The Knicks Fix

It’s cold in the desert, man. So cold the tumbleweed have stopped tumbling. Cactus arms are wrapped around itself. It’s so cold here, Randy Johnson’s personality would feel like a cozy fire.

They’re actually excited about the prospect of getting him back here. Even the cameramen.

What do you think Renaldo?

“Aw man, crazy. Just crazy.”

* * *

It’ll be warm in the gym tonight though. Two teams that love to go up-and-down and aren’t concerned about stopping for defense. The Suns lost in Dallas last night. The Knicks are coming off another breathtaking win. Mike D’Antoni was talking about the Knicks even before his team blew a 9-point fourth-quarter lead to the Mavs.

A little cut-and-paste, courtesy of the Arizona Republic:

SNIP

“They're playing well,” D'Antoni said of the Knicks, winners of four of their past five games. “It'll be a hard game for us. They'll be tough.”

UNSNIP

Isiah Thomas returned the exchange of respect when he said the Suns are “just damn good. We’re going to have our hands full in every aspect of the game. I mean, they do everything well.”

Thomas also was giving it up for Steve Nash, my Canadian homeboy who knows his hockey. If the Suns had a shoot-around this morning, I’d have been all up in his grill about the Ottawa Senators getting all the calls against the Islanders the other night. Ted Nolan had a right to go off on that ref.

But since Isiah doesn’t follow much hockey, I let him just talk about Nash.

“He’s good,” Thomas said. “He’s just flat-out good. Left-hand, right-hand. Jump-shot, short-shot. Think the game, see the game. He’s good. I think you have to go, I guess, by the era that you’re in. And in this era, he’s good.”

(In conclusion: Nash, the reigning two-time NBA MVP, is "good".)

* * *

Quentin Richardson did not join the team for the shoot-around. He was face-down on the trainer’s table with a heat-pack on his lower back. Q has been shooting some, but still is dealing with the spasms issue. The Knicks definitely miss him in the lineup and will, most especially, on this trip. But he’s right to take this slow and make sure the back muscles subside.

In the meanwhile, get the word out: The beds at The Conrad hotel in Indianapolis are too soft. That’s what started this whole mess for Q-Rich. Ever sleep on a mattress that is too soft? You can't even walk the next day.

Yo, Conrad Hotels: get a Sleep Number bed for my man Q.

* * *

If you haven't heard it the first 100 times it has appeared in print, Magic Johnson had a brief chat with Stephon Marbury. You’ll keep hearing about this ridiculous notion that Magic’s brief chat with Stephon has led to Stephon’s sudden scoring outburst. This is called getting shelf-life out of an otherwise coincidental occurrence.

But this is where I enjoy Marbury as a subject to cover. He sees this coming from a mile away. Instead of playing along, he fights it head-on. He calls you out for it. That's how it should be.

Stephon reminds me a lot of Rick DiPietro from the Islanders. They are very similar when it comes to their views as athletes and as athletes being covered by reporters.

Stephon was asked this morning about his sudden scoring outbursts and how he scoffed at notions made earlier this season that he lost a step.

“I understand how, from the things that you guys write and from what they read, from not playing well, I would understand why people would say that,” Marbury said. “That doesn’t bother me. I just laugh, really.”

A reporter then reminded Marbury that he has said he can play well without scoring a lot.

“Yeah, but if people don’t understand basketball and the people that are writing don’t understand, they’re not going to understand,” he said. “For me, I really pay no mind to it.”

Do I think you need to have played basketball to cover basketball? No. Do I think it helps? Absolutely. I learned this when I got back into playing ice hockey during my time on the Islanders beat. I saw so many more things I never considered, felt things I never realized a player might feel and had a better understanding for the details of the game that are more important than the damn statistics page.

It definitely gives you a better perspective if you’re covering a competitive sport that you once – at some level – also played competitively. I think, as a rookie on the Knicks beat, my basketball background has helped me make the transition a lot easier than if I was to cover football or – ugh – baseball.

Ugh. Baseball.

* * *

Gotta love Jalen Rose. He was asked if there were any hard feelings toward the Knicks, who waived him at the end of training camp.

“Why?” Rose told the Arizona Republic. “They’re still paying me.”

We should all have it like that, baby.

This was submitted on Christmas Eve and it strangely disappeared from the blog on Dec. 27. Hackers? Blog pirates? Bugs in the system? Perhaps an upset rival seeking revenge?

Here's a re-post, because you know I spent arduous minutes on this. And because I have nothing to offer at this moment, yet you're all clamoring for something new to read.

I'll file after today's shoot-around in Phreezing Phoenix.

Respects to Clement Clarke Moore . . .

Twas the night before Christmas
The Knicks are not playing.
But I’ve got a few things
that I need to be saying:
Isiah Thomas may be hung
in effigy all year long,
but he’s still running this team
until Dolan says he’s gone.
Eddy Curry’s got some game -
Thank God for this -
But was he really worth
two potential lottery picks?
The Kids are all right;
David, Channing and Nate,
but Balkman and Collins
are still up for debate.
Stephon, again adjusting,
was hearing more boos
despite his efforts on defense
and selling affordable shoes.
Way up in the blue seats
there wasn’t much clatter.
Proving sub .500 teams,
in New York, just don’t matter
And I seated at press row -
across from Jimmy D slouched courtside -
figured to settle myself in
for a long, boring ride.
When what do our wondering eyes then behold?
Isiah telling Carmelo: “Don’t go to the hole.”
Melo snaps on Mardy’s flagrant and goes straight-up street,
throws a wild right hook into the Knick rookie’s cheek.
The media scrum was a moshpit of tabloid outrage;
and analysis varied from page to page.
Most of it fair, most of it true,
some of it got a bit too personal, too.
Some took silly shots and would garishly boast
I’m talking about . . . yeah, the paper that rhymes with ‘boast’.
And that instigating Isiah,
His impish smile so quick,
Had ‘em outraged from Wall Street
to 1-2-5 and St. Nick.
(He looks so gentle and sweet
to those who don’t know ‘em.
But he’s got a nasty mean streak;
just ask Bruce Bowen)
More rapid than losses, the fans suddenly showed up
and filled old MSG to see what was up.
Thomas played him a lineup, truncated by bans,
that played inspiring ball which pleased all the fans:
Now Stephon! Now Crawford! Now David and Chan!
On Curry! On Balkman! On . . . Cato? Oh damn!
To the 2-3 zone and the boards you will go,
And just like that, they won three in a row.
Steph beat the Jazz with a last-second flip,
Lee topped the ‘Cats with a miraculous tip.
Against the red-hot Bulls, their rebounding won,
But fatigued in Philly, they just couldn’t run.
Still look at the Division and believe what you hear:
The East is so weak, the Knicks might make the playoffs this year.
So celebrate mediocrity; aim for the .500 notch!
(If anything this team is at least interesting to watch).
I proclaim all of this to you for no other reason,
Merry Christmas, Knicks fans. It’s already been one hell of a season.

Renaldo Balkman is a go-to guy in situations like these. He sat by his locker, checking his BlackBerry when I approached him. He didn't even hear the question. He just shook his head.

"Oh man. Crazy."

It's got to be his go-to quote when something wild happens. But I'm amused by it, so I'll keep going back whenever something like David Lee's game-winning tip with one-tenth of a second left in double-overtime tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats.

Looking to start a little lighthearted trouble, I asked Jamal Crawford, who inbounded The Tip (which from here forth it will be forever known) if it was a perfect pass or a perfect tip. Crawford didn't even look up.

"Both."

So I asked David Lee.

“Oh, perfect pass. Are you kidding me?”

Jamal then chimed in and my plan to get them into a debate worked. Sort of.

“No," Crawford said, "perfect tip.”

Tastes great! Less filling!

“That guy threw it right over Okafor," Lee said, "through Gerald Wallace.”

“This guy tips it with one-tenth with his right hand, going backwards," Crawford said. "How did you even see that?”

“I actually used to be in Cirque-du-Soleil," Lee said. "Don’t write that, I don’t want to hurt my image.”

With that, the debate ended. I felt unfulfilled. Looking for some amusement, I headed to Balkman's locker. But he was gone.

* * * *

Michael Jordan got a rousing standing ovation from the Garden crowd during the second quarter and he gave a polite salute to the fans he once used to terrorize and mesmerize as a player. And while this was going on, Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley, sitting at centercourt, remained seated as they looked at the court and waited for play to resume, as if completely oblivious to the love that was being shown to MJ in their building.

A while later in the game, Ewing and Oakley were shown on the video screen and the Garden cheered again. Ewing waved his arms and pulled Oakley to his feet and the two faced the crowd.

More fun with Michael came later when the Garden scoreboard showed a "memorable moment in Knicks history," which was, of course, John Starks' dunk on Horace Grant and Jordan. Then the scoreboard showed Starks at his seat, looking impishly down at Jordan, who ignored the camera.

Old rivalries never die.

Think anyone in the Denver media is trying to get shelf-life out of the Knicks-Nuggets brawl? The Nuggets organization pulled off a textbook PR move by bringing in A.I. to quickly change the subject. The brawl is already old news everywhere else in the NBA.

Here in New York, the Knicks need the Giants to resurrenct their tabloid-pleasing dysfunction -- Mara's kid decking someone on the stock market floor is a start -- so people can go back to talking about their mess than the mess at the Garden. Can't the Yankees go sign someone to a ridiculous amount of money? Someone's gotta be on the verge of doing something dubious enough to get the Knicks off the back pages for a little while.

But as long as Isiah keeps churning out sound bytes, the Knicks will always be more of a story off the court than they are on it.

He was asked this morning how reaction has been "on the street" the last few days, as if Isiah has to hoof it through the holiday crowds in mid-town Manhattan to get home each night. As if he's doing like Duke Snider walking through a Brooklyn neighborhood with his bat over his shoulder and the glove hanging off the knob.

Isiah lives in Westchester. He's not "on the street" that often. But, relevant or not, the question was asked. And Isiah used it to shoot back.

"I've had a lot of nice things said to me," he said. "Nobody's had the courage to come to me and say things like what you guys have written and said. But that's OK."

* * * *

With just two guards in the lineup, the Knicks will have some odd combinations on the court, such as when Renaldo Balkman played a little two-guard in Monday's win over the Jazz. David Lee, too, found himself far away from the paint a few times, I asked him if he needed a GPS to find his way back. "Yeah," he said, "exactly."

* * * *

Quentin Richardson wasn't at the shoot-around, so it's doubtful he'll be in the lineup tonight against the Bobcats. Steve Francis worked out with the team, but it's doubtful he'll be in tonight, too. But Jerome James is back after his one-game suspension for leaving the bench area. So the Knicks will have more centers -- three -- than guards available.

Statement released by James Dolan, Madison Square Garden chairman:
"I was sitting just a few feet away at the end of Saturday night's game. I believe the Commissioner acted appropriately, as it was an ugly incident, not worthy of the Knicks, Nuggets, Madison Square Garden or the people of New York. I am grateful to the fans and our security personnel for remaining calm during some very chaotic moments. The incident was deeply regrettable, unacceptable on every level and I hope and expect to never witness anything like it again. We are all very sorry it happened. We will have no further comment on this matter."

David Stern:

“I’m going to start holding our teams accountable for the actions of their players and other employees. And in the case I’m not finding a cause of the altercation with specificity, what I’m saying is, if you continue to employ employees who engage in these actions, your organization is going to have to pay a price even beyond the suspensions that are involved here.”

Melo - 15 games
N8 and JR - 10 games
Mardy Collins - 6 games
Jared Jeffries - 4 games
Jerome James and Nene were given a game each for leaving the bench area.

Nothing for Isiah.

More to follow on Newsday.com once David Stern's conference call is over.

The Knicks are on the practice court here at the MSG Training Center in Greenburgh and the media room is packed with reporters from both print and broadcast media and a handful of cameras from the local TV stations. By 11 a.m. it is expected a PR official will come in and "release the hounds!" to enter the gym. But as the NBA has yet to make any announcements regarding punishment that is expected to be handed down as a result of Saturday's brawl at the Garden, there isn't much to talk about just yet....
Release the hounds!

Saw Chuck D post this among the comments and I had to follow-up on it because I had talked about exactly this point -- why George Karl had his starters out there with less than two minutes to go in a blowout win -- with a few other people in basketball.

First and foremost, GK wanted to win big at the Garden. Before the game he talked about how sad he felt about the atmosphere of MSG these days and, while on the surface he seemed to be spewing wistful nostalgia, his comments seemed laced with sarcastic venom at the current leaders of the once-hallowed hoops hall.

“There's basketball luck and there's karma and there's all types of things and the Knicks have not been very good in those areas lately,” Karl said. “I think it will change. There's a pride in this city and a pride in these fans and of course some pride in the organization to put a high-level product on the court.”

But there is also another defense worth exploring and that was that Karl and the Nuggets, who entered the game with consecutive losses, wanted to ensure this win. Remember that on Nov. 9 in Denver, the Knicks rallied from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to pull out a 109-107 win on Jamal Crawford's wild trey with 6.9 second left. (Excellent recollection, Mr. Chuck).

And in Saturday's game, the Nuggets saw a 24-point lead cut to 10 when the Knicks ripped off 28 points in the final 5:58 of the third quarter. Karl wasn't taking any chances. He was making sure the 'W' was in the books before he called off the dogs.

But, come on, you know Karl, being Larry Brown's boy -- all those Carolina guys stick together -- wanted to enjoy hearing boos rain down on Isiah Thomas' team.

Wonder what he was more disappointed with: Carmelo Anthony for suckering Mardy Collins and making himself liable for a lengthy suspension (which the Nuggets can ill-afford) or hearing the jacked-up Garden crowd cheer the Knicks off the floor despite a 123-100 defeat?

* * *

Sound off, Knicks fans. How many games should Melo get? How many for N8 the H8er? JR and Collins? Thomas??
Here's my scorecard:

Melo - 10 games. Why: The Nuggets are about to open a five-game homestand and will have eight of their next 10 at home, so you'll hurt the franchise at the turnstile. The Nuggets don't play too many important games in that stretch, but they do have the Lakers and Jazz in the ninth and tenth games of the stretch, which is why you can't cut it at an 8 game suspension. Gotta make it hurt.

N8 - 5 games. Why: Because instead of stepping in and moving his teammate out of a bad situation, he sprayed lighter fluid on the smoldering coals by shoving J.R. Smith and then doing the street-fight pose-down. (Which I never understood: why put your fists at your waist to start a fight? wouldn't it make more sense to raise them up? If Rocky Balboa ever stepped into the ring that way, the Italian Stallion would have been at the glue factory before Clubba Lang ever got to the party.)

Mardy - 1 game. Why: Because of the flagrant 2. It's in the books.

JR - 1 game. Why: Because he sacked N8 into the front row like Michael Strahan.

Thomas - A fine for his comments. Why: Because its not the first time he's done things that are unbecoming of an NBA coach (see: the Bruce Bowen incident in San Antonio).

* * *

P.S. -- If I haven't said it yet, awesome job by the Garden and NBA security for acting quickly to diffuse the situation on the court and for keeping the crowd around the court under control. No one wanted to see another Auburn Hills Melee and, thankfully, no one did.

It’s too self-righteous and sanctimonious for me to sit here and type all types of condemnations about the behavior of Nate Robinson, Isiah Thomas and Carmelo Anthony in tonight’s game. I won’t even bother tearing into Robinson for being the igniter of the whole situation because he decided to push and shove Nuggets players and knuckle up when J.R. Smith squared with him. It’s not even worth all of the infinite space on the internet to psycho-analyze the choice Robinson made between stepping in to remove his teammate (Mardy Collins) from the situation or pick a fight with Smith, who, if my eyes did not deceive me, was the one who was headlocked to the hardwood by Collins. And it's usesless to predict what the NBA will hand down as far as suspensions go.

So let me just get to the real issue at hand here: Isiah Thomas’ inexcusable behavior before, during and after the fight.

Before:
Thomas seemed more fixated on the fact that George Karl left a few of his starters in for the final minute of what was a blowout win for the Nuggets at the Garden. This probably goes back to Karl taking shots at Thomas after the Larry Brown incident. Thomas was seething. And he should have been seething at the end of that game, but not about anything Karl or the Nuggets were doing. His team had yet another awful night defensively. Awful. The team’s interior defense was practically non-existent. I was shocked it took until 1:15 left in the game for someone to deliver a hard foul on a layup. Where was this in the second quarter, when the Nuggets were punching holes in the Knicks 'D' for layups, oops and dunks?

But Thomas was distracted by what Karl was doing instead of focusing on what he needs to do to improve his team’s defense.

During:
Thomas' player, Collins, took a sucker-punch to the face from Mello Yello – and there’s no way he didn’t see it, the whole Garden saw it – but Thomas went to mid-court to meet with Anthony. He put his arm around him and the two spoke briefly. Thomas later revealed that he explained to Anthony that he and Marcus Camby shouldn’t have been on the floor up by 19 points that late in the game. Karl should have been ticked off that the opposing coach was talking to one of his players, never mind that the opposing coach was trying to blame it all on him.

Meanwhile, Collins is back at the Knicks bench, where Thomas should have been with his arm around his first-round draft pick. Showing that solidarity the Knicks talked about after the game with such bravado. And giving his appreciation for his determination not to give up another fast-break dunk to the high-flying Smith. Instead, Collins had to see Thomas hugging the guy who just suckered him in the jaw.

Very classy.

After:
Thomas had the audacity to claim this was all the result of the actions of the Nuggets and, though he never mentioned him by name, Karl. “Most people have been around long enough and you watch any type of sporting event, when it’s a minute to go or something like that, guys know when they’re rubbing it in their face,” Thomas said. Then Robinson echoed the company line a few minutes later in the locker room. Robinson spoke as if he knew something was going to happen.

Premeditated?

Garden chairman James Dolan was in a video room across from the Knicks locker room after the game, reviewing the play. He cut it short when he noticed a few reporters standing nearby. He and Garden president Steve Mills declined comment. What could they say? That they were proud? There was nothing to be proud of about this night at the Garden.

But then again, some among the sellout crowd roared with approval as the five ejected Knicks left the court. Talk about a needed distraction. The Garden fans were applauding the Knicks with 1:15 left and a 19-point deficit.

If this isn't rock bottom, it's damn near close.

* * *

If any player involved in that mess deserves an ounce of respect it is Jared Jeffries, who went into the fray as a peacemaker, took a sucker punch to the ribs from Smith and then chased down Carmelo after the punch to Collins’ face. Robinson claims he was sticking up for a teammate when he shoved Smith, but he was the instigator there. Jeffries, however, clearly was coming to the defense of Collins when he charged after Carmelo. He had an assistant coach, a security guard and two teammates grabbing at him to hold him back. Otherwise, he would have gotten to Carmelo, who, by then, had retreated toward the Nuggets bench.

* * *

In case you missed it (things that the fight distracted us from focusing on after the game):
- Stephon Marbury had 31 points and shot 13 for 24 from the floor in his best offensive performances of the season that no one will remember
- Eddy Curry had 19 points but did so little on the defensive end, it’s fair to say he was ineffective in the middle of the 2-3 zone, which the Nuggets were able to divide by drawing double-teams on Anthony and conquer with easy layups
- Channing Frye returned to the lineup after missing 10 games with an ankle sprain, which was great news for Channing Frye
- Quentin Richardson missed the game with back spasms that flared up during Friday’s loss in Indiana
- The Knicks trailed by as many as 24 points for the third time in four games
- The Rangers lost 9-2 in Toronto, so it was a bad night all around for the Garden

* * *

If you read your morning paper and are wondering why there isn't a great deal of information on the fight, you have to understand that our first deadline was immediately after the game. So there was a small window of time (15 minutes to be exact) to basically rewrite everything I had already planned to submit before the fight and get as much detail in there as possible before I could rush to the locker room. A more complete story, with quotes, was submitted by the second deadline, midnight. That was for our Sunday late edition, which, considering how rare it is to find anywhere, is merely a rumor.

But extensive coverage of the brawl and all of its rhetoric can be found on Newsday.com.

Come to think of it, if you're reading this blog, you probably already know that.

It's been a long night. I'm sending this at 4:19 a.m. The day started in Indianapolis. It ends in chaos.

Channing Frye looks ready to return to the lineup. His sprained ankle will be evaluated by the team’s medical staff – what, no second opinion? That seems to be the standard operating procedure around here – before Saturday’s game against the Nugs at MSG. He might be cleared to play.

I’d like to see if A.I. is cleared to play . . . for the Nuggets.

Whenever Frye does return, he’ll do so as a reserve. He’ll join fellow sophomores David Lee and Nate Robinson in the second unit. Remember earlier in the year when we were thinking of a Knick-name for the bench? Well, considering what James Dolan said about his second-year players – and if you don’t, let us remind you: “I feel like they’re really in their first year, because I don’t think they developed much last year.” – perhaps we can call them “Dolan’s Dunces.”

Frye’s return means even less minutes for Jerome James, who excited the Knick bench with his activity in the late stages of the Knick blowout win over Atlanta on Wednesday. Well, actually, it was a blowout at one point – the Knicks led by 30 points – until sloppy play late made it a less-lopsided 92-84 final over an injury-plagued team.

Getting back to James – Jerome, not my homie LeBron – for a second, I was watching him run his tail off and give up hard fouls and follow up a missed shot with a dunk. Then I saw the bench cackling and laughing about it. And I thought – Isiah Thomas gave this guy $30 million to be Greg Butler or Stuart Gray, who were cartoon-characters on Knick teams in the early 1990s. These were the big white guys that the Garden crowd would call for when the Knicks were up big.

James should have more to offer than comic relief. But where do you find minutes for him in a fast-paced game?

Whenever Steve Francis gets back from knee tendinitis, it’s going to create more of a log-jam in Isiah Thomas’ rotation. It’s not going to be easy to be political about it at all. Isiah can’t play 10 players a night and expect to have consistency. So someone among the guards – the guess is Robinson – will see his minutes slashed dramatically. How’s that going to sit with N8 the GR8?

About as well as it will probably sit with the fans.

* * *

So I go over to interview Frye before the team’s shoot-around this morning. Frye was at the arena way before the team doing his own workout. The guy may not be the best rebounder, but he’s a hard-worker. He was dripping with sweat before the rest of his teammates had even gotten into their practice gear.

He was also winded. And as I asked him how his ankle feels and if he’s ready to come back, he got tongue-tied.

“I feel real good,” he began. “The doc’s gonna reav-re- re-”

Malik Rose, sitting next to him, let out a “Wooo!” and then pretended to start up a motorcycle.

“Give it a little gas!” Rose yelled, laughing.

“-re-evaluate me tomorrow,” Frye continued, finally finishing his thought. Clearly embarrassed, Frye looked at Rose and said, “It’s cold outside, dog. It’s cold”

* * *

Just wondering if Magic Johnson had that talk with Stephon Marbury and if now we’ll start seeing Steph toss up a few “baby skyhooks” with that smile Magic says he hasn’t been seeing out of Marbury. As another colleague pointed out, why is it that there is this notion that someone thinks they can get through to Marbury? Isn’t that the job of the coach?

And, quite frankly, Marbury seems to be listening to his coach and playing the role that is asked of him. Lately, he’s been playing it well. Now we want him to smile, too, so we can see if he’s enjoying himself or not?

How about next we ask him to grow out his hair like Josh Childress, so he comes off as more lovable to kids?

* * *

Is anyone really surprised Eddy Curry isn’t among the top 10 in the all-star voting for Eastern Conference centers? Outside of 11 games so far and our own little world, who else in the NBA really knows about Eddy Curry? Can he put together at least a half-season of solid play before we annoint him an all-star? It’s like handing Jared Jeffries the Defensive Player of the Year award after two games. And it’s no one else’s fault than us in the media – well, not me – who come up with this stuff. Not once has Eddy Curry said he should be an all-star. And if you ask a teammate or his coach if he should be an all-star, would you expect anyone to say no?

Save your breath, Knicks fans. And maybe your money too. As long as Cablevision owns Madison Square Garden, you’re at their mercy. Most sports franchises are held accountable more by their fan base than by any media scrutiny. Fans can have a major impact with their voices, or speak greater volumes by simply not showing up to games.

But not at MSG.

Out of everything James Dolan said in his rare media address to the beat writers on Tuesday was a little nugget that the Knicks make up barely three percent of the billions in revenue generated by the Cablevision empire. Three percent!

So much for hitting them where it hurts. The fact that you have decided to boycott Knick games this season and litter the Garden with empty seats and unfound revenue is merely a pinhole in the Dolan family vault. DirecTV would have to infiltrate every bloody household in the tri-state area for the Knicks revenue to even be a minute concern of the Cablevision monstrosity.

Naively, and before he revealed the three-percent information, I asked Dolan if he feels he has to answer to his customers:

“They know what the story is and I don’t think it’s all of them, by the way,” he said. “I think there is a certain part of the fans that are already convinced that the season is lost and they don’t have the confidence in Isiah. And then there are other fans that do. You were all at last night’s game. Both sets of fans were there. At the end of the first half, we heard from one set of fans. At the end of the game, the other. It could have actually been the same, I suppose, but that would suggest that those fans were flip-flopping on their opinion.”

Another reporter later followed up on it and asked if attendance figures would be something that would be considered in his assessment of the season.

“I don’t think the attendance will figure into it. I think that we have smart fans, very enthusiastic fans, too. And I think they know when they see something real and when they see something not real on the court.”

Dolan did say, however, that the three-percent factor didn’t permit a lack for a sense of urgency.

“It’s never OK to lose business,” he said. “I don’t think that I would feel comfortable with losing business, no matter what.”

As long as the $3,000 courtside seats are selling and the luxury suites are booked, life is always good at the Garden.

* * *

Despite the abomination that was Monday’s 97-90 loss to the Celtics, who held a 30-point lead in the third quarter, you had to notice Jared Jeffries start to emerge as the game went on. By the fourth quarter, I thought he was making the exact impact that Isiah Thomas envisioned when he signed him to the mid-level exception over the summer. Excellent defense against Paul Pierce, great on the help-out, active on the boards.

However –

If I’m scouting the Knicks, Jeffries at the power forward spot allows you to double-team Eddy Curry with another big, because Jeffries isn’t much of an offensive threat (especially with the bum wrist). And if he gets the ball down low, it’s worth taking fouls just to put him on the line instead of giving up a layup. His free throw shooting is almost as bad, and potentially worse, than Curry’s.

It brings us back to the debate about where he best fits in the starting lineup. We say here that David Lee belongs at the power forward position, but needs to develop a 15-foot jumper that will keep defenses honest. Jeffries should be a lock at small forward. Q-Rich at the 2. Stephon Marbury at the point and, of course, Curry at the five.

Your second unit (with Steve Francis out with the knee tendinitis) would be Nate and Jamal, Renaldo Balkman, Malik Rose and Channing Frye, when healthy, on the post.

* * *

Farewell to the new NBA ball, made of whatever that synthetic/composite stuff Spalding came up with. I played around with it a few times and noticed a couple of things:

1. It feels like that microfiber material on a couch (or on Mike Fratello’s head)
2. It is a funky orange hue (like Brian Scalabrine’s head)
3. It sticks to the backboard and drops straight down (so maybe Eddy Curry should shoot his free throws off the glass from now until Jan. 1)
4. It’s lighter than a leather ball, which can throw you off (but not enough to shoot 55 percent from the line)
5. I can’t palm it off a dribble like I can a leather ball. It slips right out of my grip (like a good scoop)
6. It wears out very quickly. (A few of us noticed the balls the Knicks used for the shootaround in Denver were already wearing out around the lettering, and this was just two weeks into the season. There’s no snarky comment to this one, just an observation. Oh, and this one: LeBron James is overrated)
7. Steve Francis has never dunked one in a game (but he blamed his knee)
8. The seams seem thinner than a leather ball’s seams, and seams help you get premium rotation on your shot, baby (that seems to make sense)
9. Nate Robinson was able to block it back into Yao Ming's face (and the Knicks capitalized on the moment by capturing the moment into a poster and selling it to you fans....word is they also added it to the MSG 50 Greatest Moments DVD, coming soon this holiday season for only $99.95 plus the price of a season ticket!).
10. David Stern found it insignificant enough to let Billy Hunter believe his silly complaint on behalf of the NBPA actually made a difference. (and yet still there's a team in Memphis, go figure).

Remember the story of Mark Jackson walking through a Queens neighborhood as a rookie in 1988? It was just before the Knicks were to make their first playoff appearance in four years, Jackson went out to his hometown of St. Albans and played some playground basketball. “I can’t forget where I came from,” Jackson said at the time.

He was, and is, New York. He got it. He understood the importance of that renaissance season for the Knicks and the enormity of that playoff series against the Boston Celtics, who then were still up there with the Lakers as the NBA’s elite. The Knicks went out in four games in that series. They got one win, at MSG, in Game 3. The Garden rocked that night like it hadn’t since the championship years. Those fans had waited a long time for a team they could believe in. More importantly, they waited a long time for a team they could associate with. Patrick Ewing was the unequivocal star of the team, but Jackson, he was one of them.

And, on top of that, the coach was Rick Pitino, a tough kid from Long Island who also knew what the New York crowd was all about.

I'm not saying you have to be from New York to know what the New York crowd is all about. But it helps to at least have an understanding of it.

Fast-forward to the present-day Knicks and the smile on Isiah Thomas’ face when he was in Detroit. The people there loved him. It was a hero’s welcome. His number hangs from the rafters and his name is painted on the court. Many of his records still dominate the Pistons media guide.

He is a Piston. He comes from the West Side of Chicago, but seems to be more at home in Detroit. The people there get him and he gets them.

And, with all due respect to his stature as one of the greatest point guards this game has ever seen, he doesn't get New York. And more and more I'm realizing -- perhaps he is too -- that he is completely out of his element here.

Isiah Thomas knows basketball, let’s make that perfectly clear. His resume clinches his place among the all-time greats.

And I believe the fans that were booing and chanting for his head on Wednesday night at the end of the Wizards 113-102 beat-down at the Garden were too caught up in a mob-mentality to consider that Washington was unconscious from the perimeter. Not too many teams could have overcome a 14 for 20 onslaught from three-point range. But not too many teams would have given up that many open looks from downtown, either.

Plus, it was more entertaining to boo and chant. When all else fails, get someone fired. Especially if it's a guy you know is on borrowed time.

It's even easier when it's someone you consider an outsider, which is what Thomas remains in the eyes of the fans despite three-plus years running the Knicks organization.

To his credit, Isiah has tried to understand the fans. He has tried to relate to them with attempts to equate his rugged upbringing in Chicago to enduring the harsh New York spotlight.

There’s problem No. 1: don’t ever try to equate anything with New York. There’s a reason why Chicago is called the Second City.

Problem No. 2 is his lack of understanding of the New York attitude. He is totally confused as to why the Garden fans seem to be harder on the home team than they are on the visiting team. What he doesn't realize is the Garden fans are equal-opportunity hecklers. But they're also extremely demanding of their time and money. You take the time to commute to the Garden, drop a couple hundred on a game and get home late on a week night, you want to see something more than a passive 2-3 zone and confusion in the offensive set.

Here’s a brief explanation about New York basketball fans: they come to the Garden to see good basketball, no matter which of the two teams is playing it. It is one of the entitlements we feel come with being a New Yorker, along with EZPass and partying with Lindsay Lohan.

If they don’t get it from the home team, they’ll admire the visitor. They'll come to see a classic team like the San Antonio Spurs, or an electrifying team like the Phoenix Suns. For years the Garden was like Michael Jordan’s second home in the NBA, because he always came to perform and he rarely disappointed. Many NBA greats have figured that out and used the Garden as their personal stage. Reggie Miller played the villain on Broadway better than anyone has in Phantom of the Opera. He had the crowd hissing and groaning with every big basket. He made a career in Indiana, but he made a legend at the Garden.

LeBron James has yet to figure out the stage that the Garden offers him. If Kobe Bryant played in the East, he’d own this place like Michael did, for sure. (I had to get that one in...oh, and LeBron's sneakers are ugly, too).

Now if the home team is performing well, then they’re on your side like your best friend in a street fight. Jackson’s Knick team in 1988 couldn’t come close to competing with the Celtics, who seemed to use that series as a warm-up for another run to the NBA Finals. But the Garden fans saw something in that Knicks team that was lacking during those lean years when Bernard King was always injured and Ewing was still very raw. They saw something to believe in and, as a result, they put their voices behind the team even though they knew the Celtics would eventually win.

Jeff Van Gundy never asked the crowd to chant his name. He just put in his work and the Garden crowd took notice and, when there was concern that Van Gundy might be fired, the home crowd used its power and influence to save the job of this fiesty little coach with the stringy comb-over. Why? Because he was one of them.

Like Van Gundy, Pitino, Jackson, Xavier McDaniel, Charles Oakley, John Starks, Latrell Sprewell, Larry Johnson and so on., there was an understanding that if you performed, you’d get cheers. If you failed, you’d get boos. That’s life in New York no matter what you do.

Just ask Bob Dylan. Like Isiah, he’s a legend in his field. But his Broadway attempt, The Times They Are A-Changin’ stunk like the No. 3 train on a steamy summer night.

And the New York crowd let him know it.

Old New York City is a friendly old town,
From Washington Heights to Harlem on down.
There's a-mighty many people all millin' all around,
They'll kick you when you're up and knock you when you're down.
It's hard times in the city,
Livin' down in New York town.

In some other NBA cities, such as Sacramento, the home crowd doesn’t get down on the home team. If the home team is bad, they just heckle the road team even more. That type of homerism doesn’t fly here, man. It just doesn’t. You want to be coddled and get pats on the back? Go to the one-newspaper cities where the lights all turn green at the same time and the restaurants close as 11 p.m. And enjoy life in the oblivion.

You want to be part of something that is bigger than life? Do it in New York. Endure the scrapes of the daily media buzzsaw. Toughen your skin against the cynicism. Ride the wave of emotions that this city can generate until you find yourself energized by it.

No, it’s not for everyone. It really wasn’t for Ewing for all of those years. But ask him if he remembers how he felt standing on top of that scorer’s table in June 1994, with his arms extended as if accepting a hug from a city of millions. Ask him if that healed a lot of wounds from earlier in his career.

Ask him how it feels now to feel the love like he does every time he enters the building. That kind of love doesn’t just materialize when you put on the Knick logo. It doesn’t come because of what you were when you got here, but what you became while you were here.

It’s funny, but one of the crowd’s biggest targets outside of Thomas is Stephon Marbury, who is Brooklyn born and one of the Garden’s own as a kid growing up and attending Knick games. The hating definitely effects him, but you never hear him say a thing about it. He knows that’s New York. “I’d boo, too,” he once told me. “I used to boo.”

So, Isiah, my advice to you is to stop telling the fans what to do. Stop telling the players not to listen to the fans. Instead, make sure they hear them. Make sure the fans reactions motivate you, one way or the other. Make sure you understand exactly what they're feeling and why.

Because, you see, when it gets quiet in the Garden, well, that’s when you’re really in trouble.

The Knicks hit the quarterpole of the season tonight against the Wizards at the Garden and should they win it would mean they would have the most victories (8) of anyone in the Atlantic Division. That’s the carrot Isiah Thomas dangled to his players this morning at the shoot-around. The asterisk is that the Knicks (7-13) have played more games than anyone else in the division, so their winning percentage would still rank them third behind the underachieving Nets (7-10) and the right-where-they-should-be Toronto Raptors (7-10).

Still, no one is running away with this garbage division. And until the Nets finally pull away as expected, the Knicks can dream. And Isiah can dream. Right now he can say the Knicks, coming out of a challenging first month, are in contention for the division lead. Never mind they carry a .350 winning percentage into tonight’s game and no better than a .381 if they win; don’t let the facts get in the way of a good alibi.

Thomas has done well in getting the team through the first quarter of the season with minimal damage. But is he a good enough coach to elevate them in the next quarter? Six games under .500 is one thing in early December. It’s more troubling when it’s January. You definitely can’t be that deep in a hole after the New Year, let alone any deeper.

Thomas himself said he was aware of the Knicks recent penchant for going into December swan dives. Along with his well-timed we’re-gonna-stop-losing-at-home speech (it’s easy to bring the fire and brimstone when the injury-plagued Grizzlies are in town), Thomas made a point to say he’s not going to allow the December swoon.

In my head I was doing Axel Foley: “We’re not falling for the banana-in-the-tailpipe.”

Truth is, however, if Isiah gets them through December and they’re still in shouting distance of the Nets – at least in the standings – than he at least saved his job for the season.

So Knicks fans, what do you root for?

* * *

Can we just let Jared Jeffries play a game before we start wondering what his presence will do to the lineup? It gets kind of crazy sometimes in the media scrum, when one simple comment can turn into a brushfire. Thomas said he could use Jeffries at the 3 and move Richardson to the 2. That sparked a frenzy of speculation that Steve Francis or Stephon Marbury could wind up on the bench.

Thomas didn’t need to get contentious about it, as he apparently did after Tuesday’s practice. He’s not wrong to consider using Q and Jared in that scenario.

But can we see what Jeffries can (and more importantly, can’t) do? I’ve seen him shoot, it ain’t pretty (all palm, not enough finger spin). If he’s more than 5 feet from the basket, I would ignore him completely. And if he was under the basket, hack him. Trust me, at least one free throw is hitting glass and only glass. But Jeffries is said to be a good passer (I haven't seen enough yet). A good ball-handler (ditto). We’ve heard enough about his ability to defend and how much he improves the Knicks.

I'm half-expecting to see his jersey next to Frazier, DeBusschere, et al any night now.

All snarky sarcasm aside, if we’re playing the hypothetical game of What Would Alan Do – which Peter Laviolette should have played more often (but then again, how’s it working out for him now?) – I’d use Francis and Q in the backcourt with Jeffries and Lee and Eddy Curry. That’s a pretty solid lineup. And the second group would be a challenge for most opponents’ bench to handle if you consider Marbury (who is becoming a better perimeter defender than most people give credit) and Jamal Crawford off the bench with Channing Frye and Malik Rose coming in for Lee or even Curry. The guys I put on the rotation fringe are Nate Robinson, Renaldo Balkman and Jerome James.

But Nate and Renaldo wouldn’t be completely buried. I’d throw them in on a full-court press. This time of year, players are hitting a mini-wall in their conditioning. Some are also falling into a comfort zone. You want to get the Garden on your side? Drop a full-court trap on a moment’s notice. Give me Mardy Collins and his long arms and speed with the long and quick Jeffries at the top. Get the crowd going crazy for turnovers. Here’s where Robinson could earn some burn using his football background to his advantage. Set him up as a weak-side safety to pick off a long pass. Have Balkman deep with David Lee to rebound and start the break. Shake it up every now and then, especially when you need to get Curry his rests.

Everything works to perfection in my blog. Except for my attempts at humor.

* * *

It was the ultimate power lunch. Two hours on the ice at Bryant Park, skating among the sun-splashed mid-town skyscrapers on a crisp December afternoon loaded with cheerful Christmas music and happy tourists in town for the holidays. It was a living postcard and a great to spend my downtime stuck in Manhattan between the shoot-around and the game. The endorphins had me so idyllic that I found myself humming Tyrone Wells’ “Dream Like New York” song that is so often played at the Garden that it stuck in my head.

Dream like New York
As high as the skyline
Aim for the stars above those city lights
I want to dream like New York
I’m running down Broadway
I got to catch the next train
I’m making my way

You may now proceed to puke.

All this talk about Eddy Curry and the Knicks’ tectonic shift away from the perimeter back to the post as the first option has me analyzing Curry’s game with greater scrutiny. While I marvel at the big man’s quick development of nifty moves around the basket – he’s definitely been listening to Mark Aguirre – I’m finding several other facets of his game to be alarmingly deficient.

He’s 23 and he still has a lot of developing to do. Here are the areas that need the most attention:

Defense – How many times has he collided with his own teammate while “showing” on pick-and-roll help defense? You can see the guards’ frustration when they avoid the pick but then slam into Curry’s big body and lose their man. Or how many times has Curry kept his feet nailed to the floor when a guard drives the lane? A token wave of the hand does nothing. I’d love to see him hammer a guy and glare at him as if to say, “Don’t bring that garbage in here. And if you do, I have five fouls to offer and my boys Jerome and Kelvin have 12 fouls each to spare.”

It’s almost impossible to stop guards off the dribble in the NBA, so guards need help. For everything Curry can do on the offensive end, the Knicks wind up only breaking even because of what he doesn’t do defensively.

Free throw Shooting -- You can't be a No. 1 option and shoot just 50 percent from the line. It's why Shaq couldn't win championships by himself. Enough said.

Rebounding – One of my favorite former coaches, Eric Brown, used to stop practice and ask "How tall are you?" I’d say, “Six-six.” He’d then instruct me to put my hands up.

“How tall are you now?”

Point made.

Curry is 6-11 but with his hands at his sides he plays much smaller on the boards. Too many times rebounds have sailed over his head because his hands were down and he couldn’t get them up quick enough to snatch the ball. Your 6-11, 285-pound center shouldn’t be out-rebounded by your 6-6 small forward. Curry needs to take more pride in his rebounding and, like defense, have a more dominant attitude when it comes to clearing the glass.

And on the offensive boards, he tends to tip the ball around instead of grabbing the ball, gathering himself and then powering up. I might attribute that to his conditioning, which definitely needs to be addressed this coming offseason. He’s so young yet, if he hired a good personal trainer to work with him on his power, he could be a dominant force. One good, hard offseason of training could see him finishing a lot more around the basket than he already does. If he dedicated himself to a rigid fitness program, he could find himself among the NBA's best big men in no time at all. Unless he's content being average.

Passing – Eddy can’t allow himself to be taken out of games because of double-teams. He’s been very good in getting deep position and overpowering his defenders. But when he’s doubled, Curry tends to still look for his shots and might even dare to put the ball on the floor. I’d like to see him have more awareness of his teammates and the offense. Know where the passing options are and make quick decisions. No big man wants to be known as a black hole, where the ball goes in and never comes out. It took time for Patrick Ewing to develop this skill, too. Not everyone comes out of the womb as finished as Tim Duncan.

For any NBA big man, it’s all about the attitude you have on the court and the confidence you have in your skills. Curry is starting to develop it on the offensive end. The next step is to carry it over to the other parts of his game.

* * *

We spend enough time killing Stephon Marbury, but to keep a fair balance, I feel compelled to point out that the past two games Marbury has looked like he was starting to figure out where he fits within Isiah Thomas’ system. He wasn’t forcing his shots – they didn’t drop in Detroit, but they did against Toronto – and he was distributing the ball without looking as if he was passing up shots. Most of what he did was in the flow of the game. He also continues to put a physical effort in defense. In fact, he is one of the guards I have seen get caught in an inadvertent Curry pick. I’ve seen him have words with Curry about it and I can’t blame him. I’d be furious too.

He hasn’t been the best teammate, but even that part of his attitude has been changing since Thomas spanked him with a few benchings recently. I had to rub my eyes when I was watching the Toronto game on Saturday night: was that really him clapping on the bench and slapping fives with his teammates?

* * *

With Jared Jeffries set to return, Richardson emerging as a versatile team leader and Steve Francis running the point quite well (with the occasional over-dribble), something’s got to give when it comes to the rotation. Jamal Crawford might be mercurial and weak defensively, but he’s proven himself valuable late in games. Tireless streetballer Nate Robinson is erratic and often self-involved, but Thomas knows how important Robinson’s energy can be, along with the positive vibe his presence draws from the smitten Garden crowd.

So who goes?

Marbury might understand the reality of his situation right now.

* * *

I’m all for honoring the past and cherishing memories, but have you noticed that nostalgia is never more promoted than during a franchise’s lean years? It’s like saying, “Yes, we suck this year. But, hey, weren’t we great in 1994?”

* * *

There I was, marveling at the 12,155 miles that I put in during the first month of the season, when seated next to me on my flight home from Detroit on Saturday morning was a woman in her 60s who was on her way to Africa. Her day was only starting. From New York she had to catch a flight to Boston, where she would connect to Zurich, where she would connect to her African destination.

She does this about 20 weekends a year for a humanitarian organization.

Man I envied her frequent flier miles account.

It’s cold and rainy here, miserable. But it might be more miserable for the home team. The Knicks have had a day of rest between games – I’m sure none of them made the trek over to Windsor and instead were tucked into their luxurious hotel beds by curfew – while the Pistons got home sometime around 4 a.m. after their game in Miami. So which team should have legs tonight? Gotta love the NBA schedule. Should the Pistons have their seven-game winning streak snapped, you can call it a schedule loss.

For the Knicks, it’s a golden opportunity afforded by a schedule that looked to be against them for most of the first month of the season. They could take a 6-5 record, a winning record, on the road. Anything associated with winning right now is something for the Knicks to grab hold of.

But the NBA schedule really isn’t good for anyone.

Billy Hunter, the player’s union leader, will take time out to make trifled comments about the Ben Wallace headband controversy and also put up a useless front in speaking out against the stricter enforcement of technical fouls for acting out. But what does he have to say about a schedule that includes an overabundance of back-to-back games that have teams barnstorming the country right out of the gate?

The Knicks schedule was brutal in November, with five straight back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. Four were road-and-home scenarios. The only other was consecutive road games in Houston and San Antonio, which isn’t a far trip but certainly is a daunting 1-2 punch.

Next week, the Knicks get their first Friday off since Oct. 20. Next Thursday and Friday will be the first consecutive days the Knicks are off at home without travel. But after that weekend, the Knicks are back at it with Friday-Saturday back-to-backs the following two weekends into Christmas. Overall, the Knicks will play 20 back-to-back games this season. Eleven of them come on a Friday-Saturday.

But they’re not the only ones. The Pistons will play a league-high 22 back-to-backs this season, which is the same amount as last season. Only seven will come on Friday-Saturday. And, I understand that every year the circus in Chicago knocks the Bulls on the road for two weeks in November, but that’s an isolated situation.

If Hunter wants to take up a cause, why not take on this insane compacted schedule? The NBA plays the same around of games (82) as the NHL, yet starts an entire month later than the NHL and finished just a week after the NHL season ends. It has to have an effect on the quality of the games, which people pay a lot of money to watch. Either cut the number of games, or start the season in October.

Then again, most players would probably have more games and fewer practices. But if you asked coaches what would be better for the players and the quality of the games, it would be more practice time, more rest time.

Save the wild scheduling for the playoffs, when you want back-to-backs to keep momentum going.

* * *

Thank you, Kobe, for proving my point in my previous blog. That third quarter against Utah was entertainment. I’m not a big fan of the NBA game because it’s often boring, predictable and generally not worth watching until the fourth quarter. But Kobe had me watching the late game on TNT last night because he had something special going.

Now that was something to ‘Witness’.