Sports Links 05.12.08

And a wholly unnecessary Emanuelle Chriqui photo.

+ Lenny Dykstra’s high end mag for pro athletes is stuck in legal/ monetary disputes, as former Ram defensive back Ryan McNeil’s is. That “Nails never fails” article in the New Yorker is getting old already. Move it to the “fiction” section, people.

+ More of a peek into the private life of Marvin Harrison after the shooting near a bar that he owns.

+ Mike D’Antoni is the Knicks coach! Holy Crapcakes!

The beauty of NYC is such that the first article I read is “Bringing in Mike D’Antoni wrong move for the Knicks“. And it may be true, if only for the dead wood on the roster that needs to be dumped. This article is a little wrong though; the roster is missing a credible point guard, for certain, but the idea that the Suns put up good shots all the time because of their IQ is questionable. Their speed and spacing allowed them to get good looks early in the offense, and unlike other basketball coaches, D’Antoni has no problem with early shots. Jamal Crawford loves to take jumpers with 20 seconds left on the shot clock! He’ll be a freaking natural! (I’m not joking. I actually think that Nate Robinson and Crawford might be good in this system. Starbury, however, needs to be bought out.)

Though D’Antoni would have KILLED with the Bulls’ roster, no doubt. But they would never play defense, and GM Paxson wanted assurances that there would be defense played at the United Center.

+ Yesterday I glanced at the score of the Mets game and.. what the hot hell? It’s Oliver Perez’ good day! Which ended with a bad hiccup. From the Journal News:

The unsolved mystery that is Oliver Perez was back on display yesterday at Shea Stadium. There he was, sweeping breaking balls past the lefty bats of Adam Dunn and Joey Votto. There he was firing five innings of one-hit ball. Yet there he was giving up three runs in the sixth.

Suddenly, it was a Day at the Improv. He dropped his arm lower, trying to change speeds because he was tiring. It turned out to be a wild pitch, skipping past Brian Schneider to allow one of the runs to score. Perez also surprised the Reds with a bunt single. Before that, he walked and stole second.

“How crazy are you, Ollie?” manager Willie Randolph playfully asked, turning toward the 26-year-old lefty entering the interview room. “Do you have a full deck? They want to know. Inquiring minds want to know. I’ll take you anyway. I’ll tell you what, you can play on my team any day.”

Perez is good. Perez is bad. Sometimes in the same game. Good luck predicting the unpredictable. But after throwing three straight losing duds, the Mets will take the three-run, three-hit, eight-strikeout, four-walk, one-hit-batter work he gave them over six innings in beating Cincinnati 8-3 in the rubber game of the series.

+ Meanwhile, like me, Mets’ minor leaguer Fernando Martinez is allergic to lobster.

+ Uni Watch has lots of the Mother’s Day pink paraphernalia that MLB players and umps rocked.

+ Cablevision is buying Newsday? Isn’t there a limit to local media synergies? I guess not.

Will Long Island become one giant Cablevision bubble, where Jim Dolan is a cuddly teddy bear and the Knicks are everyone’s favorite? If I want to reach Long Island… will I have to go through Dolan? Will he manage Long Island’s media future?

+ The Devil Rays are winning baseball games? What is this world coming to?

+ Florida State player plans to play all 9 positions in today’s game. If the game goes extra innings, he should offer to umpire the game, just to add another layer of gimmick.

+ The 4 armed robbers accused of killing safety Sean Taylor will not face the death penalty.

+ One Droo Hill makes edits to the United Countries of Baseball region map, which was perhaps influenced by this unscientific but interesting attempt from 2007. The map does not reflect certain sports teams that roll deep in every city they go to like the Yank-These and Mets.

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Avery, D’Antoni, Possible Knick Coaches?

Though for days the Knicks have been linked to hiring Mark Jackson to coach the Knickerbockers next season…

Now Avery Johnson - the “Little General,” a yeller, a successful coach with the Dallas Mavericks - is a available for a new coaching gig.

The Daily News’ Frank Isola believes that Avery Johnson has a for the Knick head coaching job, one that Mark Jackson also seemed to be in line for. New Knicks president Donnie Walsh also has relationships with Sam Mitchell; if Mitchell is fired from the Raptors after a poor playoff performance, he might get a look.

The Post’s Marc Berman likes the idea of D’Antoni over other candidates, even Mark Jackson, but his lack of defensive coaching might make him a hard sell for the Knicks.

Apparently, Donnie Walsh has been keeping an eye out for the newly fired:

The Post reported Tuesday that Walsh had zeroed in on four coaches he would pursue if they got fired after Round 1 - D’Antoni, Mitchell, Johnson and Detroit’s Flip Saunders, with D’Antoni believed to be top on the list. (Walsh was told Denver’s George Karl was safe).

Jackson, who interviewed with Walsh last Thursday, spoke to the Bulls yesterday but is considered a longshot there. The Bulls would also vie for Johnson and D’Antoni, who could be pursued by Dallas and Toronto.

The Knicks could outbid all those teams for D’Antoni and may be willing to go up to $6M to $7M a season.

And what about Ewing?

And in case you’re wondering, the Chicago Bulls have the same ideas about D’Antoni and Avery Johnson.

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Mike D’Antoni Fired From Suns. NY Fans Salivating At Fast Break Basketball.

I was just reading this bit about whether Steve Kerr would consider firing Suns’ Mike D’Antoni…

AND HE DID GET FIREDHe Might Have gotten fired.

D’Antoni, sources say, believes that the situation has been festering all season and that nothing would be accomplished in the meeting. Whatever the circumstances of his departure, it will probably be presented as as a rift between coach and GM, and to a large extent that’s true. But when Colangelo left for Toronto, mostly because he and Sarver were doomed not to coexist harmoniously, D’Antoni lost his biggest booster in the front office, as well as a friend. It’s what happens in the NBA and in all pro sports.

Over four full seasons D’Antoni racked up a 232-96 record, made the Western finals twice and changed the way that observers both in and out of the league thought about the game. Management might have some legitimate gripes about his defensive coaching, and remember that D’Antoni was a bigger booster of the trade for Shaquille O’Neal than Kerr was.

But Suns management now faces one extremely formidable challenge in l’affaire D’Antoni: finding someone better.

BUT WAIT… Drama. The Arizona Republic says that the firing is not so:

Suns General Manager Steve Kerr denied that report [that Mike D'Antoni would not return as coach of the Suns] early Wednesday.

“There’s no truth to that,” Kerr said. “I asked Mike when the story came out and he denied it. Mike’s our coach and has done a great job for four years. We’ll get together soon and talk about where this team can go from here.”

With two years and $8.5 million left on his contract, D’Antoni is unlikely to be fired. If he returns, it could be with concessions to change. But there is also the possibility that he leaves of his own accord, especially with a perceived lack of support - and interest from New York and Chicago, both of which have vacancies. There is also the chance Toronto President Bryan Colangelo fired Sam Mitchell to hire the coach he brought to Phoenix from Italy.

An article in this week’s Sports Illustrated will fan the flames. It paints a picture of a divide between the coaching staff and front office staff. It talks about D’Antoni resenting Suns General Manager Steve Kerr working out of San Diego and taking perceived shots at him in the press, and that Kerr thinks D’Antoni is too stubborn to accept Kerr’s suggestions, whether it be in strategy or personnel use.

Sources confirmed an SI anecdote that Kerr and D’Antoni had an early November argument in which Kerr suggested that the Suns feature post-up plays for Amaré Stoudemire more often. That incited D’Antoni, who set off a shouting match that included him saying, “Don’t tell me how to coach offense.”

Someone call the Knicks. MAKE THIS MAN AN OFFER. NOW. A BIG ONE. If there are reports about a dude being fired, he’s probably not on good terms and can be brought to NY. The coach is not worth the number 1 draft pick (in exchange for D’Antoni’s services and the #15 pick…) but… hm… if the Knicks don’t get a top-5 pick, I think I’d trade that pick for D’Antoni. Imagine Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford and David Lee in that system. Imagine the free agents who would want to come to New York. Imagine the buzz in Madison Square Garden.

I am salivating.

There’s a Fire Steve Kerr site already.

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Last Supper

Isiah’s job status is “up in the air” right now, but all indications point to new President Donnie Walsh giving Isiah the boot. The “Fire Isiah” website is already down! I can’t imagine the world with jokes about the Knicks, their management, or their inept management .

Isiah Thomas will likely stay on in some reduced capacity. And, probably to apologize for the crappy basketball, Madison Square Garden is giving free hot dogs, pretzels, soda and water to all who attend tonight’s home finale.

Mark Jackson is a coaching candidate for the Knicks, among others. And the team will likely shop Eddy Curry this summer. The New York Post seems to think he’s more tradeable than Zach Randolph… who is less movable than a mountain.

There will be breathless eulogies for his career, and I can’t wait to read them. Enjoy a taste of Isiah, explaining himself about the “bitch” comment during the Anucha Browne Sanders case (it’s a video deposition):

Latrell Sprewell: Needs His Own Economic Stimulus Plan

Citizens Bank filed a foreclosure suit for the River Hills, WI home of former Warrior, Knick and T-Wolf (what is the singular of Timberwolves?), Latrell Sprewell. His yacht, the famed “Milwaukee’s Best,” was sold to pay for the money owed on that boat, but the difference between the sale price and the amount owed on the boat is about half a million. In other “Latrell’s stacks are down and the checks ain’t coming in news,” Spree’s missed a bunch of mortgage payments on that same home. Don’t forget the kids, though, Spree, when you try to get back into the league.

I guess Sprewell was right when he told T’Wolves owner Glen Taylor that he couldn’t accept the contract because he had to feed his children.

As a side note I didn’t know he bare-facedly mentioned Sally Struthers commercials when talking about his contract. Dag. Also from this article, a recap of the life of Sprewell in trouble:

Not that Sprewell would necessarily know how well-fed his children are. This year, a judge barred him from seeing the children when the mother of four of them sued Sprewell for $200 million, also alleging he physically abused her.Sprewell once slipped aboard the yacht and broke his hand. That was his story. The New York Post reported that he tried to punch the boyfriend of a woman who barfed on the ship’s carpet, missed with the punch and hit a wall.

A 21-year-old woman told police last year that during a tender moment aboard “Milwaukee’s Best,” Milwaukee’s strangest suddenly tried to strangle her. Sprewell was not formally charged, and maybe he was trying merely to prevent her from barfing on the carpet.

Sprewell once grounded the yacht in shallow water at a Milwaukee beach and it took several boats to pull the craft free.

It’s a good thing Spree had it all together beforehand…

- In the 1993-94 season, Sprewell fought with Warriors teammate Byron Houston. Coach Don Nelson stepped between ‘em and had his shirt ripped off.

– In ‘95, Sprewell fought with teammate Jerome Kersey, returned to practice with a two-by-four, and threatened to return with a gun.

– In ‘94, Sprewell’s 4-year-old daughter had an ear ripped off and her face badly clawed by one of Sprewell’s four pet pit bulls. Sprewell reluctantly had the dog put to sleep.

– During the ‘94-95 season, the Warriors suspended Sprewell twice.

Oh hell, Spree, come back to the Knicks. At least you have heart on the court, even if you need a whole lot of learnin’ off of it. In all seriousness, Spree was a model citizen, relatively, in New York. Only tale I heard about him involved a female friend and he riding in a limo. She said he was a model citizen (though distracted by something on the phone on their way to a party) and Chris Dudley was in the car. Or was it Travis Knight? Some big white player.

But think about the economic stimulus Sprewell would give to NYC if we stimulate his pocketbook with a cool mil! The papers would sell more, people would watch the Knicks to see if he cusses at them, the boat rental places will have to hire more security… it’s a win-win. The comedy writers would have a field day. We need a villain.

Today in “As the Knicks Sink”…

Reading through the weekend’s links, I come upon a long Filip Bondy piece on how every 20 years , the Knicks fall into extreme suckage. This is what happens when the basketball becomes interminable to watch or write about– the journalists dig deep into their vault and pull some nuggets from the back shelf to keep the readership entertained. I dig that.

Stephon Marbury sat out the last game with a “left ankle injury”; as we all know, the left ankle is where everyone’s “willingness to play with a reduced role” bone is. The Journal News points out an interesting “if” in Isiah’s comments about Starbury’s status, the kind of if that is kin to Steve Francis’ injuries when he was with the Knicks and “rehabbing at home”. But wait…

James Dolan might considering firing Isiah?!:

Garden chairman James Dolan recently told confidants that he knows a coaching change must be made and that he is preparing to do just that, according to a source close to Dolan. No timetable was given, but the source indicated that Dolan is leaning toward making a change before the end of the season.

Firing Isiah as coach? As GM? As both? I guess Dolan found those dirty photos that isiah must have been holding over his head to keep him job in the face of this unprecedented constant sucking.

Fire Isiah, Soon to be a Musical

YES! Finally, a Fire Isiah rap song (play the song here) by the “First Cousins“. Queens guys, of course…

Thanks to the NY Post Knicks blog. And to Genovese from Yonkers and Gustapo from Queens, and their recording studio in Middle Village.

Isiah Thomas is On Fire These Days

Not only does he not see himself trading anyone from his flawed team of two non-defending big men and and over-dribbling guards,

Not only did his team get crushed by an iffy Sacramento team without their three stars Bibby/ Artest/ Kevin Martin,

Not only has Isiah told the media that he would (as GM) evaluate the job he has done as head coach only to come out of the two-week evaluation with the response “we’ll keep moving in this direction [with] me as head coach,”

Not only all of that:

Isiah Thomas predicts a title

Although Isiah Thomas has not won a single playoff game since coming to New York, the Knicks’ embattled president and coach predicted on Wednesday night that the franchise will win an NBA championship.

With Thomas in charge.

Seriously.

Sounding delusional, Thomas appeared to be talking to Garden chairman James Dolan through the media by saying he believes the Knicks will win a title and by reiterating that he has no plans to resign.

“My belief and what I see and where I believe we can go as a team and an organization, I believe one day that we will win a championship here and I believe a couple of these guys will be a part of that,” Thomas said before the Knicks were walloped at the Garden by the depleted Sacramento Kings, 107-97. “I believe I’ll be a part of that.”

Thomas admitted that his comments, which border on the absurd, leave him open for ridicule.

“As I sit here and I say it today, I know people will laugh even more at me, but I’m hell-bent on getting this accomplished and making sure that we get it done. And I’m not leaving until we get it done.”

With Walt Frazier sitting 10 feet away, Thomas even went a step further by stating that his goal is to leave a “legacy” that future Knicks team will live by.

“I don’t necessarily want to win a championship,” Thomas added. “I want to leave something that’s going to stand for a long time. I want to leave a legacy. I want to leave a tradition. I want to leave an imprint, a blueprint in terms of how people play and how they coach and how they respond when they put on a Knick uniform.

“I want to leave what I left in Detroit. Every person who walks through that door as a Piston, when they put on that uniform, there’s a certain pride that they carry. I want to put that here and I want to leave that here in New York. I want to leave a championship legacy.”

Of course, Thomas’ legacy after four years is a losing record, bad trades, poor free agent signings, a bloated payroll and a sexual harassment lawsuit won by a former female employee.

“This is a dark time for us, but I know there’s a light at the end of this tunnel and I’m going to keep digging and I’m going to keep pushing and I’m not going to quit. I’m going to do it here,” he said.

And from Mitch Lawrence of the Daily News:

Before the Knicks’ latest stinker, a 107-97 defeat to the depleted Kings, Thomas talked about doing more than just winning a championship in New York. Now he’s all about “leaving a legacy, a tradition, an imprint and a blueprint.”

Of all the nonsense Thomas has put forth during his four-plus years on the job, this might have been his strangest, saddest moment.

Thomas didn’t violate the Garden’s media policy.

He violated common sense, objective reality and something commonly referred to as the God’s honest truth.

When Thomas spoke of leaving the kind of legacy here that he left in Detroit, he, in effect, took full credit for the Pistons’ back-to-back titles, never mentioning owner Bill Davidson, GM Jack McCloskey, Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly or any of his teammates. Either out of respect or utter disbelief, no one so much as giggled.

This is proof that we fans just shouldn’t take sports so seriously. This kind of lunacy doesn’t really fly in our personal lives, does it? Probably not. Maybe it’s time, for Knick fans especially, to just go and pick up a new hobby. Like knitting. Or reading great works. Or building miniature furniture.

Speaking of which, I think I’ll be watching the Wire instead of the Knicks, maybe even reading this Wire blog. You should watch the Wire too.

On William Rhoden’s “Fire Isiah” Piece in the New York Times

If you haven’t seen this prize of an article by NY Times sports writer William Rhoden from December 24th/ Christmas Eve, let me resurrect it for you from the tombs of the internet:

Our writer in the rich seats reflects on the Fire Isiah shouts that have become commonplace at Knicks games in the Garden, quickly noting the lack of on court success but also noting that those failures haven’t hurt the bottom line at all. The Knickerbocker franchise is still #1 in value according to Forbes, the same magazine that listed Kevin McHale as the best GM, (based on “winning improvement” from previous GM and ability to keep the payroll from ballooning as indexed to the rest of the league; obviously, they work on some different metrics than the viewing public). And the fans are still buying the seats, even if they don’t necessarily show up.

The fan in the story is even satisfied with the losing effort—the Knicks made it close at the end. Our illustrious Times writer happens upon Chris Rock and Spike Lee (who’s been out of the country) who feel Isiah shouldn’t be fired, because the players (Isiah picked) are all from losing traditions. They then happen upon the Reverend Al Sharpton (does this sound like a Chaucer tale yet? Everything except the farting), who says some ridiculous foolishness and the question is asked: should Isiah go?

Rock: “I’m not calling for anybody to lose their job, especially around Christmas.”

Sharpton: “Let me ask you this: The Secretary General of the U.N. was sitting near me. Do we fire him because we don’t have world peace? I mean, come on.”

Spike Lee: Isiah stays.

“But, that’s a certain New Yorker,” Lee cautioned. “Sharpton, Spike Lee and Chris Rock. That might not help Isiah.”

You know what New Yorker that is, Spike? The kind of New Yorker who has been following this goddamned debacle. The kind of New Yorker who, whether black or white or Asian or something else, knows that the Secretary General’s job is a hell of a lot harder than being coach and GM of a basketball team, and that Sec’y General’s job is NOT world peace, it’s to manage the United Nations, whose goal is to uphold human rights, establish social justice, and some malarkey about saving future generations from the scourge of war (people, y’all should get on that one, really).

Everyone knows Al Sharpton just speaks to be heard. In all the yapping, Sharpton can hit some good points—putting the pressure on Don Imus being the most recent—but too often, the man thinks of himself as the “controversial” arbiter on every issue when really, he’s a flashpoint and often feels like a bottleneck black folks’ progress. These guys are likely buddies with Isiah, one of the NBA’s all-time great players, and won’t throw him underthe bus in the New York Times. But damn. That is no rationale for keeping the man. And Sharpton’s rationale is the most ridiculous of them all—acting indignant that the fans would call for Isiah’s job.

Certainly, the Fire Isiah chants are both warranted and unseemly. The team’s performance has been awful. But the fans in Madison Square Garden have been eager to “fire” people—I participated in at least one Fi-re Lay-den chant a few years ago. It had a real nice ring to it. It’s very New York, those chants—overdemanding, rushing to judgment, putting the pressure on, noxiously in-one’s-face. But the unbelievable lack of action as the Knicks remain a bizarre joke is ridiculous.

One thing I have to say about the losers who post in the blogosphere, the malcontents who shirk work and spend their days on message boards, and the jackoffs who pore over the boxscores—we care. We look at the day top day results. We’re the fans on the ground. We feel we have something to lose by watching this heinous product. We nearly live and die with this. If we didn’t we wouldn’t:

- Purchase expensive sports packages from our cable companies.
- Buy replica jerseys with money that could be better invested, and will never make us look like our favorite athletes.
- Spread the name of the team and the league to friends and children by word-of-mouth.
The fans really deserve better than a heaping pile of disinterested basketball. Unfortunately, we don’t have any say in Isiah’s tenure as coach or GM, his owner does, and his owner doesn’t care.

Maybe we should focus more on the work of the “Sell the Knicks” people. Next walkout is December 30th.