When it gets this bad, there isn’t a sight that can ever be too surreal. So, no, don’t expect to feel tinges and pangs of regret or remorse when Phil Jackson is introduced as the Knicks’ president on Tuesday. Not from Knicks fans. Certainly not from the Knicks themselves.
When it gets this bad, that you have to designate a savior then come up with other ways to define his job title, semantics don’t matter. And neither do old feelings, some of them forged in forever slabs of steel.
You think Jets fans enjoyed having to throw their up hands in 1996, acknowledge that their team had turned into a football sinkhole, 1-15 in the books, 4-28 in the books, laugh tracks installed all over the place, banana peels littering the Meadowlands? You think the men who owned the Jets really enjoyed romancing Bill Parcells to the end of the earth, after he had forged his reputation restoring one arch-rival (the Giants) and building another (the Patriots)?
You think it’s any fun to simply hand over the keys and say: Have at it, it’s yours, we won’t get in your way … especially when, let’s face it, it worked. It reversed the Jets from 1-15 to 9-7 in Year 1 then to 12-4 and a halftime lead in the AFC title game in Year 2.
It’s fine to ask for help. But to beg for it?
But, hey, Giants fans know all about that. A few of them hired a plane in the late autumn of 1978 after Herm Edwards picked up the fumble and created the Miracle of the Meadowlands, the plane tagging a message that said: “Fifteen years of lousy football. We’ve had enough.”
But it wasn’t just the Giants fans who’d had enough, or the Giants themselves. The league couldn’t tolerate the Giants being a wretched joke in the No. 1 media market in the land, couldn’t have them stringing together 3-11 and 4-12 seasons into perpetuity. You think it was any fun for the Giants — specifically for Wellington Mara — to admit, “I need help”?
You think luring George Young made everyone feel good about the way the past decade and a half had gone … especially when, let’s face it, it worked. It brought the Giants two championships over the next 12 years and set up the franchise to be a model for years to come. Young is gone but his influence remains, a man who came in to clear up the refuse and stacked everything neatly in trash bins so they could start over.
That’s what Phil Jackson is really bringing when he arrives in town in two days. He brings a fat, fancy resume, but he also brings a sense that there’s a professional in charge again, someone who knows what they’re doing. It was similar to the feeling when Donnie Walsh took over but, let’s be fair: Walsh has 11 fewer rings than Jackson does, 13 if you count the two he won as a player.
Jackson wasn’t brought here to be an organizer, not at those prices. And say what you will about Knicks ownership — who will fairly be studied throughout this marriage — it can’t ever be easy to reach the point where you acknowledge: We can’t do this as is. We need help. And we need to pay for it … unless, let’s face it.
It works.
Whack Back at Vac
Andy Romanic: I wonder how long before Darrelle Revis starts complaining about his new contract?
Vac: You’re assuming he hasn’t already?
Richard Siegelman: Kenyon Martin is no longer wearing his walking boot, but is that because doctors told him he no longer needs it, or because Ike Davis stole it from him?
Vac: I imagine Ike has more than a few in reserve.
@vpb17: As a St. John’s fan, I still say we are better off with Steve Lavin, but I hope like Tom Coughlin he can adapt.
@MikeVacc: Lavin is a lot more likeable than Coughlin was in his first few years but the comp. is apt: He has to do things a little different starting now.
Bob Buscavage: Barry Bonds showed up at the San Francisco Giants spring training camp and was quoted as saying, “Without a doubt” he’s a Hall of Famer. I’ll “bet” he gets in after Pete Rose!
Vac: Sadly, I suspect that’ll end up an eternal push.
Vac’s Whacks
- We can all just assume Justin Tuck already has the lay of the land down pat for Warriors games at Oracle Arena, right?
- Today’s dash of NBA perspective: The Lakers have missed the playoffs five times since 1949. The Knicks have missed the playoffs five times since 2006.
- The way things are going, you have to think neither the Pacers nor the Heat would mind very much if the Nets are knocked out before they ever see them.
- Seriously. Sandy. Shortstop. What’s the punch line?