Have you ever loved someone or something so much, that even after they’ve hurt or disappointed you in an extremely cruel fashion….it doesn’t matter. You find yourself going back to them. No, no, no, no. Scratch that. You are compelled to go back to them. You know them, understand them, and you are familiar with them. It doesn’t matter how deep the wound is sometimes. The love is deep and it’s claws are firmly entrenched into your soul. This is how I feel about the New York Knicks. Every. Fucking. Year. Since 2001. (sigh) What’d they do this time?
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They didn’t sign Jeremy Lin. He’s on the Houston Rockets now. And it fucking kills me.
Now, hold up for one minute and let me explain myself. No, I’m not over-rating Linsanity. I don’t think he’s a top 5 point guard in the NBA nor do I feel like he’s the savior of the proud franchise. I don’t think he was the player that had that unreal stretch of games last February. He’s more likely an average starting point guard in this league (which is still very valuable) with a good chance to improve on that. However, I do feel that he was an important piece for a team that was trying to retool. A piece that they have now replaced with two inferior players. He was a piece that would’ve been expensive but would have ultimately been manageable. And now that he’s peaced out, I’ve lost my sports fan’s version of peace of mind.
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Raymond Fat Fucking Felton?!? Really?!?! I thought we tried this before. He had a pretty good run here 2 years ago but there’s one caveat. The only time he’s looked anything like a better than average point guard in the NBA was under Mike D’Antoni. A contrarian’s argument would be that Jeremy Lin has only looked good under Mike D’Antoni too. You would be right. Except he was much, much better under D’Antoni than Felton had. At no point in Felton’s career has he looked better than Lin did last year. Never. In fact, last year Felton was one of the worst starting guards in the NBA. There was no facet of Felton’s game that was better than Lin’s. NONE. Think about that.
And Jason Kidd?!? The man was great. Keyword: “was”. This is not 2002 anymore. Sure, we aren’t paying him to be a starter but I was pretty sure that we were paying him to be a backup and mentor to Jeremy Lin. There is nothing to mentor in Raymond “Fat” Felton. He is what he is at this point. While Kidd is on the downside of his career.
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Lin was better than both of these guys last year. Shit, he was going to be better than both of them this year. Chances are that the Knicks still wouldn’t have been a contender but the potential was there. The tantalizing potential that he could’ve helped the Knicks leave the torturous middle ground that they are in right now. People tell me that we could go after a better player in the following years. Right. With what cap space? Amar’e Stoudemire’s, Tyson Chandler’s, and Melo’s contracts keep us hugging the salary cap over the next three years. Sure, Lin would’ve ended up being really expensive in the third year of his contract but it’s not like Cablevision doesn’t print their own money. I can show you my cable bill from last month. It’s not pretty. The only reason I even fucking have cable is so I can watch the Knicks (and Breaking Bad). James Dolan rapes my wallet because of it. He probably has a vault of gold coins that his fat ass swims in like Scrooge McDuck. But we aren’t going to see any lucky dimes in MSG anymore.
Plus Lin’s contract would’ve paid for itself with all the Chinese/Taiwanese companies that would look to advertise in Madison Square Garden, all the sold out games, all the Knicks and Lin related merchandise that would sell like hotcakes like they have before. Plus, there has been a New York Times article on how it’d actually make sense financially for the Knicks to match Houston’s offer sheet. Arggggggggh, it doesn’t make sense.
A couple of my friends have asked me “Why not start rooting for the Brooklyn Nets?” And you know what? The rational part of me really wants to. It makes sense. They just moved here and off to a fresh start and I can start my fanhood anew with a team that has never hurt me before. They have a clean slate. Shit, I even thought about being a Houston Rockets fan as well. Alas, I can’t. I just can’t. I’ve been thinking the whole morning and afternoon about switching my allegiances but all I can remember are the good times that the Knicks have given me. Even though they have been terrible for a decade and provided me with nothing but horrible basketball and pain, I was still invested in them…I believed in them. I trusted in the fact that the good times would be back soon enough. Call me a glutton for punishment but I can’t leave the Knicks now. I still have hope that sometime in my lifetime….they’ll go to the promiseland and I will revel in their glory. Unfortunately, it’s just not happening in the next three years. Not with Scrooge McDolan around.
