Cornerstone club? Kick the Knicks myth to the curb

So while his banishment will score high on the cosmic-retribution scale, it shouldn't be celebrated by Knicks fans with a chorus of "Happy Days Are Here Again." He leaves the franchise downtrodden and demoralized, with essentially one player -- David Lee, canonized simply because he plays hard -- in whom other teams might have a passing interest. This situation doesn't demand a rebuilding effort so much as an exorcism.

And is anybody truly convinced that Donnie Walsh is the guy to conduct it? He appears to be a stand-up dude, plus more knowledgeable people than I believe that he has the combination of brains and personality to right the Isiah/Scott Layden wrongs, all the while deflecting the intensity of the New York media glare.

Unfortunately, it matters little to the average fan that Walsh might lift the team's Soviet-like media policy, detailed in this astonishing New York Magazine indictment. Most of them will look at Walsh's fingers and see precisely zero title rings as an executive. You can only give the guy so much credit for ignoring the bleats back in the day and drafting Reggie Miller over Steve Alford.

Anyway, I respectfully submit that until the Knicks do something commonly associated with successful teams –- like, perhaps, win 50 games -- we should delete them from the list of cornerstone NBA franchises.

I also submit that we curb the woe-is-us blather. This isn't an unfathomable situation like the one currently playing out in Seattle, where an out-of-towner is a few months away from torpedoing a proud pro-hoops legacy, with the NBA as a willing co-conspirator. It's nowhere near as dire as the situation in Memphis, where the locals have good reason to suspect that GM Chris Wallace might secretly be working for another franchise.

It's just a mess, and a boring one at that. The "Bye-siah!" tabloid headlines on Friday morning will prompt many Knicks fans to do a little jig. They'd be better served saving their energy and emotion for a team that deserves it.