So, James Dolan, lead en abler for Isiah Thomas, and Donnie Walsh, fresh from picking “out goes y-o-u” third string power forward Jordan Hill over point guards Brandon Jennings, Ty Lawson (so much for his Carolina connection), Eric Maynor and Rodrigue Beaubois, and Mike D’Antoni felt Allen Iverson was the wrong fit.
So, the Knicks’ decision makers felt having a 34-year-old who shoots as much as AI, an alpha dog who has done little else over 13 seasons other than average 6.2 assists, would hinder the development of its beta pups.
That might be true if Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Hill and Toney Douglas were Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and James Harden.
Walsh certainly cannot have meant Iverson would have stunted the growth of Chris Duhon and Larry Hughes, who, by the way, might not have harmonized all that well alongside Iverson as a 76ers rookie, but their strengths and shortcomings outwardly complement each other just fine now.
If that really was a reluctance, what was Walsh afraid of, Duhon and Hughes refusing to re-sign come summer?
At the very least, it says here, Iverson would have been a daily storyline, yes, bad and good, and both unavoidable.
At the very least, Iverson could have been a person of interest on an otherwise starkly unappealing team.
At the very least, column contributor Mike Lione drolly notes, “Allen would have had a posse-tive impact. Instead, ripped off fans, who have money to waste on worthless tickets, get the same ole Knicks’ swill. I take it back; at least those fans have Nate Robinson.
Reader Louis Barash wonders by e-mail, “Will they film I Am Legend II in the Garden during Knicks games?” Nothing worse than someone more cynical than this column? Come on, from what I gather from watching TV, the atmosphere inside basketball’s Mecca isn’t quite that vapid.
Furthermore, as a result of yesterday’s “titanic tilt” at the I-Nod Center, the Knicks had one more victory than Isiah Thomas.
I’m thinking that’s the lone true benchmark.
Belated congratulations to sinewy Eddy Curry, who made his season-debut presence felt in Wednesday night’s streak-bustin’ win at Jose Conseco Fieldhouse.
Who would’ve thought he was capable of composing a triple double — points, minutes and half court crossing without once getting caught between lights.
As a good faith gesture, it’d be nice to see the Knicks stop trying to move the 2-0 Curry on Craig’s List.
Since the day after the draft, I think I’ve made it pretty clear how much I think of Jennings’ insane game, but Sports Illustrated went to extremes when it branded the young Buck as the franchise’s paramount pick since Lew Alcindor.
Shouldn’t a national mag azine show a tad more restraint than us tabloid tally whackers? You’d think its es teemed author would display a little better sense of his tory.
Does the name Julius Erving ring a bell? He was se lected by the Bucks in ’72.
All an S.I. fact checker had to do was turn to page 103 in the 2009-10 Official NBA Guide to discover that modest morsel, as well as learn Dirk Nowitzki was taken by Mil waukee at No. 9 in ’98 be fore re- routing him and the draft rights to Pat Garrity to the Mavericks for Robert (Tractor) Traylor.
Do I dare argue it’s a bit prema ture to label Jen nings better than Sidney Moncrief, Marques John son, Michael Redd and even Scott Skiles, who holds the NBA’s single game assist (30) record?
As Notorious might say, “Stu- pid! Stu-pid! Stu- pid!”
This just in, Part I: Walsh now claims he couldn’t have taken Jennings because he lost the coin flip to the Bucks.
Walsh apparently now has a fair feel for Jennings’ potential. Confiding to column contributor George Caballero, he said, “It seems our players are distracted by all the talk of 2010. So today I told them we’re scrapping our LEBRON-2010 Plan and replacing it with a BRANDON-2014 Plan.”
Now that I think about it, the Knicks’ 1-9 start was entirely my fault. I refuse to allow Walsh and D’Antoni to take any of the blame.
After all, I did tell Al Harrington he shouldn’t date Kate Hudson.
I spent too much time during the offseason stalking Erin Andrews instead of scouting.
I passed on signing C.C. Sabathia, even though the price was right.
I told them at training camp “relax, pace yourselves, it’s a long season.”
I signed Elton Brand to a long-term contract . . . oops, sorry, that’s another team I ruined.
I insisted the season is considered a success if they just win more that the Nyets.
On the other hand, the Nyets’ 0-13 season is not my fault. Column contributor Richie Kalikow says I had nothing to do with it. He looked it up and it was predicted by a Mayan calendar.