On Saturday I went to the Garden to research a column on the depressing, bitter, unhappy world of the Knicks beat.
Later, I decided (in consultation with my editor) against stepping into that quagmire at this time, mostly because of the awkwardness of trying to do a fair, unbiased job on a story that involves my own paper and its direct competitors.
I was hoping some sort of independent media outlet would tackle the subject and take it off my hands. Turns out John Koblin of The New York Observer was there the same day I was, asking some of the same questions.
Here are the answers he got.
It's an interesting read, even though it did not delve into some of the more delicate, complicated areas of intrigue behind the scenes on this sorry subject.
Maybe the Knicks will beat the Celtics Thursday and the team and the reporters who cover it will be one, big happy family. Or not.
Comments (3)
that was a GREAT read. thanks for the link.
Where oh where is the great NBA commissioner David Stern in this mess? Shouldn't he be trying to insure that every NBA franchise (let alone the one in the largest market) is a first class operation?
I suppose the fans who go to these games deserve some of the blame. But I lived in Baltimore in the late 1970s and saw how fans at a loved institution, the Baltimore Colts, stopped supporting their team because owner Robert Irsay kept looking for a new stadium and finally moved the team under the cover of darkness. Pete Rozelle did nothing. Wouldn't even give them an expansion team so Baltimore had to break another team's heart by stealing the Browns.
It would be interesting to get some recollections from writers who covered the Knicks in the post willis reed/pre Patrick ewing days for what the job was like then.
Boy that was a good story in the NY Observer. And the art [drawing] that was posted on the website was even scarier. Naked Dolans. Ugh.
Reporting the Knicks sounds worse than reporting in a Warsaw Pact country 40 years ago. The Daily News writer gets it double because of his relationship to SNY. Explains the freeze-out.
Speaking of SNY, glad you didn't pull a Raissman [conflict of interest] in writing the story.