Don't Want The Score Run Up -- Don't Suck / My Take on the Imus Fiasco

"I think they were definitely trying to rub it in," said Knicks center Eddy Curry after New York's loss to the Bulls on Tuesday night. The 98-69 defeat was the Knicks worst loss of the season. Knicks guard Steve Francis also echoed that sentiment, saying "As a veteran, I have been in the league long enough, and I know when people are trying to run up the score on you...And I told their players, if I was in the game, it would've been something different. If it was a threat or whatever, I'm a veteran. I won't do that to nobody, and I don't expect nobody to try to do that to younger players on my team, so that's what it was."

Give me a break. Besides the fact that the Bulls only scored 20 points in the 4th quarter, you are NBA players who deserved to be embarrassed. Quite frankly, you have given no joy to your fans this season. You fought so hard to get your coach fired last year, and got the man that you wanted on the bench. Then, once he got his contract extension, you quit on him just like you quit on Larry Brown last year.

As a Knicks fan, this makes me sick. The New York Knicks used to be one of the most elite franchises in the NBA. They would make the playoffs just about every season in the late 1980's and 1990's. Then James Dolan purchased the team and proceeded to systematically run it into the ground. He put all of his faith in a man that has ruined everything he has put his hands on since retirement -- the Toronto Raptors and the C.B.A. to name a few. He has overhauled the roster with a few has-beens (Marbury and Francis), a never-was (Crawford), a napoleonic punk who cares more about showboating and starting fights than playing basketball (Robinson) and someone who belongs in fat camp instead of on a basketball court (Curry). If the Bulls had scored 100 points on Tuesday night, all fans in attendance would have received a free Big Mac from McDonald's. I have no doubt that if Chicago reached triple digits, Curry would have stood outside the United Center trying to steal ticket stubs from members of the crowd. (In all fairness to Curry, he is having the best season of his career. The stats do not show how he is a defensive liability and gets winded in the 4th quarter).

This team is a bunch of whiny babies. You are in the NBA!!! Here's an idea...don't score 10 points the first quarter and you won't get creamed like you did on Tuesday night. If you are this bad, and show this much lack of effort, than you deserve to lose by 40 every night.

Was there complaining like this last season under Larry Brown? Of course there was. But this season, we have clearly learned that it's not the coach, it's the players. The team quit last year, and they have quit this year. Hey, whining and complaining is a lot easier than winning in the NBA. Until the Knicks can Isiah and Steve Mills (the MSG President who convinced Dolan to hire Isiah and put his unequivocal trust in the new GM), than the Knicks will continue to epitomize mediocrity in the eastern conference. I have no doubt that if Larry Brown were still the coach, and were allowed to have personnel moves, the Knicks would be getting ready for the playoffs. Unfortunately, for Knicks fans, the end is not in sight.

**********

I am sorry, I have to put my two cents in about this whole Don Imus controversy (despite being even more overplayed in the media than the Anna Nicole story). Imus said a despicable thing, using racial stereotypes for a quick joke. Personally, I do not believe that he should have been fired. CBS and MSNBC have paid Imus to say outrageous things on the radio for decades. Naturally, he will occasionally cross the line, and he has several times in the past. It seems that the firings were for more than this one comment; they reflect punishment for Imus's prior comments as well. Yet, to the extent of my knowledge, he was never warned by the networks to tone down his act. As long as he brought in money, his conduct was implicitly approved by his employers. While the loss of advertisers was also a factor, Imus's program made the most money for CBS Radio -- undoubtedly he would have continued to be a profit center.

Yet I can't argue with CBS or MSNBC's decisions. I cannot fathom the effect that the hurtful remarks had on the women from Rutgers who Imus offended, and the effect that the comments had on the African American community as a whole. I will, however, complain that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were essentially able to decide what constitutes an indecent comment. Jackson once referred to New York City as "Hymietown." These men are hate pimps - they look to interject themselves in, and outright exploit situations like this for one reason - to get money and publicity. Their opinion is even more hypocritical since both men vilified the Duke lacrosse players in the media as soon as indictments were handed down. The Duke lacrosse players who were cleared of charges--deemed INNOCENT from the State of North Carolina--deserve an apology from Sharpton and Jackson. Until they do, we should view their opinions with a large grain of salt. To me, the calls from other African American leaders, including National Association of Black Journalists President Bryan Monroe, Presidential candidate Barack Obama, former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp. Bruce Gordon, and Today Show co-host Al Roker for Imus to be fired were considerably more meaningful.

I sincerely hope that this is the last serious post that I make on this blog.

-Brett