It has become an after-football February “thing.”
Tune to a local radio show or Knicks or NBA TV pregame, halftime or postgame show this time of year, and the gab goes Knicks — specifically, what ails them, the NBA’s most geographically and financially advantaged team.
And you hear lots of “latest” theories and explanations from both callers and those paid to publicly examine such things. Nearly every February, during the near-20-year Jimmy Dolan Garden monarchy, chat turns to the Knicks, and in terms of “and it’s getting late.”
Yet, for all the concerns and inspections, there’s something abundantly self-evident about these Knicks that’s left unspoken: Does it dawn on anyone that as long as the plan continues to be “Get the ball to Carmelo Anthony as often as possible,” the Knicks will continue to win roughly 40 percent of their games?
Is there no alternative plan? Nothing else worth trying? How can Anthony succeed in “making the rest of the team better” — a goal well worth pursuing — when it apparently isn’t on any of the flash cards?
Yesterday, on ABC/ESPN from Oklahoma City, the Knicks too often played one of those 60 percent games. While Anthony was overplayed, only a few times did the Knicks take full advantage. Heck, there even was an inside pass that led to an easy layup.
We’re now on the precipice of a fascinating finish to the Knicks regular season, as Knicks “regular” seasons go. If they make the playoffs, they almost assuredly will qualify as a sub-.500 team, perhaps as many as seven or eight games under.
And from that we’ll be able to further measure Dolan’s regard for Garden patrons, as well as humankind. Would he have the audacity — the colossal gall — to hike the cost of playoff tickets given the Knicks qualified only because they were slightly less miserable than other miserable Eastern Conference teams?
Will the NBA allow such a more-money-for-nothing grab? After all, it’s not as if overhead — the cost of hosting a basketball game — increases because tickets are stamped “playoffs.” Ushers, vendors, electricians, set-up crews and cleanup personnel aren’t paid more during the playoffs.
If the Knicks get “hot” and qualify at say, 37-45, will that be reason enough for Dolan to be rewarded for another job well done? Sure, no one’s forcing anyone to buy anything, but Knicks fans are among the most loyal-to-a-fool’s-fault — same way Giants, Jets, Yankees, Rangers and Mets fans were until they were finally priced out.
Anyway, a reader last week sent me a souvenir I plan to save and cherish for its perverse humor.
It’s a ticket stub from Cavaliers at Knicks from Jan. 30: worse team at bad team. The Knick featured on the ticket is Andrea Bargnani, who was injured and did not play. But even before he was hurt, Bargnani, at $10 million this year, was yet another expensive Knick who hadn’t quite worked out.
The assigned seat on the ticket was for a corner section, three sections up, then 10 rows deep; a decent seat, but nothing special. The cost: $305. Read that back to me: Bargnani on the ticket, two bad teams, nothing-special seat, $305. Hope that reader didn’t bring a date.
Before I determined to keep and cherish this ticket, I considered entering it in my 2014 tax returns as a personal business expense. You know, cheat the government on the climb to reach One Percent status.
But then it struck me there could be no greater, more glaring, noisier red flag to wave at an IRS auditor than this stub. Again: Bargnani on the ticket, two bad teams, nothing-special seat, $305. No way anyone actually paid real money for that!
It’s not as if it were a playoff game, ya know?
HS gives Pierce a shot
Friday, ex-Giants linebacker and ex-ESPN analyst Antonio Pierce was named head football coach at California’s Long Beach Polytechnic High School.
Apparently, like ESPN, the school doesn’t much care Pierce ducked the cops after teammate Plaxico Burress shot himself in Pierce’s late-night company. Nor did it care Pierce pled guilty to animal abuse, having abandoned his two pit bulls. Oh, well.
Speaking of dogs, ESPN’s Keith Olbermann was horrified the stray dogs of Sochi were rounded up and exterminated. I’m with him on that. Right on.
Of course, his former coworkers at many previous TV stops would question Olbermann’s compassion for humans.
Winners stay on! Not even with a 41-point lead Wednesday over visiting Nebraska could Michigan’s bench get much of a sniff. Wolverines coach John Beilein played three starters 28 or more minutes; one played 34 minutes, in a 79-50 final. Two Michigan kids prevented a 41-point comeback during the two minutes each played.
On the flip side, on Saturday West Virginia’s women’s team beat Kansas State by 40. Mountaineers coach Mike Carey saw to it no one played more than 13 minutes.
On the flip side of the flip side, not one member of the school’s 14-woman roster is from West Virginia.
What difference does it make if Alex Rodriguez apologizes? If he apologized, would you believe him?
Gee, how time flies. Hard to believe it has been more than 50 years since Mike Francesa discovered The Beatles.
Turns out Francesa’s not well-Red
Friday’s Olympic Opening Ceremonies on NBC: At the risk of being accused of jingoism, I don’t care what they now call Russia, it still looks, sounds, acts, dresses, sings and marches like the Soviet Union. It still gives me the creeps.
Even those stuffed Sochi toy mascot things are spooky, like evil Teletubbies.
Actually, it was somewhat surprising the Olympics proceeded on Friday, given that on Thursday Mike Francesa said he can’t be bothered with them. Guess they decided to hold them, anyway.
Not that he’s stuck on himself or anything, but it’s interesting how Francesa’s so comfortable stating anything he doesn’t know about can’t possibly be worth knowing about. Not that he knows much about the things he thinks he knows about.
Typical NBC Olympics weekend. Most of the live reports were excited come-ons to watch events later in prime time, on tape.
At the close of the Butler-Georgetown game on Saturday, CBS, as one of its game highlights, chose video of a Georgetown player slam-dunking then glaring and shouting at the TV camera beneath the basket. Got that, kids? That’s how to play basketball!