New York Knicks made another lapse in judgment as the team forced Coach Mike D’Antoni to resign. Record at his tenure wasn’t that great but the Knicks show some glimpse of promise for the future. D’Antoni was a run and gun head coach when he was at Phoenix as the offense became powerful as the defense was as spotty as (my favorite WNBA team) the Phoenix Mercury’ system is by design. Defense is the final ingredient to win a NBA title, but what to do If you were a head coach and have limitations of players who just either don’t play defense or have the repetition to turn playing defense into a skill without second thought was how the Phoenix Suns were close to reaching full potential but the offense covers up defensive failures.
The Knicks were in terrible shape because of bad decisions surrounding the franchise since Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics in start of the 21st century for essentially nothing. The franchise had aging Allan Houston, Charlie Ward and Larry “Grand Mama” Johnson who was forced into early retirement due to back and hip problems as the team was still trying to compete for the playoffs with hated rival Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers respectfully.
The team made weird moves ever since then, trading for Stephan Marbury, Eddy Curry and signing often injured Jared Jeffries. The most puzzling move from the team was when the Knicks named Isiah Thomas the general manager then not long later as head coach. Isiah had terrible time from signing players to make the team relevant, but instead the Knicks were in rebuilding denial from 2004 (even though the team qualified for postseason play with 39-43 record) to this year which cost D’Antoni his job
D’Antoni didn’t want Carmelo Anthony trade to Knicks and I can see why not now. The team signed Amar’e Stoudamire from the Phoenix Suns as a free agent in 2010 which was a great signing with role players like Danilo Gallinari the Knicks finally figured out hard work pays off and were becoming winners until the Knicks made the next move. Knicks flipped rosters in trade for Anthony and the Denver Nuggets as the Knicks during the 2011 trade deadline as the team barely held on to a winning season and first playoff appearance since 2004. To start the season the Knicks were trying to find an identity until Anthony started missing games to injury and point guard woes worsened until the Knicks tested out Jeremy Lin. Lin ws proven to be a good distributor of the basketball in spite a high turnover ratio, some people in the sports world worry too much about that, he’s a young player trying to figure things out as the Knicks went on to win basketball games as Anthony was out and Stoudamire was gone for a while due to the untimely death of his older brother in Florida.
Stoudamire arrived back from his sadness as the wins for the Knicks increased until Anthony returned from injures. Anthony returned to playing isolation has the Knicks in a losing funk and acquisition of J.R. Smith, return of Jeffries and the activation of former All-Star point guard Baron Davis as the Knicks seemed to just can’t get out of their own way to find old NBA glory as D’Antoni was squeezed out like orange juice.
Here are photos I've taken over the last few days.
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| Sorta coach 9006 wet at Fairview Loop layover. |
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| Sorta coach 2112 on sunrise at Marburg Avenue cut-off. |
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| Yellow Daisies growing near my house. |
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| Sorta coach 9008 replaced older coach 927 due to wheelchair lift failure sits near Center of Cincinnati Mall layover. |
