Ah, nothing like Knicks-Clippers on a Monday night in February – the night after the Giants won the Super Bowl and the night before the victory parade.
There are plenty of empty seats, as you might imagine, but not enough as far as I’m concerned. What are these people thinking?
After a few days off last week while the Knicks were on the West Coast, it’s time to get things going again on this blog. Because while the Knicks may be a lost cause and not very interesting, there’s plenty going on around the NBA. There are plenty of good stories in other cities, the All-Star Game in New Orleans is right around the corner, closely followed by the trade deadline. We can’t let the Knicks’ 35-game march to the finish line in this lost season distract us from stuff that matters.
Right off the bat, we have the new-look Lakers in New Jersey tomorrow night to take on the dysfunctional Nets. Which brings us to the Lakers’ acquisition of Pau Gasol. How good would a 7-foot European who can score inside, shoot with range, rebound and share the ball have looked in a Knicks uniform? Not only would Gasol have been an asset on the basketball court, he would’ve been a marketing dynamo in a multi-cultural, basketball-loving city.
Except that I couldn’t get a straight answer out of Isiah Thomas tonight before the game as to how aggressively he discussed Gasol with the Grizzlies. All of his comments from the road trip focused on how he heard that Memphis was considering moving Gasol during the summer. I asked him the more important question: Had he inquired about Gasol during this season, as in recently, when the Grizzlies decided to finally pull the trigger on the long-rumored parting with their franchise center.
Here is all I got:
“I don’t know if I was even asked about Gasol on the trip,” Thomas said.
Um, he was, and he talked about him. But anyway …
“I think what we heard over the summer, I think they talked about him being available but, you know, I don’t remember talking too much about Gasol when we were out there [on the road trip] other than that,” he said. “I guess it was a great trade for the Lakers.”
As for whether Thomas had discussed Gasol recently with the Grizzlies, Thomas followed MSG policy to the letter: “We never talk about trades or what we’re talking about doing or trying to do. We never discuss those things.”
So there you go.
Amazingly, the celebs continue to come out to Knicks games. Penny Marshall, Ellen Pompeo (“Grey’s Anatomy’s” Meredith), and Seann William Scott (“American Pie’s” Stiffler) are among them tonight. No sign of Stiffler’s mom,
Four members of your Super Bowl champion Giants are scheduled to be courtside, though. Once again, they’ll get the loudest cheers of the season in this building.