Volume 67, Issue 4  

Knicks Limp into New Season

by David Epstein

After an unsuccessful ‘01-‘02 campaign, the New York Knicks went into their off-season faced with a choice.  They could follow the path taken by most of today’s NBA powerhouses and rebuild, accepting a losing season or two before rising to the level of the NBA’s elite.  Alternatively, they could try to bypass the rebuilding process by trade or free agency, transforming themselves into immediate contenders in the wide-open Eastern Conference.

The Knicks picked option two.  On draft day they swung a deal that landed them one of the league’s most dynamic players in Antonio McDyess.  A healthy McDyess had the potential to be a 20-point, 10-rebound player with explosive athletic ability.  But the odds of McDyess remaining healthy were not good, for he was one of the most injury-prone players in the league and coming off a serious knee injury.

McDyess showed Knicks fans how good he can be in an Oct. 12 preseason game against Phoenix.  McDyess was dominant with a 23-point, 15-rebound performance before leaving the game in the fourth quarter because of what turned out to be yet another season-ending injury.  McDyess’s injury dashed any Knick dreams of a playoff berth and left everyone searching for answers.

“We are in a state of dilemma,” said Knick center Kurt Thomas.  Thomas wasn’t referring to the effects of the McDyess injury but to the Latrell Sprewell saga that has engulfed the Knicks’ training camp.  Sprewell reported to Knicks camp with a broken hand, supposedly injured in an accident aboard his yacht a few weeks earlier.  He claims not to have realized the severity of the injury.  The Knicks brass responded by fining him a record $250,000.

The New York Post’s Mark Berman reported in an exclusive that Sprewell injured his hand in a fight aboard his yacht.  The next day, the Knicks suspended Sprewell indefinitely, asking him not to join the team until he can make “a positive contribution.”  Sprewell angrily sued The Post for $40 million, and his agent demanded that the Knicks either reinstate him or trade him.

Sprewell, like many of the Knicks, has a high-paying contract, making him undesirable and untradeable.  So, with no other team offering equal value, the Knicks were forced to acquiesce to Sprewell’s demands.  He will join the team when he is ready to play.

With the Knicks’ two best players currently out, the Knicks will be lucky to keep games close.  They are a poorly constructed team, with a glut of mediocrity at several positions.  They have one of the smallest starting frontcourts in the entire league—Kurt Thomas, the starting center, is officially listed at 6’9”, but is said to be closer to 6’8”.

At point guard, Coach Don Chaney must choose from Charlie Ward and Howard Eisley.  He can’t go wrong with either one because both are dreadful.

The Knicks’ two best players, Sprewell and Houston, are both shooting guards with Sprewell playing out of position at the three.  As a small forward, Sprewell is among the smallest in the league.  This usually causes match-up problems that favor opposing teams.

Clarence Weatherspoon, Shandon Anderson, and Othella Harington make up the overpaid, undersized role players who will have little impact as the Knicks will be lottery-bound for the second consecutive year.

The only thing Knick fans can hope for is Lavor Postell and rookie point guard Frank Williams playing well enough to break into the Knicks’ rotation.  Postell showed signs of explosive scoring ability last year, and, as for Williams, any point guard has to be better then Ward and Eisley.

Many true Knick fans will root against the Knicks this year. They are hoping that the Knicks will be able to do what the San Antonio Spurs did a few years back. When David Robinson went down for the year, the Spurs tanked the season in order to land Tim Duncan. Obviously, this move worked out well for them and with McDyess’s injury the Knicks would do well to copy them in hopes of landing the NBA’s next superstar, LeBron James.

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