Keidel: Knicks Are Perhaps The Worst Franchise In Pro Sports
By Jason Keidel
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I have a good friend who, like many of you, adores Big Apple sports. Through misfortunes of nature and nurture, he came out a Jets fan.
Quite committed to Gang Green, he pays for the privilege of season tickets, hikes to New Jersey from New York City every other autumn Sunday, only to suffer the ignominy of nearly 50 years sans a Super Bowl.
But the Jets are at least an event, folded into the larger NFL experience, a star on the NFL shield. Football is the rare sport where many people still follow it after their team has been eliminated from contention.
But my friend has suffered the woeful exacta of being a Jets fan and a Knicks fan. As with the former, he pays epic quid to watch the latter in person. While sports fans understand being tethered to an NFL team eight Sundays a year, why would anyone pay to attend the 41 home games of an NBA team that never contends?
This week, The New York Times, noting how typically disastrous this season has been, ran a feature listing the "10 most despairing, demoralizing Knick seasons of all time." The Times added the caveat that "There are so many of them that some didn't make the cut."
The lowlight reel featured the wide palate of disasters from 33rd Street, starting with the 1959-'60 season, and fanning out across the '80s, '90s, and, of course, the most galling epoch of all -- the one we are in today, life since Y2K. Since MSG is pregnant with so many foul memories, you're more than welcome to pick your own. But for the purposes of this piece, let's go with the Times.
What startles the sports fan is how the Knicks are such a study in contrasts. They've turned some of the most iconic names in NBA history -- like Don Nelson, Larry Brown, Isiah Thomas, and Phil Jackson -- into parodies. None of the aforementioned legends left the Knicks (or will leave the Knicks, in Jackson's case) quite as they entered, with their reputations entirely intact. Some failed just at doing their job, while others did all they could to stain their formerly glittering résumés.
Nelson didn't stick around long enough to call it a career, but despite all his coaching success and reputation as an innovator, the Knicks ran Nelson out of town during his maiden campaign (1995-'96) with a record of 35-24. A record, the NY Times properly notes, the Knicks "would now die for."
Before joining the Knicks, Brown was considered a coaching savant. Though a bit eccentric, with a clear streak of wanderlust, Brown was a pure hardwood genius. Until he went 23-59 with the Knicks in 2005-'06.
Before joining the Knicks, Thomas was an adored, minted member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Aside from some dubious comments he made about Larry Bird, his reputation was pretty robust. He wasn't Red Auerbach as coach or general manager, but he didn't embarrass himself during his tenures with the Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers.
Then came the Knicks. You should know the rest. Dreadful personnel moves, from Eddy Curry to Jerome James to Stephon Marbury, were capped by an $11.6 million sexual harassment lawsuit.
Jackson was the leading chin on coaching's Mt. Rushmore. He passed Auerbach for most NBA titles, wrote books, and was hailed as the modern-day coaching monolith, with his own mystical handle, the "Zen Master."
Then came the Knicks. Not only has Jackson done nothing to restore the Knicks to their 1970s glory, he doesn't seem to care. Jackson is more noted for tooling around some log cabin retreat or crafting some bizarre tweet than for drafting or developing NBA talent. Other than backing into basketball unicorn Kristaps Porzingis, Jackson's tenure as Knicks czar is worthy of an immediate coup.
MORE: Schmeelk: Phil Jackson Is Proving To Be Terrible At His Job
In keeping with inverted realities, the Knicks, run so horribly by James Dolan for nearly 20 years, have only grown in value. Well, boomed, really. According to Forbes, the Knicks, despite winning just one playoff series in the last 17 years, are the most valuable team in pro basketball, worth, get this, about $3.3 billion.
Nothing makes sense about the Knicks, from their value to who values them. Like my misguided friend. Like so many fans who still speak of them in reverential terms. Maybe it makes sense with the Knicks that no one sees them for what they are -- perhaps the worst franchise in pro sports.
Please follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
