If you didn’t think I was a little weird already, you will after reading this. Bear with me, though, because I swear this team was the best thing going on league pass for one season.
Isiah Thomas Knicks (2003-2008)
The Isiah Thomas Knicks… the NBA’s biggest disaster of the past decade, no doubt (the current Cavs don’t have sh!t on this team, I don’t care if they don’t win again all season). Thirty million bucks were given to this guy, for christ’s sake. This era of Knicks basketball actually set the franchise back about three years. Thomas was let go in 2008, and in 2011, one of his biggest mistakes has finally transformed into an asset. The asset I speak of is Eddy Curry, a player who hasn’t contributed since 2008, the infamously unproductive big man for whom Isiah traded multiple lottery picks. Curry’s massive contract is now a great trading chip as it is in it’s final year. The Knicks could use Curry, who is owed 11 million dollars this season, to acquire a player of value by sending him to a team which is looking to clear out some cap space. Even if the Knicks are unable to trade Curry, at least he’s a goner at the end of the season, leaving Wilson Chandler as the only remaining player who was brought in by Thomas.
What good can I possibly have to say about a team that never even accomplished a .500 record, a team that became nothing but a punch line by the time it was disassembled? Well, in the eyes of a basketball fan who had no rooting interest in the Knicks and no concern regarding the well being of the franchise… one of Thomas’ Knicks teams was extremely fun to watch. You probably have no idea which crappy squad I’m talking about as I think only myself and some of the hardest of hardcore Knicks fans watched these guys. I’m speaking of the ’06/07 version of Zeke’s Knicks. I swear, this had to be the most interesting 33-49 team in the history of the league. These guys began and ended the season with a couple of thrilling one-point victories, the opener going to three OTs and the closer finishing up with a game-winning tip in at the buzzer. In between, they lost 49 times. Well that doesn’t sound very exciting… at least not until you consider that 26 of those losses were by single digits, and ten of ‘em were by a single bucket. They made sure the wins were dramatic too. Ten of their 33 victories were by three points or less. That means a total of 20 games were decided by one basket… I don’t have a stat on this, but that seems like it’s probably an above average figure. The ’06/07 Knicks did lead the league in turnovers and finish 20th in scoring (I never said it was pretty, just entertaining), but a good finish is a good finish. Here are a few examples… I was lucky enough to see almost every single one of these games live on TV:
On top of all of that, Jamal Crawford had one of the most incredible individual performances I’ve ever been lucky enough to witness. If I remember correctly he made something like 14 shots in a row (uh oh, my memory failed me, it was 16) as he dropped 52 points on the Heat…
Ok, so those videos are cool and all, but that’s 8 out of 82 games. What about the other 74? Well… I feel like admitting this could hurt my credibility, but f@ck it… I loved watching Eddy Curry play in ’06/07. He didn’t rebound and he couldn’t guard an orange traffic cone, but damn, he was a monster scoring the ball in the post. Absolutely unstoppable. He managed to stay healthy and play 81 games. He averaged 19.5 PPG on 57.6 percent shooting. He dropped 30 six times, and even had a 43-pointer. I remember arguing his case for an All-Star appearance and not even feeling like a complete moron, although that was probably a bit of a stretch considering how one dimensional his game was. In addition to Curry there was Jamal Crawford, his old buddy from Chicago. They actually had great chemistry and were always teaming up for alley-oops (Eddy got up pretty good for a dude who wasn’t in the best of shape). I always wanted to be a 5’7 white version of Crawford. Back when this team was together I was still in highschool, so I was convinced that I would make that happen. Ah, the good ol’ days. I remember getting his jersey for Christmas. Yeah, I was that kid who wore a Jamal Crawford jersey to school and had everybody informing me that “the Knicks suck!” and asking “who’s Crawford?”
After 06/07 I didn’t watch the Knicks nearly as often. I had moved on to another team that will be featured in a future post. After his breakout season, Curry fizzled, and the team was downright awful. They added Zach Randolph, the exact opposite of the type of player who you would want to combine with a then relevant Eddy Curry, and they won just 23 games. This was rock bottom. I will say that they did provide some of the finest unintentional comedy the league had to offer that year…
Yeah… not even I can really put a positive twist on that season. It was really, really, reeeeally bad, and Zeke’s time with the team would finally come to and end. He was replaced as director of basketball operations by Donnie Walsh and then fired from his coaching job shortly thereafter. The Mike D’Antoni era began in ’08/09, and assuming the Knicks don’t go through some sort of epic meltdown to finish off this season, New York will finally return to the playoffs for the first time since ’04. I’m happy for the fans, but I miss that ’06/07 squad. What a fun ride that was… an unsuccessful one, but who the f@ck cares… I’m not a Knicks fan.
In before Warriors