With the recent firing of Phil Jackson, the New York Knicks have been in the news this past week for what seems to be the only thing they are ever in the news for, and that is being a disaster of a franchise. Along with firing Jackson, they also just took Frank Ntilikina with the eighth overall pick of the draft. I would like to criticize that pick, but that would only be because I have never seen Ntilikina play, and the last time the Knicks drafted someone that high from overseas, it worked out pretty well in the name of Kristaps Porzingis. However, aside from Porzingis, the Knicks have done pretty much nothing right for at least a decade.
Free agency opens tonight, and relatively big names like Blake Griffin, Paul Millsap, and Gordon Hayward will be out there to be had. And I am here to tell you that it would be absolutely shocking if the Knicks somehow were able to even get a meeting with any of those guys, let alone sign them to a contract. The Knicks are much more likely to lose a superstar name (Carmelo Anthony) than they are to add any kind of big name player. The biggest addition they could possibly make at this point seems to be David Griffin, and that would be to replace Phil Jackson. And no matter who they bring in to replace Jackson is going to have a tough time cleaning up the mess that they will inherit.
Right now, assuming Ntilikina signs with the team, the Knicks have nine players under contract for the upcoming season. Carmelo Anthony will make $26 million, and the next highest paid player on the team will be Joakim Noah. Noah will make $17 million next season. Last year, he played in just over half of the team's games and averaged 5 points per game. It gets worse though. Noah will also miss the first 12 games of next season due to a drug suspension. The third highest paid player on the team is Courtney Lee. He will make $11 million and averaged 10 points per game last year. That is $28 million for two players the combined to average 15 points per game.
The only thing the Knicks have going for them right now is Kristaps Porzingis. I was one of the many people that laughed at the team selecting him in the 2015 draft, but so far he has proven me wrong. Aside from that though, the Knicks are a wasteland, and that is unlikely to change any time soon.
Despite this mess, the Knicks franchise is worth over $3 billion. Their owner, James Dolan, is sitting back and watching his bank account grow with no concern whatsoever for the way his team plays. Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is in my opinion the most unlikeable owner in the NBA. His idiotic letter he wrote to Cavs fans when LeBron James signed with the Miami Heat was a joke, and the only reason he has had any success as an owner is that the best basketball player in the world happened to be born and raised in the state that his team plays in. James returned to Cleveland because of his love for his home town and the fans of the Cavaliers. He did not return because of Dan Gilbert. However, despite that, since James did return to Cleveland, Gilbert has been more than willing to spend a ton of money to improve the team, and it paid off when they won a title two seasons ago. That is the difference between Gilbert and Dolan. They both might be totally unlikeable as owners, but at least Gilbert is willing to open his checkbook to put a winning team on the floor. Dolan only cares about making a profit, and he doesn't care what kind of team he sees on the court.
So why is it then that the Knicks continue to be the most valuable franchise in the NBA? This should not be breaking news, but some people just cannot accept the answer. The reason they continue to be so valuable is the fans. Knicks fans keep spending their money on the team, and the team just continues to be a laughingstock. And James Dolan is laughing loudest.
I understand fan loyalty. I understand that it can cloud the vision of people. But I also understand that there needs to be a point where reality comes before loyalty. As a New York Giants fan, I am fully satisfied with the investment of the ownership of the team. It has paid off with two Super Bowl championships in the past decade, and the team went on a spending spree last offseason to try to improve the defense, and it has turned out pretty well so far, as the Giants' defense was one of the best in the NFL last year.
The Diamondbacks have been through some tough times in the past decade, but they opened the checkbook for Zack Greinke, brought him to Arizona, and it showed me as a fan that the team was trying to win. Last season was disappointing, but this year has been great so far. And even if it wasn't great, just the fact that the team was willing to go for the home run and get Greinke made me feel like the front office was at least going all out to do their best to give the fans a winning team.
That has not been the case with the Knicks. Yes, they did spend a lot of money this past offseason, but anyone in their right mind could have told you that spending it on Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose were horrible decisions. Nonetheless, the Knicks continue to make money while the team continues to lose. So while I am not a Knicks fan at all, in fact I think they are a total joke of a franchise and love to see them lose, I do have two suggestions for Knicks fans to try to help them get a realistic grip on their team, and here they are:
First and foremost, Knicks fans need to come to grips with something. The Knicks are not a storied NBA franchise with a place at the top of the history of the NBA mountain. Just because the team plays in New York does not instantaneously make them historically relevant. The Knicks have won the NBA championship twice. The last time that happened was 1973. 1973 is 44 years ago. If you ask most Knicks fans now about the "glory days" of the franchise, they will tell you about the teams of the 1990's. I don't care how many times those teams reached the second round of the playoffs, they won zero. They won nothing. "Epic battles" with the Pacers and the Heat in the 1990's do not mean anything in the NBA record books. Knicks fans for some reason delude themselves into thinking that their team has some sort of rich history of winning, but they really do not. The Knicks were founded in 1946 and have won two titles. The Miami Heat were founded in 1988 and have won three titles.
Just because a team has been around for years and years does not make them historically relevant. Any casual sports fan knows that the Islanders and the Mets are the "second-fiddle" franchises in New York. The Mets were founded in 1962 and have won the World Series twice. So with a 16 year head start, the Knicks have only been able to match the total number of championships that the Mets have won. The New York Islanders were founded in 1972 and have won four Stanley Cups. So the during the real "glory days" of the Knicks, the Islanders were hardly even a real franchise, yet they still have won more titles than the Knicks.
I hate the fact that people refer to the Knicks as a historic franchise. In 2010, when LeBron James was going to be a free agent and possibly leave Cleveland, Knicks fans talked glowingly about how great their organization was and how LeBron would never be able to turn down the lore of playing for such a historically great team. The only problem was, the Knicks are anything but a historically great team. I'm sure there were many other reasons that James decided to sign with the Heat, but that delusional image that Knicks fans had of themselves certainly was one reason.
So, with that rant out of the way, I would like to try to provide a solution to the problems of Knicks fans. Some people have suggested that commissioner Adam Silver needs to step in and take control of the team, but I'm sorry, that is a ludicrous idea. Unless James Dolan and Donald Sterling had some racist and bigoted conversations that were secretly recorded, Dolan is going to remain the owner of the Knicks for as long as he wants to. That means that the only recourse Knicks fans have is to hit Dolan in the wallet, because he has shown over the course of over a decade that that is the only place he cares about.
Like I said before, I understand the concept of loyalty to one's team. It is unrealistic to think that enough Knicks fans will stop spending money on the team to force Dolan to put in any sort of effort. But the fans need to start somewhere. Supposedly, prior to the hiring of Phil Jackson, Knicks fans were planning to protest outside of Madison Square Garden in an attempt to get Dolan's attention. Maybe that would have happened, or maybe it would not. It is a start though.
I am not a supporter of foul language at pro sports games, but if fans could connect with one another on message boards or prior to games or any way they could, try to get chants of "Dolan sucks" or something like that going at as many home games as possible.
I will give Max Kellerman credit on this one, but if somehow fans at any game could organize some sort of walk out during the game, then do that. You don't have to walk out of your seats for the entire game. You purchased a ticket, so you shouldn't waste your money. Coordinate some sort of walk out to begin the second quarter or the second half or something like that. If enough fans got up and walked out of their seats, even if it were only for 10 minutes or so, it could make people notice.
If anyone reads this and wants the Knicks to change their ways, then go to a game next season and pass out fliers to every fan you see at the game. Walk out of your seats at the beginning of the second quarter so Dolan can see all the seats emptying. Maybe you miss a few minutes of the game, but if the fans could somehow come together and do something like that, then maybe it could have some sort of impact. If you want to try to make the people that really matter notice your dissatisfaction, then why not give it a shot?
Some NBA owners are in it to win, and some are in it only to make money, and Dolan is clearly in it only to make money. That means the only way he could be forced to make significant changes is for him to start losing money. Right now, that is not happening. And until that starts to happen, Dolan will continue to put zero effort into putting a contending team on the court. The players and the coaches are doing the best they can to go out there and win every night, but the fans need to realize that they are the ones that truly have the most power in this situation. Until that happens, they will just be disappointed again and again and James Dolan will keep laughing on the way to the bank.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: A blowout loss yesterday to St. Louis was only a blip on the radar, as the Diamondbacks have been on fire pretty much all season. With the All-Star break only about a week and a half away, they open a very big series with the Rockies tonight. Taking two out of the next three games would be huge.
