Media Day is Here

by Jonathan Macri

Programming note: now that the season is almost upon us, we’ll be ramping back up to more of a regular schedule…so look out for more KFS in your inbox in the coming weeks!

In case you haven’t heard, the President of the United States might be impeached by the time you read this.

(I actually didn’t realize this was a thing that was maybe going to happen until late last week, several days after the story broke. That’s what happens when you live in a blue & orange bubble and have a 3-year-old occupying the rest of your free time. Rest assured though, if Grover had misplaced his bicycle, I’d be all over it.)

This isn’t altogether surprising. The political climate between opposing factions in this country has reached fever levels before, going back to before we were actually a country, but the tension in Washington between Democrats and Republicans over the last few years might be at an all-time high. It should shock no one that this latest mess is coming to a head so quickly, and that this stands to get very ugly, very soon.

The middle ground is gone. There is only scorched earth – a battlefield of mud and bodies between opposing trenches.

If this analogy seems a bit over-the-top to you, you probably don’t spend a lot of time on Twitter, where the only thing more divisive than politics might be sports. With pretty much any important issue – climate change, gun control, whether Frank should be in the rotation or not - as far as most folks are concerned, you’re either right, or you’re an asshole.

Knick fans know more than a little about this. To the outside world, you’d have to be an asshole to loyally follow this team through the last two decades.

(I asked my wife once whether she had any belated reservations about marrying a man who thoroughly dedicated his life to something that has been so fruitless, so often. She told me that what I lacked in judgment, I made up for in character. I chose to take this as a positive thing.)

Speaking of things coming to a head, the wisdom (or lack thereof) possessed by every Knick fan who thinks this situation is not only salvageable, but at its most hopeful point in years, has recently been put front and center.

Zach Lowe, who is not only the best basketball analysist we have working right now but arguably its most level-headed, brought down the hammer last week. He called New York’s situation hopeless, proclaiming there to be no light at the end of the tunnel. Things really blew up when Rachel Nichols had Lowe on for a segment on The Jump and then tweeted it, complete with a video montage and sad clown music. OAKAAK Matt Barnes then lit fire to the ashes.

This was perhaps the only appropriate exclamation point on a summer that has seen two sets of adamant talking points emerge about this roster and this franchise.

On one hand, fans are happy that despite June 30 not going as planned, New York is continuing to invest in its youth while at least attempting to create an environment that fosters said development, all without dealing picks and young players or signing bad long term deals.

(This doesn’t apply to all fans, mind you. I’m as guilty as anyone of forgetting that my fellow die-hards on social media are representative of a small portion of the people who nominally root for this team. Is it 5%? 30%? I honestly couldn’t tell you.)

On the other hand, for many in the media - now including Lowe, who is admittedly higher on many of New York’s young players than the general consensus – this summer was the last straw. It was the splash of dirty water from the speeding car onto the drunk who’s been bumping into things and wetting himself, all the while stumbling his way up the block, for the last 20 years now. It was confirmation of everything many have either secretly or openly been thinking: that you reap what you sow, and as currently constituted, the Knicks will forever be doomed.

Democrats and Republicans don’t have anything on this divide. Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), much like Washington, there is no attempt to bridge the gap. There is truth on both sides of the story, and yet the conversation remains shrouded in black and white. If you try to live in the gray and acknowledge both the good and the bad (raises hand glumly from the back of the class), you’re a pariah to all parties.

It is under this guise that the Knicks open training camp to begin their 74th season – the 50th since their first championship, 47th since their last, 20th since their last Finals birth, and first since they tied the franchise record for futility. There is the feeling in the air that you need to choose your battle stations where this team is concerned: Either you’re with us, or you’re against us.

Except the real problem isn’t that everyone’s being a bit close-minded (although that certainly doesn’t help). It’s that each side thinks they have more than enough evidence to support their position. Like any case that doesn’t settle early and eventually winds up in court, there’s discrepancy about what we should take from that evidence, and how much it ultimately matters when rendering a verdict.

At the end of the day, it really comes down to this: you either believe that the last two years represent a gradual cleansing of many of the ills that have plagued this franchise for the last two decades, and that this summer’s shortcomings occurred simply because they didn’t have enough time to make the situation more appealing to a star…or you believe that the rot is in the walls (or more accurately, the owner’s box).

This last point is the true lightning rod. For years we were told that James Dolan just needed to hire the right people and butt out. He’s seemingly done the later for at least five years, and as for the former, you can’t find many people who will say a bad word about Scott Perry. All indications are that there is cohesion between President, GM and coach for the first time in a very, very long time. But over the last few years, the narrative has taken a turn: Dolan’s mere presence is cancerous enough to taint the culture throughout the building.

This, of course, is not quantifiable. People like things they can see and touch. They don’t like amorphous concepts, especially when reported on by people they inherently distrust. This is where the Dolan vs The Media angle comes in, and only adds another layer of complexity to this story. Marc Berman’s "Shot’s Fired”-style article earlier this morning is an indication that one of the themes of today’s media availability will be why the club hasn’t spoken in months.

(On one hand, fans couldn’t care less, because really, what are they going to say that we don’t already know. On the other hand, their silence only only emboldens certain members of the press who feel like the front office is shirking their responsibility.)

Put it all together, and fans are more than comfortable seeking out alternative reasons to explain the recent past than the ones handed to them by major media. More importantly, we want to justify our hope for the future (trust me: I have become very, very good at this). No star has wanted the burden. We just weren’t good enough yet. Perry’s only had two years. They’ve been operating responsibly. They’re financially liquid. They have all their picks. RJ exists. Mitch is a stud. Or my own personal hill to die on, the KP trade was necessary and they got back the most important asset they thought they needed given the readily available information at the time.

There’s probably more I’m forgetting, but to doubters, given how this summer turned out, it’s all lipstick on a pig. To believers, it’s precisely why we shouldn’t take this summer’s failures to heart.

Neither side has the smoking gun. For as much as I believe the latter, I can’t divorce myself from at least acknowledging the former. Consider: at the same day Nets Media Day, we had Lance Thomas glowingly reflecting on his five years as a Knick, while DeAndre Jordan made sure to clarify he was only here for two months. Who’s painting the more accurate picture?

The fact that we don’t know the answer is why, when a few people called me out for not getting on Zach Lowe (who I should in fairness note is the inspiration for why I do what I do), I couldn’t oblige. It’s one thing to believe you’re right - which I do - but it’s another to know for certain the other guy is wrong - which I don’t. I think this eternal struggle between hopes and fears lives inside many a Knick fan. It seems like very few of us acknowledge it though.

Here’s what I am certain of: as long as we continue this conversation (that isn’t really a conversation because it’s just a lot of back and forth yelling), the Knicks lose. At this point, the narrative itself, and the fact that we have to continue hearing about it, is as great an evil as anything.

It’s the reason why, for all the criticism about how they responded to missing out on KD, I’ve maintained that filling the roster with basic competence was the best route. If they win a few games, and the kids look ok in the process, there’s suddenly less reason to talk about whether there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and more reason to simply talk about basketball. For them to have hope for the future, they need to look less hopeless in the present, regardless of how they get there.

So as we wake up this morning and await a day of press conferences that will have more spin than a Whirlpool (because isn’t there always), I’m just happy we can start talking about something different. The Knicks need to get past today and get the hell on the damn court. Then - and only then - will the possibility exist of proving once and for all that this franchise isn’t allergic to winning.

And who knows…if this season goes a little better than we expect, maybe we can start to bridge that divide and have a real conversation about this team, even if the result is simply agreeing to disagree.

Media day is here. Let’s get this baby started.