The NBA playoffs are underway. The matchups are intriguing and the play on the court is fierce. For the first time all season, NBA players are actually playing defense and hustling on every play.
Last night saw an overtime thriller played between Portland and Houston in their game one matchup in the first round. The Trail Blazers won 122-120 behind LaMarcus Aldridge’s 46 points.
But while the top 16 NBA teams fight each other for a championship, 14 other teams drift into the abyss of mediocrity and obscurity.
Teams down there are obviously there for a reason, but one team in particular earned their keep as a league bottom dweller, and that team is the New York Knicks.
If the Knicks had their 2014 season in any other city, it would have been just a poor year, but sadly for them they’re in New York, where the bright lights and insufferable media will eat you alive.
Along those lines, New Yorkers have a proud history of winning. The Knicks will always be compared to the Yankees, who have won 24 World Series, or the Giants, who have won two Super Bowls in the past few years.
The Knicks were doomed from the start because James Dolan, who took over as owner in 1999, owns them.
Dolan is very bad at running a basketball team.
The Knicks posted a winning season in 2011 before getting trounced 0-4 by the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
This year’s Knicks campaign could be categorized by Iman Shumpert cutting his hair, Andrea Bargnani’s horrendous contract, J.R. Smith’s shoe string incident, Raymond Felton’s legal trouble and finally ending with Amar’e Stoudemire saying “On paper we might have been the best team in the league.”
That quote looks sane compared to Smith’s when he said he was “100 percent sure” the Knicks would win the title in 2014.
The bright spot in the Knicks season was the addition of Phil Jackson to the team’s front office.
Jackson has proven he has a great basketball mind, with 13 NBA titles as a player and coach, but his work is certainly cut out for him.
The financial status of the Knicks is where the outlook is truly bleak. Bargnani is due $11 million per year, Tyson Chandler $14 million and worst of all, Amar’e Stoudemire is due $21 million.
All of this money is on the books whether or not Carmelo Anthony decides to return. If he does, he’d get a max contract at $21 million a year.
On one hand, Anthony is a great player, on the other, that’s a lot of cash.
On Monday Jackson fired the entire Knicks coaching staff, clearly sending the message he’s here to stay and that losing is not an option. However, he’ll probably have to fire Dolan if he wants to bring a championship to the Big Apple.
That’s the issue with professional sports.
Why does the billionaire owner of Madison Square Garden get to make basketball decisions for the Knicks? Compare his credentials to Phil Jackson, and who do you want making roster calls?
If you’re a billionaire, why does it matter if you pay Stoudemire $21 million during a season in which he averages 11 points per game? Billionaire owners don’t understand the implications of their poor basketball decisions.
Last week the Milwaukee Bucks franchise sold for 550 million, and they’re one of the worst teams in the league.
Even NBA teams that don’t win are worth absurd amounts of money, so I don’t blame James Dolan for wanting to own the Knicks. As the owner of a team, however, you have to hold the interests of fans and players above your own.
The last decade of Knicks basketball has been marred by Dolan’s incompetence. Nineteen thousand people fit in Madison Square Garden for a Knicks game, buying tickets for $50 or so. They want to see a winning team and it’s Dolan’s obligation as an owner to bring it to them.
Jackson will try his best to do that, but he has his work cut out for him if he’s going to try to undo the past decade of terrible financial decisions.
Who is to blame for the Knicks' struggles this season? How will the team do next season? Email gsatterfield@dailycardinal.com your thoughts.
