Though Monday morning should really be a time to celebrate the Knicks’ first win of the 2005-2006 season, as befitting the totally negative vibe permeating CSTB, I’ll instead highlight Andrew Marchand’s columin in today’s NY Post, in which fashion plate/ verbal gymnast Walt Frazier takes a slap or two.
After seeing replays of Eddy Curry’s dumb technical foul late Friday night against Golden State that was the key to the Knicks dropping to 0-5, Frazier said Curry punched the ball “inadvertently.”
That commentary, as Clyde (above) might say, was dreadful and regretful.
Any Knick fan watching knew Curry ” frustrated about being fouled on a putback with 3:10 remaining in a tie game ” purposely slapped the ball and it hit Derek Fisher’s face.
Curry may not have intended to nail Fisher, but he obviously was trying to hit the ball.
Fisher made the technical foul shot and the Knicks’ lost by two ” and it would have been one if not for a made Golden State free throw with 11.6 seconds left. Frazier compounded his “inadvertent” mistake by not even indicating how awful a time it was to pick up a technical. He and play-by-player Gus Johnson treated the mistake in ho-hum fashion.
At least Frazier didn’t make excuses for Curry, like Johnson did. Johnson said Curry had been “pushed, pulled and basically mauled” on the block as if those were good enough reasons for a player on a reeling, winless team to give away a free point late in a tie game.
It was see-no-evil coverage straight out of Jim Dolan’s TV playbook.
Frazier, in his 17th season as a Knick broadcaster, can be entertaining sometimes with his rhymes, but overall he is a lot less consistent as an analyst than he was as a player.
Right before tipoff on Friday, Frazier said, “It is the second consecutive game that [the Knicks] have had the same lineup, so chemistry should not be a problem now.”
On the first offensive sequence of the game ” moments later! ” after Jamal Crawford threw away a pass intended for Antonio Davis, Frazier said, “That’s the chemistry problem.”