Rant #209: An Atrocity

My son and I went to our second, and last, Knicks game of the year at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, March 6.

To say that the game was an atrocity was actually being kind.

I am willing to bet that in the long annals of history of Madison Square Garden, this would have to go down as one of the 10 worst games ever played at the venerable arena.

The Knicks lost to the lowly New Jersey Nets, 113-93. The Nets, that perpetually vagabond team that will be playing in Newark next season and hopes to someday play in Brooklyn, had won only six games the entire season before facing the Knicks.

Well, after the game, they had won their seventh game, and won it going away.

On Latino Night, the crowd booed the Knicks throughout the game, and you needn't have been bilingual to understand that the boos were derisive.

I mean, the Knicks stink.

At least I can say that we were at a game that set an NBA record. The Knicks missed 18 three-point shots, which is the new record.

And, oh yes, we also got some boxing and wrestling during the game, as to the right of us, there was a fight between some drunks.

No, there is never a dull moment at a Knicks game, even if the excitement is in the stands, and not on the court.

And even though management feels that they have the fans on their side in their long-winded trek to reserve salary space for at least one major superstar signing during the summer, they don't have as much support as they feel that they do.

Don't ask the corporate types in the lower regions of the Garden, who are only at the game to be seen and probably got their tickets as freebies; ask people like me who sat up in Section 415, because let's be honest about it, we're more honest; we're closer to God.

The Knicks are a fraud, and until the thinking changes about what to do to bring this team back to where it should be, it will remain a fraud.

I ask for the upteenth time: what happens if they don't sign Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, or any other major free agent?

Donnie Walsh, the GM who is way past his glory years in this game, and Mike D'Antoni, the coach who somehow got suckered into this deal, are the main culprits in this mess. Walsh even bought himself more time the other day when he said that the plans the Knicks have don't just end in 2010, they might have to stretch into 2011.

Of course, his, and D'Antoni's, contracts end in 2011, so they may be leaving here having accomplished nothing.

What my son and I and a house that was maybe three-quarters filled saw was what amounted to an expansion team, nothing more.

And they are already selling season tickets for the 2010-2011 season!

For shame, for shame.