Lebron Watch 2010:

I hate to be one more voice talking about Lebron but I have a real problem with the way people were talking about Lebron and his presumed Knicks supporting cast. How is the Cleveland supporting cast any better? "All-stars" Jamison and Williams only play well when Lebron is playing well, and if Lebron is playing well they're probably gonna win anyway. Now that there is a chance that Lebron is leaving everyone, from the guys on PTI to Dan Patrick from Sports Illustrated, is saying they'd be lucky to win 25 games without Lebron.

I'm gonna sound like a big homer but, the Knicks won 29 games with David Lee as their best player. You're telling me that if we bring back most of the same rotation guys and upgrade David Lee to Chris Bosh that wouldn't be a better team than the Cavs? At least they'd be able to hit their threes.

With the obvious exception of Chicago, the Knicks can offer a better supporting cast than any other team with cap space. When are people gonna start saying it?

Five Favs

A few days ago I wrote a post that challenged the idea that Lebron would be able to win me over as the greatest knick right away. The first ring since 1973 would go a long way in doing that, but if there’s one thing I pride myself on it’s my sense of NBA history. I love how story lines and narratives develop in this league. I love reading about rivalries and players’ journeys to the pros. The storylines are what make the NBA great. With that said I’ve decided to list my top five favorite Knicks of all-time. As I am still relatively young this list will be slanted to the more recent Knicks who I have seen play (sorry Pearl and Clyde). These are the guys who Lebron will have to compete against to win my heart over.

5. Larry Johnson

No player has ever been more defined by one play in my eyes. After a decade of torturous losses at the hands of Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers (the most dramatic are shown in the great ESPN documentary Winning Time) the Knicks finally pulled off a dramatic last minute miracle play of their own. I was in fifth grade when the 1998-99 Knicks made their run to the finals, and they are still the only 8^th seed to ever reach the NBA finals. On no day of school that I can remember were my classmates and I united in a single gesture. The day after Larry Johnson’s amazing four-point play every single kid in school put his left fist on his right elbow to make the “L” symbol that LJ flashed to the crowd after every big shot. LJ may have been overpaid and he may have been a disappointment considering his potential, but he was an undersized cubby power forward with a sweet stroke who shined in one of the most memorable moments of my basketball watching career.

4. Charles Oakley

Everyone loves hockey for the fights. The bruisers and bashers and goons are always my favorite players. Charles Oakley was a goon. If anyone messed with Gretzky they would have to answer to Dave Semenko when the Bad Boy Pistons implemented the Jordan rules Oakley was there to serve and protect. It’s safe to say that Oakley was one bad motherfucker. Just a few random thoughts on why I love Charles Oakley.

• the only NBA player I’ve ever heard be compared to Shaft.
• best friends with Michael Jordan.
• At age 44 he was still playing hardball with teams. Trying to make an NBA comeback, he said he’s "not coming back cheap." He called out specific teams in 2007 (Dallas,New York) saying they need him to solve their softness issues.
• The only guy who stood up to Shaq and who I would take in a cage match between the two.
• One of the best mug shots of all-time.

3. Patrick Ewing

Out of all the great players never to win a ring (Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Elgin Baylor) I feel the worst for Ewing. None of those other players had to deal with the same scrutiny or the same level of blame that Ewing had to deal with. Part of it was that he didn’t have as charismatic a personality as Barkley, and part of it was that next to Philadelphia, New York is the hardest city to play in. If he didn’t have the injury problems, or if John Starks hadn’t sucked it up so bad in game 7 of the 94 finals, we would be looking at his career much differently. Patrick Ewing in his prime could stand next to any center in NBA history. He had great moves around the basket, a great face up game, and was one of the best defenders of the 1990’s. His biggest problem was this guy who wore #23. His roles in Space Jam and the Exorcist 3 are two of the great NBA cameos. I’ll leave you with this.

2. Willis Reed

The Captain is the only player on this list who I have not actually seen play in a real time game. But like I said I have a deep love for NBA history, and anyone who knows anytime about Knicks history has to appreciate the Captain. He was the MVP of the only two Knicks titles ever, and he was at the center of the greatest moment in NBA finals history, limping out on the court scoring the first basket of the game and then shutting down Wilt for the rest of the game. Willis Reed is probably the greatest Knick of all-time and it’ll take Lebron at least three rings to oust him from that position.

1. John Starks

Starks is far from the greatest Knick of all-time, but he is by far my favorite. He had to work for everything he got. Despite his legendary horrid shooting in game 7 of ’94, which probably cost Ewing his ring, he still gets my vote as my favorite Knick. No one ever played harder or had more fire. He was bagging groceries in Oklahoma for years before he played basketball at community college. He went undrafted, played in the CBA and the WBL, and the only reason he didn’t get cut from the Knicks was because Ewing laid him out and the team was legally forced to keep him. He was one of the best at guarding Jordan and The dunk will go down as one of the great Knicks playoff moments. He wasn’t as skilled as the other players on this list, he just wanted it more, and that’s something I respect.

The Arguments Against Lebron

I am a Knicks fan. I would not have a blog entitled Knickerbocker Nation if I did not think that America would have a better reputation around the world if they would just stop pussyfooting around and change the name of the country from The United States of America to The United States of Patrick Ewing. I, like many Knick fans, have suffered untold sleepless nights haunted by visions of Isaiah Thomas and Scott Layden standing over Willis Reed’s bloodied and beaten body holding billy clubs labeled “Alan Houston’s Contract” and “Eddy Curry’s whole life.” Obviously as a Knicks fan I want them to do anything they can do to win a championship before I die, but in the constant pursuit of Lebron I’ve started to have doubts as to whether or not the King is what I really want. Let me explain.

Lebron James is arguably the best basketball player in the world. He’s won back-to-back MVPs, has been a finals runner-up, and a fantasy league stud since his rookie year. Bottom line: Lebon James is a great-fuckin-ball player, and anyone who says they don’t want them on their team needs to have their head examined. I’m not saying I don’t want Lebron James to be wearing the Blue and Orange this fall, but all I’m saying is there are some (sort of) compelling cases against him.

1. The 2008 Celtics Argument.

I am a fan of certain players in the NBA. I love watching the Spurs, because I can’t help myself; I love the Big Fundamental. As much as I hate the Celtics, I love Rasheed Wallace. I love seeing Gilbert Arenas do just about anything. I love some individual players on other teams, but as it should be: the team always comes first. Emotional connections to the team will always overrule connections to a player, which is why as much as I love all those players I mentioned, they will never hold a place in my heart next to the likes of John Starks, Patrick Ewing, or Charles Oakley. These guys all spent time on other franchises but no one in their right mind would call them anything other than New York Knicks. They were bread by the Knicks and they look weird in anything other than Blue and Orange, which brings me to the 2008 Celtics argument.

I’ve always complained about Baseball, (for many reasons but) specifically the fact that because of the lack of a salary cap, big market teams simply go out and buy players. That’s fine. Those teams use their resources as best they can to build a winner, but how much of an emotional connection do Yankees fans have to Johnny Damon? It’s an inherent problem with free agents in general, they are essentially mercenaries, and mercenaries will never be as lovable as home bread players. In the summer of 2007 the Celtics completely remade their team. Trades brought Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. Free agent signings brought in everybody else. Out of the fifteen roster spots on an NBA team only six were filled by returning players in 2008. At the start of the 2007-2008 season nine out of fifteen players were brand spankin new. Sixty percent of the Celtics were new faces. As much as I’m sure Boston fans loved seeing them hoist the trophy at the end of the finals, apart from Paul Pierce, how emotionally connected were they to those players?

I would love Lebron to come to NYC, and if he does come, along with a Bosh or a Boozer and they go far into the playoffs I will be more happy than I’ve been since June of 1999, but it won’t feel the same. I’ll feel kind of dirty like I just went out and paid for a hooker. In 1999 I felt like I had drafted a hooker in 1985 and she was finally giving me that blow job she’d been promising me (of course she’d leave me with blue balls, but that’s another story). What I’m saying is this, I would love to have Lebron come in and save New York basketball, but even if he comes in and wins a title right away, he’s gonna have to earn the label of greatest Knick of all time, because the Captain’s shadow isn’t going anywhere. (Lebron’s elbow? Pah-leeeese! Reed took Wilt Chamberlin out of the game on a broken foot!)

2. The Villain Argument

Cleveland… oh Cleveland. This video can sum it up way better than I ever could. The thing is I, like most people, just feel bad for Cleveland. At least other dying industrial cities have some bright spots. Detroit can look back on history. They have the bad boys, the 2004 finals upset, Motown, Eminem. Cleveland has…Drew Carey? Their history is filled with depressing sports collapses, Michael Jordan miracle shots, Brad Daugherty’s back, and the fact that it’s fucking Cleveland.

All that said, I’m just not sure I’m ready for New York to be vilified in the media once again. It would simply be a BS story about how the big bad city shat on the sad pathetic people of Cleveland and yet again destroyed their only hope of having a reason not to kill themselves. Wherever Lebron goes is going to be the enemy of the state of Ohio for years to come, and if it’s New York the media will pay no attention to the scores of Knicks fans that have been in pain since 1973. New York is supposed to be a basketball mecca, yet it can’t seem to put a winning team together. We’ve spent enough time being the doormat of the NBA, I don’t want us to spend the next ten years being the villain.

3. The Winner Argument

This argument is a weak one so I won’t spend too much time on it. Many people stated questioning Lebron’s competitive spirit after these playoffs. I’ve heard commentators call him the second coming of Dominique Wilkins. Bill Simmons said that Lebron is more like Dr. J than Jordan or Magic. They say maybe he just isn’t a “winner” like Jordan, Magic, Bird, or Kobe. This argument seems like it might be true considering how Lebron’s playoff trips have turned out the last few years. But all you have to do to debunk this argument is to look at his supporting cast. When Lebron is not carrying his team single handedly who can pick it up? Mo Williams? I don’t think so. The Cavs have no one else. Jamison is a classic big numbers on a bad team guy. Shaq and Big Z are clinically diseased. Varejao can’t shoot. Lebron’s team sucks. The 2004-2005 Lakers had a comparable team. Kobe had two “all-star” talents in Caron Butler and Lamar Odom, a bunch of role players, and over the hill vets just like Lebron. They won 34 games and missed the playoffs altogether. Lebron just needs to find his Pippin. Kobe has found his. Once Lebron joins forces with a real second banana, this stupid argument will die.

Conclusion: After all is said and done I will still gladly fight any member of the Cleveland City Hall in a thunderdome two-men-enter-one-man-leaves cage fight to the death for the right to have Lebron on the Knicks.

The Knicks of 2010-11:

C- Earl Barron
F- Chris Bosh
F- Lebron James
G – Ray Allen (mid-level exception)
G – Tony Douglas
Bench: Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Bill Walker

This may not be a championship contender, but it’s a damn good start, and once Eddy Curry’s contract comes of the books in 2011 we’ll be able to fill this team out with the Horace Grant/Derek Fisher/Robert Horry players that LBJ has never had, and then everyone can shut the door on Isaiah Thomas forever, and all the posers who live in Middle America, but are still Yankees fans can start buying Knicks gear and making it all the more inevitable that the Knicks stop caring about luxury tax altogether and Chirs Paul, Lebron James, and Chirs Bosh all play in NYC in 2013.