Though he wastes he best line at the end of the column, as usual (“Dale Davis was acquitted of assault charges stemming from a Miami Beach altercation with police. The police did not comment on the verdict, though they did call off Shaq’s raid of Davis’ house,”), the New York Post’s Peter Vescey takes exception to Isiah Thomas’ recent remarks about the lack of fan support at MSG.
People pay to see positive results, whether it’s stockholders concentrating on board room outcomes (screw up there and see how long you last; blood in, blood out, be good or be gone), or fans focusing on the standings. If the False Prophet wants the Garden crowd to cheer, no matter what, fans ought to be paid the price of the seat, instead of the other way around.
I hate to be the bearer of disenchantment, but it’s the draftsman-coach-historian-lecturer at whom the fans are aiming their wrath.
The False Prophet’s latest sincere sermon-on-the-mount re the “special relationship between the home crowd and home team” (he wishes the Knicks could rely on their crowd as its “best friend”) had me in hysterics.
Concepts don’t come any fresher. Next thing you know, he’ll coin a term, say, “sixth man,” and wish the Knicks could count on the Garden crowd to play that role, something it’d never done before.
If the Knicks don’t get untracked on a consistent basis soon, look for the False Prophet to buy ribbons for the fans that say “support our troops.”
This just in: Donald Rumsfeld sent a memo urging the NBA to re-evaluate its strategy at 33rd and Seventh Avenue.
When the subject is strictly limited to basketball, Thomas has little more credibility with the Journal News’ Mike Doughty.
. I™m a little confused. At yesterday morning™s shoot-around Thomas called Stephon Marbury his best perimeter defender. Really. The words came out exactly like this, and I have witnesses:
œDefensively, he™s been great, but as I said to him, we need everything that you can give to the basketball team. But defensively, he™s been our best perimeter defender, so I have no complaints about him defensively.
The story changed a little before last night™s game when he called Jared Jeffries and Quentin Richardson his best perimeter defenders.
The Willoughby News-Herald’s Bob Finnan has shot down an earlier rumor of a Channing Frye for Drew Gooden deal, though if the Knicks continue to get any sort of consistent production out of Eddy Curry and David Lee, it may only be a matter of time before Thomas tries to package Frye with one of New York’s otherwise immoveable contracts.
Not only does the Nets’ Cliff Robinson accept responsibility for his peripheral role in Headbandgate, but he’s got some advice for Big Ben, delivered via conduit Dave D’Allesandro.
Uncle Cliffy was the guy responsible for getting Ben Wallace into this headband fetish (œI got a lot of guys to wear them, actually) and he understands the guy™s reluctance to part with them.
œBut having said all that, c™mon, now: If it™s a team rule, you™ve got to roll with it, Robinson said.
Roll with it? You expect Ben to roll over like an agreeable Airedale?
œHe™s got 60 million reasons to roll with it! Cliffy cracked. œAnd you never, ever give them any reason to take any of it back.