The Knicks are on pace for one of the worst seasons in the history of their franchise — and they are still the class of this town.
Such is life in the gloomy Big Apple basketball scene, where Knicks fans continue the countdown to 2010 and the Nets are tumbling to the worst start in the history of the NBA.
It’s a sad-sack start that even life-long New Yorkers can’t recall seeing.
“Nothing quite like this,” MSG play-by-play man and New York-raised Mike Breen said. “In a lot of cases when the Nets were good, the Knicks were down and when the Knicks were good, the Nets were down. But it’s not time to concede it will be like this all season.
“The Nets have suffered debilitating injuries to seven rotational players, including their star, Devin Harris. It’s only the first month of the season and you have to let it play out — let the Knicks get better and the Nets get healthy before we start talking about something like that.”
The Knicks looked like they were going to give the Nets a run for their money, but after a 1-9 start they pulled out back-to-back road games against the Pacers and Nets (of course) before losing an overtime heartbeaker at home to the Celtics, 107-105. It was a small step, but even in defeat it was a welcome one from their success-starved supporters.
“That was such a thrilling day. The Garden was sold out, going nuts. Even though the team’s record wasn’t that good, it’s the best atmosphere I’ve been in this year,” said Breen, who also calls games for the league’s top teams when they play on ESPN/ABC.
The Nets, on the other hand, have shown no signs of life. They are three losses shy of breaking the 1988 expansion Heat’s record of 17 straight losses to open a season. And with matchups out west with the Kings and Lakers followed by a home game against the Mavericks, breaking the mark for futility might be inevitable for the young and injury-ravaged Nets.
An all-time bad start could seal the fate for beleaguered coach Lawrence Frank, while Mike D’Antoni continues to be a part of a rebuilding process with the Knicks.
“He’s doing the best he can with what he has,” Breen said of D’Antoni. “The expiring-contract situation is not easy for a coach. I think the true sign of the job he is going to do is how he gets the team to respond to this bad start. I think the guy is one of the best coaches in the NBA, and the fact he stood up and took responsibility for it showed a lot to the players.”
Six Knicks, including Al Harrington, Nate Robinson and David Lee, have expiring contracts and all the talk in this town revolves around LeBron James and this summer’s star-studded free agent class?
“To a man they’ve all sworn that is a rallying cry for them, as opposed to something that would divide them,” Breen said. “They felt no one was giving them any credit to do something this year. The best way to do that is not to play individual ball, but to show you are capable of playing good team ball. That might be a problem as the year goes on, but this team wants to prove they are than a bridge in 2010.”
justin.terranova@nypost.com