In case you weren’t following Twitter last night (or, for that matter, were doing something better with your time than putting your head through the windshield that was last night’s game), here’s a text I sent to our friend Tom Piccolo right before tip-off against the Wizards:
Did I start off the newsletter today with this exchange to pat myself on the back for correctly predicting the Knicks would lose to a team with maybe four real NBA players on the roster, the only decent one of which shot 34 percent from the field on 38 (!) shots?
I only wish I could take the credit. But that would be like a pat on the back for predicting a political discussion at Christmas dinner will turn out poorly. Here at Knicks Film School, there’s no credit given for spelling your name correctly.
No, I actually wanted to highlight Tom’s mindset here, and the fact that he was still cautiously optimistic about what the Knicks could do playing against a team they should have shellacked.
For as much as the last few decades have beaten us all down, that optimism still exists, not in small, eccentric pockets of the fan base, not in the vocal minority, but everywhere. Give us a sliver of daylight and we see the universe, even if we’re in self-deprivation mode the entire time.
We also aren’t dumb. New Yorkers know basketball. We might disagree about stuff - Frank Ntilikina’s ceiling, Fizdale’s culpability, things of that sort - but we take positions confidently and have evidence to back it up. All of us, at one point or another over the last 18 or 12 or even six months, have spent time feeling positive about this organization despite all signs pointing to the insanity of said emotion.
This was true even after June 30. It wasn’t going to be good, but it was going to be decent. It was going to be better. It was going to be watchable.
We took this stance in full cognizance of how bad it’s been for so long. How silly we all are.
If my tone here seems like an overreaction to one night, think again. We’ve relived this exact night…again, and again, and again and again.
This night - the night where the Knicks come out flat on their home court, the Mecca of Basketball that warrants reverence from everyone except the home team, and then make a charge late, only to fall short in the end and then talk about how they “lacked urgency” and how this type of thing is “unacceptable” and “needs to stop”…
This night? I’ve watched this night play out more times than I saw Dawson’s Creek reruns in college. Pacey gets Joey, Dawson gets heartbroken, and the Knicks get the L. The melodrama of the later is only slightly less nauseating than the former, and yet I couldn’t help but watch either one. Comfort is a powerful drug.
As always, after a night like last night, we search for answers. The national media and many local scribes took the bait long ago. “It’s Dolan.” And that’s it. That’s the end of the conversation.
But that response has always been too trite, too simple, and too convenient for me. The Rangers have made the playoffs 11 of the past 15 years. Same building, same ownership mentality, different result. Hell, the 2012-13 Knicks were the precursor to the modern NBA. Dolan may be an insecure, meddlesome, short-tempered man, but when things are working, he usually butts out. They just rarely work (perhaps mostly due to his shortcomings, but still…it shouldn’t be this hard to have a happy accident or two over 20 years, no?)
“It’s Mills.” Ok, fine, yeah…maybe. The evidence is damning. But does the organization have the reputation it does around the league - one which has current and former players cracking jokes openly, and one which contributed to Kyrie Irving pushing hard for Brooklyn to be the metropolitan destination for him and his buddy, something which KD wasn’t about to fight back on - was all that because of Mills? That seems a bit much too.
“It’s the coach.” Yeah, it was…until it wasn’t. The new man may have a plan, but a man with a plan can only do so much when he’s wearing a suit and not a jersey, it seems. And besides, how many coaches have come through here with glittering resumes before and after they left, only to fail when in this spot?
“It’s the roster.” Well sure, because isn’t it always, but how many players do we need to see cycle in and out of this locker room, uttering the same quotes about the same shit, time and time and time again…
…only to see them go elsewhere and play like their pants are on fire?
And this is particularly painful right now because there are good young players here. Mitchell Robinson had six blocks and four offensive rebounds in 23 minutes last night! Damyean Dotson hit half of his 10 threes! Julius Randle had 35 points on 21 shots! RJ Barrett is 19 and did this:
Nobody who played last night is over the age of 25. They’ve all been told for six straight months that they’re the laughingstock of the NBA, and why even bother showing up to work in the morning? If ever there were a season where all 15 guys on the roster played every game like it was there last, it should be this one.
And yet…we got last night. And a handful or two more nights this season which should never happen in any season, let alone this one.
(and save me the line about there being too many one-year contract guys. Randle, despite his nice stat line last night, has more mindless defensive possession this year than the rest of the roster combined. Marcus Morris, meanwhile, is the definition of a mercenary and has been the complete opposite. Besides, this was a collective effort. It always is.)
Which leaves us here. If you’re looking for me to reach a finish line where I magically come up with an answer - heck, even a theory - as to what the root cause of the cancer is, I’m sorry but I have to leave you hanging. There are more culprits here than a Danny Ocean movie.
At this point, parsing out blame seems almost futile. And when that’s the case, when you don’t know which way to turn to point the finger, it’s time to bring in someone with both the freedom to wipe the slate clean and the ability to build it back up again.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t pieces here worth saving. Despite everything I just wrote, I believe there are players here who will be part of the solution, whenever it comes.
But finding that solution seems impossible for the powers that be. Whoever it is that’s capable of doing it needs to have the wherewithal to stand up to Dolan, take full and complete control, and convince him early and often that the Knicks could do what the Rangers have done (and maybe more) if he just lays off, no matter how choppy the waters might get.
And then he actually has to do the job, which maybe isn’t as hard as it seems right now, even after a night like last that set a new definition for rock bottom.
There’s only one man that comes to mind with the gravitas to pull all this off. Dolan’s fetishization of this man shouldn’t be looked at as a curse here, but a gift. We’ve all been burned by saviors before, both those that haven’t come and those who have, but given everything on the table, this is the one time where it seems worth it to lay ourselves bare and actively root for the best in the game to take on the biggest challenge in the sport.
Whatever it costs, whatever it takes, get Masai Ujiri to MSG.
I may not know where the leak is coming from anymore, but I have faith that he will. Maybe that’s the definition of insanity at play once again, but hey…it’s Christmas Eve. If ever there was a day to pray for a savior to arrive and rescue us all from eternal damnation, even if it is about a likely as a man and woman birthing the Son of God without having intercourse, it’s today.
Merry Christmas everyone.