blinded by orange and blue), there’s no doubt he’s a force when not gimping around and playing within the limits set for me by Thomas. And he just turned 30.
Put Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph, Richardson, Crawford and Marbury out there at one time and it’s hard to fathom a team being able to defend them. Having Lee and Renaldo Balkman and Jared Jeffries and Malik Rose and Mardy Collins and Nate Robinson in reserve makes the Knicks one of the deepest, if not the smartest, or halfway decent defenders, teams in the league.
Defensive delinquency, especially on the perimeter crucial injuries, lack of early chemistry – in part because Isiah was new and so was his system – were the reasons the Knicks dug a hole and finished fatally. The lone adjustment this year is the addition of Randolph, whose 10 rebounds per only enhances a category the Knicks finished fifth last season.
Except for the defense, the Knicks’ abject inability to make a stop at crunch time with the result up for grabs, all of the above shouldn’t be a problem.
Their biggest question marks are Curry’s weight (he seemed to add ounces last season running the court), whether he can deal with sharing the ball, if not the paint, with Randolph and how well Zach behaves after hours.
“I might not represent all Knick fans,” says a particularly fervent one I know, “but I don’t see where Eddy and Zach are going to get into each way on offense.
“I don’t understand why everyone is concerned. Why can’t two excellent big men coexist? Robert Parish and Kevin McHale did rather nicely in tandem.
“I’m just worried that this trial is going to drag on forever. You don’t suppose there are a couple Celtic fans on the jury?”