Along with suggesting in the print edition of Sunday’s Newsday that Channing Frye — who shares an agent with Kobe Bryant — is dishing the dirt about the drama at MSG — Ken Berger, via his NBA Insider blog insists that Bryant’s disinterest in being traded to New York, “should sicken every Knick fan out there and make you reevaluate the direction of your franchise”.
This is extraordinary: The best player in the NBA takes a look at the landscape at the Garden and says, “No, thanks. Too crazy for me.”
It won’t be stunning if the Knicks aren’t able to trade for Kobe. It was always a longshot from the beginning. But the fact that he is ready to thumb his nose at what used to be the most honored stage in basketball is, quite honestly, sickening.
The Bulls and Mavericks are the new 1 and 1a in the Kobe sweepstakes. The Knicks are not on the list, in part because Bryant believes there wouldn’t be enough talent left after the trade. Mostly, though, the message that Kobe is sending out through intermediaries is that he believes the situation at the Garden is too chaotic.
The Knicks’ only chance to get into the Kobe mix is for Isiah to turn on the charm and change his mind. Nobody is better equipped than Isiah to pull that off, but it certainly appears that the odds are stacked firmly against him.
I’m all for Zeke turning on the charm. Just so long as it doesn’t involve a bottle of wine and a DVD of “Love & Basketball”.
While Peter Vescey closed his Friday NY Post column with a handful of brutally funny cruel cheap shots at the expense of the Knicks’ president/head coach (“this just in : to get Al Sharpton off his back, Thomas has promised to apologize to Tawana Brawley”), Sunday’s entry on the life & career of Fuzzy Levane is the sort of thing he does all too rarely. It’s also the type of piece that has the Post’s advertising department pulling their hair out — if you’re familiar with more than half of the players, execs and characters who are name-checked in this particular column, you’re not merely old —- you’ve been dead for 20 years.
>This is extraordinary: The best player in the NBA takes a look at the landscape
>at the Garden and says, “No, thanks. Too crazy for me.â€
Since when is having second thoughts about wanting to play in NYC extraordinary? Just last week people scoffed at the idea of La Russa managing in in NY because of the 24/7 media intensity. Only in New Yorkers seem mystified by this, even in the midst of another non-NY post season of baseball.
it’s a slightly different set of circumstances, Ben. In the case of La Russa, the implication is that he’d struggle with the scrutiny of 8 newspapers and hyper-negative yack radio. On the other hand, no one has claimed Kobe is wary of the media attention — it’s the unstable working environment fostered by Thomas and Dolan that he’s supposedly suspicious of.
Given Bryant’s efforts on the court while in the midst of a high profile rape trial, I don’t see him being scared of Chris Russo. A cursed franchisce, however, he might be very smart to avoid.
“But the fact that he is ready to thumb his nose at what used to be the most honored stage in basketball is, quite honestly, sickening.”
When was that, exactly?