Declaration

Georgetown’s Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert declared for the draft. The article makes it seem like they are simply testing out the waters, going on a “double date” if you will to see if it is right for them. I like their approach and it sounds like they are more than likely going to come back. But you never know.
Things that Ohio State fans hate; Florida and their best players dads. First it was Conley Sr. talking madness, then it was Oden’s dad talking madness. That has to hurt. They’ve had great teams in the two main revenue sports and have watched them both fall. In the National Championship. To the same school. DAMN. Now they could possibly lose Oden, Conley Jr and Cook.
This article talks about Stern being impressed with Oklahoma City and their run with the Hornets. I can’t be the only one who is wondering why exactly the Hornets are going back? In OK City you have a loyal fanbase (check), hungry for basketball (check), have proven that they are coming to the games (check), the players love playing there and don’t think they should leave (check). I’m just not seeing it. I’m not one to question Stern…but this seems like a Bud Selig move, doing something just to do it. Perhaps he is afraid of some sort of backlash if he just took the team away becaue of the Hurricane..but you can’t force a team back on a city that is not quite ready to fully support them. The Hornets had good attendance in NO this year, but that was a handful of games, generally once a month. I don’t think they can have the same sort of aura that the Saints had. Saints game were definitely events, where 60,000+ could come together and rally in a special way. Who is going to rally for the November game between the Bobcats and the Hornets?
The headline for this article reads ‘Kidd and Nets Seal Knicks’ Fate’. Wrong, the Knicks fate was sealed when Dolan gave Isiah that extension.

Let us take a closer look shall we. On March 10th, Isiah somehow hooks Steve Francis up to the rejuvenation machine, has him drop 26 at Washington and the Knicks get the W. They are 29-34 and tied for 8th. All is well right? Two days later Isiah gets his extension and all hell breaks loose. I thought it was the dumbest thing possible and boy was I right. Someone like Isiah needs to be on the hot seat to perform well. It is simply human nature to let down if they have that little bit of security. Think about it, if you have ever had a D or an F in a class you know that feeling when the next test is coming up and you have no other option but to do well. But you take the same class and you put an A in there, you’re probably going to coast. Isiah began to coast.

Isiah has liked to put the blame of the losses on injuries, his favorite being ‘Well if we had Jamal Crawford..” The thing I find interesting is Crawford had missed the 5 games prior to the Washington game and Isiah getting his extension and the Knicks went 3-2 without him. Quentin Richardson (who had previously been MIA in November and NY didn’t have too many problems going 6-5) was out for the Washington game and they won. The other wounded animal David Lee had missed the same amount of games that Crawford missed, and the Knicks still found a way to climb and tied for that 8 spot. My question is; how can you use injuries as an excuse, when those players had already been injured when you climbed up. It’s not like that week or that game they all went down and all hell broke loose. Isiah, my friend, you stopped doing your job and wanted people to feel sorry for you again. You didn’t want to be the bad guy anymore. You’ve gone 3-14 since getting your extension, the worst stretch of the year at the worst time to have it.

Who is to blame? Dolan and Isiah obviously. Dolan, for not having the balls to keep riding Isiah like he had. Isiah, for actually signing the damn extension. Who gets a raise in the middle of their job that isn’t completed yet? If you were sitting down typing up a big paper and your teacher said ‘Hey I’m going to bump your grade up to an A’ what is your reaction going to be? Hell yeah, and you’re going to phone the rest of that paper in. If I was Dolan I should’ve known this would happen. I would’ve gone to the press and just kept riding Isiah, talking about I wasn’t satisfied and all that. I would have had leaked to the media about other coaches I was interested in. Anything to make it seem like he was in deep trouble and then give him the extension. He had nothing to coach for (so what if they make the playoffs there is always next year right?)

So Knick fans…it’s only going to get worse until Isiah’s ass is on the line again. For now get ready for the cavalcade of excuses until it becomes painfully obvious that he has gotten himself into doo-doo again.

More talk about the Lakers struggles here. It is the same old, same old you’ve probably read, heard or thought the last week or so. But the most interesting quote to me is right here, courtesy of Amare;

“I don’t think it would go seven,” Suns center Amare Stoudemire told reporters in Phoenix a day before the game. “I think we would take care of them pretty quick, hopefully, if everything goes as planned.”

Amare…my friend…at the end of the day, they still have Kobe Bryant. The same guy who scored 81, the same guy who calls himself Black freakin’ Mamba. Why on earth would you ever say something like this? Do you think this isn’t going to get back to him? You don’t think he is licking his chops right now, praying that they make the playoffs so that he can bust your head and potentially dunk on you? I mean the Suns have owned the Lakers as of late, Kobe had one of his worst games of the season last night…I may be giving the man a little too much credit, but he could be lulling them to sleep. Could this be Phil’s greatest psychological move ever that we won’t find out about until his next book, where he probably talks about how he wanted to kill Smush Parker but had to be held back by Tex Winter and Luke Walton’s girlfriend. And how pissed will Raja Bell be if he finds out about this?

I like how this article makes Detroits losing to Toronto last night sound ok. The Pistons were up 9 points in the 4th quarter..and lost. No argument about ‘reserves’ those are the same guys expected to contribute in some manner during the Playoffs. Only Flip could pull something like this.
Does anyone else love how Pacman Jones and his first comments on his suspension came not from a press conference, but being interviewed by an ESPN reporter on Friday Night Fights (a show that is on all-time TURN THE F’N CHANNEL status with me).
Boy they are on Daunte Culpepper something heavy in Miami. Read it. So exactly how many TD’s does he have to throw for everything to be ok?