The Knicks

Now that I've endeavored to bring my loyal readers fascinating stories on a daily basis, I'm constantly looking for inspiration. While Tim Tebow and the Republican primary are a fun to write about, I can only produce so much content about them before I feel I start treading on ideas I've already expounded on. With that said, let's turn to the world of sports and my beloved New York Knicks.

For those that don't follow them, the Knicks are off to a sluggish 2-4 start, disappointing for a season when some thought they might be championship contenders. They've looked horrible on both offense and defense at times, and seem to have little idea how to play as a team on either end. Promising neophytes Toney Douglas and Landry Fields have appeared to regress. Free agent center Tyson Chandler has delivered little on his promise to bring interior defense to New York. And lastly, and most troublingly, superstars Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony appear to be uncomfortable playing with each other, instead settling for alternating isolation opportunities. Only rookie Imam Shumpert has played well, though he's gotten hurt in both games he's appeared in.

In my opinion, the problem lies solely with the coaching staff and specifically with head coach Mike D'antoni. In my freshman year at Wisconsin, me and several friends took a bus to Milwaukee to catch a Bucks-Knicks game. During a timeout, my good friend Jake Langbecker, who was wearing a Stephon Marbury jersey, caught Steph's attention during a timeout, and Marbury pointed to him in thanks for his support. Marbury had earned his way into D'antoni's doghouse without even appearing in a regular season game. It would later come out that before that very game, that D'antoni had offered to play Marbury but Marbury refused, the Knicks were shorthanded because they'd made a number of trades earlier in the day that left their roster depleted. Marbury was upset because he'd been benched for the first several games on the season, and never appeared in an another game for the Knicks. I tell this story because the Marbury situation provided my first glimpse of a stubborn coach who burned his bridges with players. He'd repeat the same pattern with Nate Robinson,who responded with a monster game the first time D'antoni allowed him t play after an extended absence, and Chris Duhon, who he benched after he'd been the starter the whole year up to that point.

D'antoni becomes weirdly attached to or angry at players for little discernible reason, but more troubling is his stubbornness when it comes to his gameplan. D'antoni is known as an offensive guru, but he's shown little flair for it this year. His offensive 'genius' has been implied by his uptempo style, but he's never been great at drawing up plays off timeouts, the Knicks often struggle to get the ball to their best players in crunch time, often winding up with Jared Jeffries, an offensive black hole, taking the last shot. Even more frustrating is his insistence that the Knicks switch defensively on every screen, which leads to huge mismatches such as Tyson Chandler on DJ Augustin, a small PG, something I saw with shocking frequency on Wednesday night. I must admit, I liked the idea of D'antoni as coach when he took over in 2007. I thought his uptempo style would be fun to watch, but over the years I've soured on him, and now I think he should be fired.

One thing I've started to come around to in my sports fandom is that I literally have no control. On internet message boards fans become hyperpartisan, I think this is a pointless endeavor. If I disagree with a trade, I still want my team to win, regardless of whether their following my chosen path. I follow sports to emotionally invest myself in something, and like it or not this is where my allegiance lies. I can't change the Knicks, only hope that things get better. And I hope they get better very soon.