New York-area hoops crumbling, brick by brick
Well, it's nice to see former New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury, always classy and dignified, is keeping his chin high and remaining a beacon of forgiveness and warmth when it comes to his old team dumping him.
Marbury, on his alleged Twitter page, mocked the coach who tossed him onto the street corner like a sack of garbage. As first noticed by SimononSports.com, Marbury the twit tweeted: "FIRE DPHONY."
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| To say Wilson Chandler and the Knicks are off to a rough start is putting it nicely. (Getty Images) |
Well, actually, that's kind of clever.
Then Marbury's Twitter page linked to a New York Post back-page story that compared this version of the Knicks to the suckified monstrosity led by former sexual-harassing personnel dynamo Isiah Thomas.
Marbury's tweet was obnoxious, and obnoxiousness is Marbury's specialty, yet it is true that D'Antoni has been a nightmare. His system and the Knicks' players are an ill-conceived fit. The biggest indictment of D'Antoni is that clearly his players don't respect him.
D'Antoni has been a disaster. He makes Thomas look like Red Auerbach.
When the Knicks began 1-8 it tied a franchise record for the worst start to a season. The Knicks are so bad they caused Marbury to climb out his crazy hole like an angry groundhog.
The Knicks aren't the only pile of rhinoceros dung in New York-area basketball. The Nets are a mess, too. They're 0-10 and the only winless team in the NBA. It's the worst start in team history.
This is morphing into one of the ugliest years for pro basketball ever in the New York area. It's really, really depressing.
You know things are bad when there's a longing for Thomas. Zeke was at least entertainingly inept and unabashedly arrogant. Under Thomas, the Knicks were a car wreck; you couldn't resist twisting your neck to see the carnage.
Now, the Knicks and Nets are like bad drunks. When you see them, there's a sudden urge to leave the room.
"As Confucius said, sometimes it's better to laugh than to cry," Nets coach Lawrence Frank explained.
Confucius could also probably start for the Nets.
The state of New York basketball is in stark contrast to the rest of the area's sports universe. The Giants and Jets are still competitive, the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers are doing well while the Islanders are turning things around and the Yankees are filthy great.
The only thing the Nets have going for them is that at least they're trying. Already, this early in the season, Knicks players have quit on their coach.
The NBA needs its New York teams to perform well for the good of the league. A bad Knicks franchise in particular is a disaster for the NBA.
A bad Nets team isn't so great either. When the Nets played at Miami on Saturday night, there appeared to be about 12 fans in the building. Marbury has more people following him on Twitter. Granted, Miami is a front-running sports town, but a competent Nets team would fill at least a quarter of the building.
It's only a matter of time before D'Antoni gets fired, and he will get fired. In order to get 'Bron-'Bron, he'll have to be gone. No way LeBron James comes to New York with D'Antoni as coach. No way in hell.
Frank is probably gone, too. As Confucius said, you can't start winless and survive.
How bad is it for New York hoops?
The Knicks passed on Milwaukee rookie Brandon Jennings in the draft and he just dropped 55 points on Golden State, breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's franchise rookie record.
Ugh.
It's only a matter of time before Marbury tweets about that, too.
