NBA

Knicks Fans’ Dilemma: Should We Stay Or Should We Go Now?

by Eric Goldschein | 9:13 pm, July 16th, 2012

1973 was the last time the New York Knicks won an NBA championship. There are longer championship droughts in sports — Knicks fans have nothing on Cubs fans, or Sacramento Kings fans, or fans of any team from Cleveland — but nowhere is the disconnect between the city and the drought so pronounced. New York, home to “The World’s Most Famous Arena” and a great tradition of street hoops and locally-born players, should be hoisting NBA trophies at least as often as places like San Antonio. The fan base is passionate, the money spent on players has overflowed many a coffer. So why can’t the Knicks win a title?

Well, besides a few ill-advised Patrick Ewing finger rolls? Bad shooting nights from usually reliable guards, during, say, Game 7 of the 1994 Finals? Freak injuries? Michael Jordan? The answer as of late, as many a Knicks fan can attest, is owner James L. Dolan, billionaire son of a cable television company founder and shitty musician.

Since gaining ownership of the Knicks in 1994, Dolan has combined a fat checkbook with little-to-no knowledge of the game of basketball, with a handful of stubbornness and sadism thrown in for good measure. He has surrounded himself with people who brought only shame to the franchise (Isiah Thomas), gotten rid of the people who finally did some good for the team (Donnie Walsh), and signed mammoth checks for some truly horrifying contracts ($30 million for Jerome James, $100 million for Allan Houston, $60 million for Eddy Curry, and so on, and so forth). He is, by all accounts, a terrible team owner.

And, sadly, it looks like all of those blemishes on his resume will pale in comparison to the Jeremy Lin fiasco this summer. Dolan was utterly embarrassed by Lin’s business dealings (after being told the Knicks would match anything “up to $1 billion,” the kid smartly went out and looked for more money from Houston) and has responded by phasing him out of the team’s plans, bringing in two point guards who are — for all their talent — decidedly older, slower, fatter and with lower ceilings than the phenom who single-handedly reignited New York’s passion for the Knicks. Now Lin, who was assumed to be a lock in next year’s starting line up, appears headed for the Rockets, while the Knicks continue to build around the iso-machine that is Carmelo Anthony (another Dolan decision, by the way).

Meanwhile, after years of red tape and construction delays, the New Jersey Nets have become the Brooklyn Nets, and they’ve brought a decent roster along with them. Their owner has a similarly large wallet, and unlike Dolan has the chutzpah to keep his money where his mouth is, sparing no expense to make the Nets’ inaugural season in the blooming borough of Brooklyn a success. Their logo and color scheme are Jay-Z cool. Their arena will be state-of-the-art. They are, despite their history of being from New Jersey and generally being lame, a team worthy of cheering on.

And so, for the first time, New Yorkers have a viable second option as basketball fans. They no longer have to hope (against all rationale and reason) that their team will rise above its means and capture a championship. They no longer have to put up with a frustrating ownership, an organization so dysfunctional that you’d almost wish they wouldn’t win, because then they might think they were doing it right all along. They can be Nets fans, if they want to be.

And this would be the time to do it. Before the Nets become too good and then you look like a bandwagon fan. Just after the Knicks throw away a perfectly good bargaining chip — not to mention basketball player — after years of spending recklessly.

So what’s a New York basketball fan to do? Keep rooting for a team that seems intent on letting the fans down? Or go in a new direction, spurning the unfeeling monstrosity that is James Dolan and turning over a new sports leaf? With emotions running high over Lin and the introduction of the new team in (my hometown of) Brooklyn, fans all over the city are choosing the latter over the former.

I, for one, will not be able to do it. The reasons to switch are perfectly valid, and I won’t blame anyone who goes through with it, exchanging orange and blue for white and black. But as a young sports fan, I spent too many hours shooting hoops while whispering the epic radio call “And he’s done it! Eric Goldschein has brought the Knicks their first NBA championship in over 40 years!” I shed too many tears, and defended my team against too many adversaries, and bought too many hats and t-shirts and jerseys and posters, and scribbled the Knicks logo into too many school binders, and cursed Reggie Miller and Tim Hardaway too many times to give up now.

The Knicks are a dysfunctional mess, and they have been for many years. But I am used to their crazy. I am accustomed to this heartbreak. I’m too invested to give up now — horrible ownership be damned. I’m only in my 20s, but as a Knicks fan, my mind is old. And I’m too set in my ways at this point to start changing my rooting interest now.

Plus, if the Knicks somehow, despite their awful ownership, ended up winning a title before my “new” team, I’d jump off the Verrazano Bridge. And I don’t want to do that. I’m a Knicks fan, I gotta stay true. And alive.

Follow @ericgoldschein

Michael Teo

Linsanity has been transported to Houston. Lin’s out of Knicksnow.
Hugh Warmisham

American’s are so fickle. You never find a Brit changing teams!
Anonymous

…Thats because if they did they would lose there TEETH Insurance coverage…LOL…
http://profile.yahoo.com/3VJ7BFMP67FGDDL3CSEQTZQTYM Colette

Isn’t the definition of insanity making the same mistakes over & over again, yet expecting a different result? I am a lifelong New Yorker who has been a Knicks fan since the mid to late 70′s. I have sat in the Garden & watched Earl Monroe & Walt Frazier, when they played for the Knicks. I worked, as a 14,15 & 16 yr old, bagging groceries in the A&P on 68th St & B’way & using my earnings many times for Knicks tickets. It was so much fun being a Knicks fan. Then, in the last decade, I have watched one horrendous mistake after another, yet I still remained a fan. Then, suddenly, this past season, the Knicks had 2 unexpected miracles fall into their laps…Iman Shumpert & Jeremy Lin. Being a Knick fan was exciting again. The season was over, yet there was alot to be excited about for the coming season. Then, the stories about going for Nash started & I’m thinking… again we are going the route of a player who is the 11th hour of his career? We’re actually talking about giving him a contract that brings him to age 42?? Then, the Knicks propose an offer that would include trading away one of the past season’s unexpected miracles, Iman Shumpert, & I’m flabbergasted. That bullet got dodged & Iman is still a Knick. Suddenly there is Jason Kidd, not on the horizon, but in a Knicks jersey. But, with him came the man’s realistic reality that he is 40 yrs. old & chose to come to NY to be J. Lin’s back up & be his mentor. The value of that was boundless & immeasureable. The Knicks finally, at long last, appeared ready to be a contender again.

Then, in the matter of days, it all falls apart. Kidd had a plan to back up & mentor Lin. Now, where is he?? Would he have planned to come to NY if it was to be back up for Feldon & to be Feldon’s mentor? I doubt it. Now how happy, being a Knick, will Kidd be & the season hasn’t even started. And Feldon?? Is he going to be the point guard that brings the Knicks into championship contention this year or any year? No!

Despite never caring about spending exorbitant amounts of money before, Dolan slams the door on the 2nd miracle that fell into his lap last season. Jeremy Lin was gone; leaving Knick fans stunned & shaking their heads.

Time after time, we have seen one expensive mistake after another; yet there was still hope that one day a miracle would happen. The miracle came & now is gone…just like that.

No longer can I watch the definition of insanity…mistake after mistake & hope for a different result.There are people who, consciously or not, continually make decisions that undermine their chance for success. Mr. Dolan, owner of the Knicks, appears to one of those individuals.
James from New Jersey

If you think this is tough for New York fans, try the question for New Jersey ones. Personally I’ve been a Nets fan since Jason Kidd came to New Jersey (didn’t care much for the NBA before that, I’m only 19), but this whole move to Brooklyn feels like a big stab in the back. I’m not talking a little slip with a fork in a little fleshy area stab, I’m talking maniac with a spear comes out of nowhere and shanks you then pulls the spear out and plunged it through your shoulder causing it to be forced ajar and slice through one of your lungs, then the maniac leaves to let you die from either asphyxiation or internal bleeding, whichever comes first. On top of this, they go and change the colors they’d worn since their inception as the New Jersey Americans in the beginning of their ABA days to a soulless and boring black and white, which I find highly disrespectful to New Jerseyian fans and the whole history of the franchise up to this point. After this they turn around and make a trade for Joe Johnson who will make the Nets a winning team, with a deal they could have just as easily made last year in New Jersey and actually have done something their last season here (like make the playoffs, compete for a championship, and give fans a reason to come to games so as to not make us look so bad) but they chose to wait. But no, they waited and decided to allow the team to lose that season and win the following in Brooklyn, making us look worse.

Enter the Knicks, I franchise I honestly never cared for. I never gave much thought to rooting for them, but then they went and signed Jason Kidd, who was our Michael Jordan as New Jersey sports fans. The best part: Kidd hasn’t a great deal to offer as a player should he come off the bench, and as a voice in the locker room and for other off the court things there are other players on the free agent market such as Derek Fisher who can offer the same for a lower price (and have proven to be fairly effective as a back up point guard). But instead they elect to sign the a more expensive and potentially ineffective Jason Kidd, why would they do this? A logical explanation would be to attract fans from New Jersey. True Jason Kidd may not actually play for the Knicks due to this DWI charge, but that certainly says this franchise wants us as fans which is more then the Brooklyn Nets (who I consider a different entity then the New Jersey Nets since there doesn’t seem to be much about them that’s the same) have remotely conveyed (I don’t care what they said or did as the New Jersey Nets because they were still in New Jersey and had to act accordingly).

I personally am considering rooting for neither of them in favor of a non-local team. There are a lot of old NJ Nets alumni out there like Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson, Kenyon Martin, hell ever role players like Jason Collins who may not have much time left as NBA players and unlike Jason Kidd DON’T have a ring yet. I’d certainly like to see them get one before they retire. If the team I want to win a championship the most is one of their teams it’s only natural that I become a fan of said team isn’t it? Since VC and K-Mart have the least time left I want to see them get one first.

So what’s a Jersey guy to do? For New Yorkers the question is quite honestly just who’s gonna win more. For us on the other hand we don’t have a team to our name anymore, sure the Nets are gonna be on TV in our parts and some may even find Brooklyn close enough to attend a game every once in a while, but the fact remains that they relocated, they chose Brooklyn over us and therefore betrayed us. I don’t care if they called themselves the New York Nets and played a centimeter over half way through the Lincoln tunnel (no matter how well playing in a dirty hole under a filthy river suits a bunch of rotten traitors like them) a relocation is a relocation and should be treated as such. The Knicks who have shown in their actions that they want us as fans more then the Nets do, are making it tempting to root for them at least until Jason Kidd retires. Even if they’re the ones that want us the most, the question comes are they the ones we want to root for the most? But then again I personally haven’t ever seriously rooted for another NBA team in my life, and on top of that there is still a pretty good chance that New Jersey could have a team of it’s again someday, Adam Silver who is likely to become NBA commissioner after Davey boy finally retires has said that he would absolutely like to see another team in New Jersey, but he also said “let’s focus on getting the second New York area team on it’s feet before worrying about a third”. I’m sure I’m not the only person in NJ who would love a new team, and if continuing our support for the Nets helps in some way to get this team I would certainly say it’s worth doing something to pump money into a team I don’t really like very much anymore. This is an even harder decision for us.

Knicks Fans’ Dilemma: Should We Stay Or Should We Go Now?

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