The Knicks Fix

Latrell Sprewell is my 2nd favorite all-time Knick behind Patrick Ewing. Spree was a great Knick. He was a warrior. He was clutch, always guarded the opposing teams best player (unlike Allan Houston) and he always spoke his mind and kept his teammates in check.

Al, so after all these workouts, how do you think the Knicks draft board looks like?

Watching Trevor Ariza's energy and athleticism tonight reminds me why we had to send Zeke packin'......

How he let Brown talk him into trading him for Steve Francis sickens me more now than it did then, and it made me pretty ill at the time.

What he brings is just what we need right now, and what every championship team must have in order to compete for a chip.

Spree is my third favorite Knick, behind Clyde and Ewing. Like Serge mentioned, he was a warrior. He did all the dirty work, never backed down from anybody, and had the guts to challenge anyone (including management) on issues everyone else was afraid to, much to his detriment.

He left a gaping hole in the soul of the Knicks upon his departure.

@ Bronxboy

How can you leave Bernard King off your Favorite Knick list?????
Tell me it ain't so!

@ Peace...

I have to make a retraction....

My wife asked me the same thing!!! She also asked me why I left Starks off the list as well. He was a loose cannon, but he was my boy!!

Here's the new list:

Clyde
Bernard King
Spree
Ewing
Starks

My List...
1. Bernard King
2. Willis Reed
3. Black Jesus
4.Cazzie Russell
5. Dollar Bill
6. Ewing
7.Clyde
8. Dave D
9. Dick Barnett
10.John Starks.

Honerable mention....
Jerry Lucas
Spree
Spenser Haywood
Sugar ray
The X-Man
Nate Bowman
Bob MCadoo
Dean the Dream

Damn Peace, I think you listed everyone who ever played for the Knicks....

You forgot Dave Hosket and Rory Sparrow....lol

The X-Man? What? No Love for the OakTree? Dude was around much longer!

frazier
king
ewing
reed
oakley
monroe
strickland
michael ray
spree
debuscher

Kobe Bryant became the major of Choke City Thursday night, missing 13 of 19 shots as the Los Angeles Losers blew a 24-point first-half lead in their 97-91 loss to the Boston Celtics.

Shaq won three titles with the Lakers.

Kobe was just along for the ride.

Like a child.

In a car seat

With a pacifier in his mouth.

Shaq is a man. Kobe is not.

spree was awesome as a knick, no question. but there's no one -- i don't know if it's even possible to be -- as electric as john starks.

who else could go 2-for-17 in a game 7 and still be universally loved?

how about keith van horn? LOL

what about charles smith?!?!? >(

I loved Sprewell when he was on the Knicks. For all the troubles he had in his career, very little of it came while he played for the Knicks. He fit in perfectly with that team, and the rest of the players fed off of his energy. I was born in '89 and as a result have only been actively following the Knicks for 12 or 13 years so my scope is limited. But he absolutely would have to be in my Top 5 Knicks along with Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Charles Oakley and John Starks.

Shaq's former Pool Boy on the Lakers' third-quarter collapse and game four choke:

"We just wet the bed. Nice big one, too. One of the ones you can't put a towel over. It's terrible"

Kinda reads like Stephon Marbury's whole career and Jim Dolan's entire life, don't it?

I loved Spree when he was on the Knicks. He was the perfect fit for that team.

He was like Starks and Mason, who I also loved. Gritty, a little bit of a bad-ass and loose cannon, but the ultimate competitor, no matter where he was on the court. And no one was stopping him in the open floor.

He was one of those underrated overrated guys. Might've been overrated early in his carreer, but what he did for the Knicks (and Wolves too, he helped take KG's team pretty far), shouldn't be overlooked.

dfft! it don't.

get this guy outta here. hes makin no sense

shaqs former pool boy? this guy is a waste of my time

let me see if he will ever not just repeat himself. we will findout.lmao

stay toned for NowLedge

spree = PASSION !! tha only one who plays w/ this type of fire on tha knicks now is my man lil' nate. z-bo has it AT TIMES too but too far n few in between.
fav all-time knicks
1. charles "tha oak-man"
2. jamal "mr. and 1" crawford
3. starks
4. grand mama (LJ)
5. pat ewing

most hated
1. charles smiff
2. andrew lang
3. larry brown

spree was a great knick, no doubt, but in order for him to bring the knicks a level up i always felt he would have needed to slide over to point guard instead of the 3. now, he didn;t have the handle for it, i guess, but, if you had spree and houston with an athletic wing who was 6-7 or 6-8, they woul have been very dangerous.

in fact, imagine spree in d'antoni's system? he'd be an assassin!

Pierce is the man; as Kobe slowly turns into Danny Ainge (the whiner).

I actually just watched a YouTube video of Spree's performance in the '99 finals yesterday. He almost carried that team to a Game 6.

As for my all-time favorite Knicks, in no particular order:

- Ewing
- Starks
- Oakley
- Mason
- Camby
- Spree
- Lee

Spree as a PG. He could only dribble with one hand. He was all right all the time.

Still my second favorite Knick. Way better player than Houston who would dissappear for long stretches during games and had one of the worst contracts given to a Knick player by the Knicks front office and IT was not responsible for.

Knick needs remain the same, PG and shotblocker. Watching Rondo just reminds me of how bad a GM IT was. And watching Powe, Posey and those kind of guys reminds me of how we need to start building this team. I will keep saying it until the draft, and I was the first one on this blog to point it out, Dorsey, Dorsey, Dorsey. If we can trade down, dump a big contract and get Dorsey and Augstine I will say this was the second best draft in Knick history (which unfortunately is not saying much).

i agree with Lee, in no particualr order:

EWING
STARKS
OAKLEY
MASON
CAMBY
SPREE
HARPER

Spree gave the Knicks a few more years of life. Once he and Camby were sent away the Knicks were finish. I miss his intensity and his tomahawk dunks. He sacrifice his game for Houston and when ever he was interviewed he did not appear as advertise. Well spoken. I miss Spree, I hope he doing alright with his money. Should have taken the contract the Timber wolves offer him.

I did not watch the Clyde Frazier days and wasn't as fanatical in the Bernard King days. My list of favorite Knicks are:

Starks
Spree
Ewing
Mason
Oakley
X McDaniel

3rd tier for Spree, behind the 70's teams, then Ewing, Oak, and Starks. Bernard is 2nd tier.

I think Spree was a great Knick. He left it all out on the court, night in and night out with his intensity. Sure, he may have not been the greatest role model off the basketball court, and had his troubles with PJ, but the guy bled orange and blue each and every game.

I appreciated his tenacity. He's not in the top-10 Knicks of all time in my book, but absolutely in the top-20.

Tha prowler, i feel exactly the same way with nate and spree. Im only 16 so nate is my fav knick of all time. When i was little i loved sprewell so he's my 2nd favorite. From what a remember of starks he was my third favorite.

Spree was a loose cannon but that's what made him a joy to watch. He would leave all on the court and had mental toughness that lifted his team. Plus I miss his tomahawk dunks for fast breaks which made the folks at the Garden get up.

Sprewell's time here in NY was memorable and he will be missed. He played his ass off in every game and he was the last true Knick to care about winning games. After he was gone, the new school Knicks of Van Horn and the rest began a downward trend that has the likes of Curry and Crawford wearing Knick jerseys. And that's a damn shame. The Knicks were always about toughness and heart and Sprewell was all that.

Even if he was only here for 5 years, he will always be a Knick to me. His playoff performances were top notch and his intensity unmatched.

How many rings does Spree have?

Of course, he had to feed his family. Can't do that on $21 million over a three-year period.

Don't want the kids to choke.

November 4, 2004
Sprewell Still Selling, but Minnesota Isn't Buying

MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 3 - For most of a 15-minute interview before Wednesday night's game, Latrell Sprewell sat at his locker, clipped his fingernails and spoke with simmering annoyance about the latest controversial development in his never-dull N.B.A. career.

Before going out and scoring 10 points in Minnesota's season-opening 99-93 victory over the Knicks, Sprewell revisited comments he made about the Timberwolves' failure to extend his contract, comments that drew a rebuke from N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern. Sprewell said his words were "spun" to make him look bad, and he wished he had phrased them better.

Then, at the end of the interview, the Knicks radio announcer Gus Johnson jokingly handed Sprewell his billfold, as if offering a loan to an old friend. Sprewell, who is due to make $14.6 million this season, laughed, then joked about how his career had always drawn newspaper headlines.

Lately, Sprewell has not been so playful. While nursing a left ankle sprain, he publicly pressed for a two-year extension. After Wednesday's game, he said the Timberwolves had offered him $21 million over three years, which he said was not a fair offer.

Last Sunday, Sprewell said he wanted to be traded if the extension was not in place by Wednesday night. Asked if he was willing to help the Timberwolves win an N.B.A. title before leaving, Sprewell said: "Why would I want to help them win a title? They're not doing anything for me. I'm at risk. I have a lot of risk here. I've got a family to feed. Anything could happen."

Sprewell, who has six children, also called the lack of progress insulting and disappointing based on his contributions last season, his first with the Timberwolves after being acquired from the Knicks in a four-team trade.

On Monday, Sprewell backed off his trade demand and said he had taken over negotiations from his agent, Robert Gist. But Stern told reporters in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Tuesday that he wanted players with guaranteed deals to stop complaining about their contracts and threatening to give reduced efforts, calling such statements "corrosive." He specifically chided Sprewell, who brushed it off Wednesday night. "The commissioner has criticized me before," he said. "I'll leave it at that."

Last season Sprewell largely avoided controversy, except for swearing at Madison Square Garden's chairman, James L. Dolan, during a Garden game.

NOTE: Maybe a guy who cussed out Jim Dolan five years ago can't be all bad?

Man, reading through these names brings back happy memories. Willis Reed and Clyde and Earl the Pearl I remember from being a little kid; that was my dad's era. He used to listen to the games on a little transister radio, walking around in the backyard in the dark.
My favorite Knicks come from a later generation:
1. Starks
2. Spree
3. Oakman
4. Mase
5. LJ
Honorable mention: Camby, Ewing, Harper, Houston, Childs, Lee.
I hope that in a couple of years I'll be able to rewrite this list with some new names!

Man, reading through these names brings back happy memories. Willis Reed and Clyde and Earl the Pearl I remember from being a little kid; that was my dad's era. He used to listen to the games on a little transister radio, walking around in the backyard in the dark.
My favorite Knicks come from a later generation:
1. Starks
2. Spree
3. Oakman
4. Mase
5. LJ
Honorable mention: Camby, Ewing, Harper, Houston, Childs, Lee.

I hope that in a couple of years I'll be able to rewrite this list with some new names!

I would rank Starks above Spree because John was more of a leader and a better team mate.

I rank Houston above Spree because of his CHARACTER which is why Allan was a better choice to keep than Spree. Spree's character is what banished him from the league and NO TEAM wanted any part of him Where as Houston attempted a comeback and he was wanted by several teams but because of Allan's loyalty to the knicks and his family he declined to workout for anyone else.

I thought spree did well here but how soon we forget, his anti team spirit started to reveal itself and got pretty old with us.

CHARACTER GOES A LONG WAY.
Skill is ok but skill alone doesn't put Spree in the same class with FRAZIER and PATRICK, 2 guys with tremendous CHARACTER.

spree was loved, by me and all the knicks fans i know. while allan houston was the invisible man for quarters at a time, so many of them during clutch or fourth quarters. (the lay-up in miami as the exception that proves the rule). imagine what spree would've done at his natural position, the 2? he moved to the 3 for allan and never complained.

To you "Fixers"(or should i say "un-fixers"), if some of you guys would start analyzing the draft as a sensible GM, or even a sensible fan(i know the latter is an oxymoronic suggestion) and not the type of fan made so neurotic and psychotic by the organizational dreg the Knicks have been for the past half a dozen years or so you would understand that the sensible conclusion to the Knicks situation (or dilemma as some of you Fixer's see it) is to "DRAFT THE BEST AVAILABLE PLAYER". That is what Donnie Walsh will do (not D'antonio because he will not make the pick. Why he said those things about needing an engine to J.Bayless was more for Donnie's and Marbury's ears and no one else). Any wise and sensible GM will take the best player on their board and then address their needs, and if the two coincide that's the best of both worlds, but the best player trumps everything! Like i said before the Knicks first work out told you everything you needed to know-(1): That they were and are interested in J.Alexander and R.Westbrook at #6, and (2): If they were to trade down were interested in J.Mcgee upside and C.Budinger's pure shooting touch, and (3): They are interested in S.Hill the 7 ft. shot blocking center from Arkansas as an undrafted free agent. That's it! End of story! J.Alexander will be the pick because he's a top five player-a potential all-star on both ends of the court, fills the need for a perimeter shooter and a defensive minded player, and most important of all is that his position of "sf" is not being occupied by any relevant player. That is what Donnie Walsh understands! Fixers, their are also two point guards the Knicks could sign as undrafted free agents after the draft. One who worked out for them already-the point guard from Davidson: Jason Richards(he looked good -cool, calm, and in collect mode as he was orchestrating those upsets in the NCAA Tournament),and Russell Robinson out of Kansas another heady talented point the Knicks could and should take a flyer on! Now my 08/09 Roster: C- E.Curry PF- D.Lee SF-J.Alexander G-J.Crawford PG-S.Marbury Reserves: PG/G-N.Robinson PG-J.Richards/R.Robinson G/F-Q.Richardson F-W.Chandler F-J.Jeffries F/C-Z.Randolph C-S.Hill IR: M.Collins/ M.Rose R.Balkman Jettisoned: J.James