I fully expected Kevin Love — in town with the Timberwolves last night to kneel for the Knicks — to tell us how much he thoroughly enjoyed practically playing for Mike D’Antoni in the FIBA World Championship . . . had the assistant been fit enough to help Mike Krzyzewski.
At the very least, I look forward to reading quotes today about how much fun Love had auditioning for D’Antoni at the Knicks’ 2008 pre-draft camp when he drilled alongside Brook Lopez, Anthony Randolph, Jason Thompson and JaVale McGee while Danilo Gallinari shot by himself at the opposite end of the team’s practice site.
Such an endorsement, of course, would engender reams of copy and headlines about Love craving to become a D’Antoni disciple and play for someone who appreciates 3-point precision (five vs. the Cadavers in previous presentation) and passing skills as much as rebounding (NBA-leading 15.3 per game going into last night) and scoring (19.4) averages.
For whatever it’s worth(less), he would join a distinguished list of schemers who volunteered, leaped at a leading question, or flat-out leaked how fond they are of D’Antoni’s “system,” or how thrilling it’d be to suit up for the Knicks, or how awesome it’d be to call the mecca of Basketball home.
Without organizing a printed/recorded search party (apologies in advance if I leave out any of the precious perpetrators), we’re talking Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson, Rudy Gay, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Carmelo Anthony.
“What was I supposed to say?” ‘Melo replied when asked why he commented about the Knicks while under contract with the Nuggets. “We were at the Garden last season and somebody asked, ‘How would you like to play here?’ I answered, ‘Who wouldn’t want to play here!’
“I knew what people would think when they heard that, but what was I gonna say, ‘Who’d wanna play here?!” Then I woulda gotten killed for disrespectin’ the Garden. I couldn’t win either way.”
A “no comment” would’ve sufficed, but that, too, no doubt would’ve been misconstrued — or perfectly understood.
At any rate, aside from ‘Melo, whose entrenched Brooklyn bond is genuinely tugging at his heartstrings, the remaining above-mentioned scammers either re-signed with their parent teams or choose to play elsewhere for various reasons; none of which, it’s safe to say, had anything distantly to do with whose playbook they’d be memorizing or disregarding.
The greatest absurdity of all is that Amar’e Stoudemire, the one player who had nothing positive to say about D’Antoni once their Suns’ relationship got severed, wound up in New York . . . for $40 million more than Phoenix offered.
Who said (column contributor Michael Catarevas) the team wasn’t big enough for two apostrophes? Amar’e adored the prospect of pocketing $99 million guaranteed over five years (that tends to extinguish the trepidation of extreme expectations), whereas D’Antoni urgently needed an official scorer.
Who knew Stoudemire instantly would transform into a licensed leader? Who knew D’Antoni would pardon so many turnovers and wink at delinquent defense?
Winning coaches are inclined to excuse a lot of sins of commission and omission in the wake of two mucked- up seasons. Mental adjustments have been made by both men. Deficiencies no longer matter as much. The accentuation is now on the affirmative. As Rod Stewart would say, D’Antoni and Stoudemire have each other, neither one’s complaining.
Who among us thought both the Rockefeller Center tree and the Knicks would be upright and glowing at the same time?
Hell, Camp Cablevision is playing so well, Isiah Thomas confided there’s more than enough credit to go around.
At 13-9 and with two more very gettable games this week — the Knicks entertain the Raptors tomorrow night, and Friday night they’re off to see the Wizards — there hasn’t been this much optimism since the day before James Dolan showed up. Consider they’re six games better than last season’s pace, when they didn’t reach a dozen wins until the loss ledger read 19.
Stoudemire has been Godzilla in goggles, averaging 34.3 points his last four games before last night, hitting 59 percent from the field, getting to the line 38 times and grabbing 50 boards during that span.
I don’t know what’s more amazing, the fact I guessed incorrectly about Stoudemire being so dependent on Alvin Gentry, the Knicks leading the league in road wins (nine), or that D’Antoni doesn’t need any trumped up Love (temporarily, anyway) from opposing players.