The Knicks Fix

Make sure to check out Ken Berger's blog for interesting news from today's practice. I'm about to head out for a New Year's Party. But as promised, it's time for Mailbag '08.

Post your questions, thoughts and even New Year's Resolutions here on this blog. The deadline is Wednesday at midnight. That leaves me the flight to San Antonio on Thursday to go through them. I promise answers by Sunday, when I fly from Houston to Chicago, where the team will spend a couple of days before Tuesday's game.

Please have patience with the security code thing. I see there are still some issues with it. I tried to post a comment this morning and found I had to try it twice before it finally took. Sorry about that. I'm sure the dot-com boys are working on it.

Have a safe and Happy New Year tonight. We'll see you on the other side....

When Isiah Thomas strolls into the Garden around 10:20 a.m. this morning -- barely 90 minutes before tip-off -- you can't help but wonder if a sense of urgency really exists at all.

As Walt Clyde Frazier might say, now's the time for stressin' and obsessin'!

Now's the time for dark circles under the eyes. Pulling out hair. Burning the candle at both ends. Sleeping in the office with video tape piled up around you.

Now's not the time for giving two days off in between losses and after you threaten lineup changes.

(Sure, it was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but you're telling me you can't have a 90-minute practice on the 24th? How many of you Fixers had to work on Christmas Eve? It's not uncommon!)

Now's not the time for inviting Roy Jones, Jr. into practice.

(The response to Jones, Jr.'s request to attend practice should have gone something like this: "Mr. Jones, no offense, but we need to focus right now. The guys will meet you after practice. On their own time." And then run the team for three hours so they're too exhausted to want to hang.)

Now's not the time to shuffle the lineup like a deck of cards without making sure every single player knows and understands what his new role will be in the change.

(You don't just keep rolling the dice until you get double-sixes. This ain't Yahtzee man!)

I'm tossing the keys on the table here. Running out of things to blog at this point. Maybe this is a good time for a mailbag.

I'll get back to you on that....

For a day, Nate Robinson wasn't the smallest player on the floor.

"I thought he was 6-5 when I watched him growing up," Nate said of Roy Jones, Jr., the light heavyweight championship boxer who visited practice today. "But he's more like my height, so that's kinda cool."

Jones, Jr. is listed at 5-11, which makes him two inches taller than Nate. But Jones, Jr. is much smaller than Nate; more like Allen Iverson's frame.

Roy's message to little man Nate? "Attack, attack, attack," he said.

Smart PR move by the Garden. Jones, Jr. is in town to work the ESPN broadcast of a fight this weekend in New York, so why not have him at practice to promote his Jan. 19 fight at the Garden with Felix Trinidad? And while we're at it, use it as a way to deflect the media's attention from the troubled Knicks?

So cynical I am. Agree with me, you should. Stop talking like Yoda, I must.

Jones, Jr. participated in some non-contact drills with the team. He wore a practice jersey with the No. 4 on the back, but he said it wasn't for Nate. Four is the number of rounds he plans to take to knock out Trinidad.

Smiles, everyone. Smiles!

"I'm like a little kid in a candy shop, you know it's like a dream come true to be able to work out with a professional team," Jones, Jr. said. "I can't go too hard because I don't want to risk no injury, but I almost wish I wasn't fighting because I couldn't put my all in. But since I got fight, I got to do what I do to."

Jumping the gun just a bit here is a radio reporter who put a little too much emphasis on what was a passing remark by Isiah Thomas today in his media address. It caused a little frenzy on the airwaves this afternoon after Thomas' "I don't know" response to a question about the possibility of Stephon Marbury never returning to the Knicks raised some eyebrows.

The beauty of radio and dot-com "journalism" is you have the ability to race to the airwaves and world wide web to report a story, then later shoot down your own story with another report after you get the facts straight.

At least this one didn't get on a back page before it was found to be completely innacurate.

While there's certainly reason to speculate about Marbury's future with the Knicks and reason to debate his extended absence from the team (it's been an exceptionally bereavement period, no doubt), there is nothing concrete to suggest that Marbury won't be back with the team this season.

At the end of his scrum with reporters following practice today, Thomas was asked the daily question about Marbury:

Q: Any sense of when Stephon's going to be back and whether there's something that's got to be worked out?

Isiah: No, um, our organization speaks with him daily and, uh, it's very safe to say he's having a very difficult time.

Q: Do you think because he's not here, I mean, eventually he will be back, that you'll have more tinkering to do, with how he fits in? Is that something you've thought about?

Isiah: No.

Q: Is there any chance he doesn't come back?

Isiah: Um, I don't know.

At this point, the Knicks PR person ended the interview with the usual, "OK, thanks Isiah." There was no opportunity to ask Isiah to elaborate on his "I don't know."

Marbury's plan has always been to come back after the New Year. Not sure what that means exactly -- does it mean the Jan. 2 game against the Kings or will he make the San Antonio-Houston-Chicago trip? -- and clearly he won't have much time to practice if that's his plan.

As much as I am curious about this extended absence by Marbury, I also question how much Thomas really wants him back at all. When he does return, how can you expect Marbury to step right in and play big minutes and contribute? He'll be gone almost a month at that point.

Here's the next and, likely, final phase of this relationship: the later into the season we go, the more attractive Marbury becomes on the trade market, because after this season he has an expiring contract. At $20 million this season and essentially $22 million next year, it's still a large sum of money. But if you're the Miami Heat and you can't get a good deal to land Mike Bibby....or say you're the Lakers....or Houston....

This will become the hot rumor of the second half of the season.

My annual Yule Blog. Hope it makes you toasty warm....

'Twas the Night before Knicksmas
I stroll through the Garden
to interrupt your holiday
I'm begging your pardon
Championship banners are hung
and looking faded and worn
Raised to these rafters
Well before any on the current team were born
The Garden faithful
turned into one angry mob
Wondering how the hell this guy
still has a job?
And what to your wondering eyes and chagrin?
Isiah's calling for changes;
pick anyone but him.
With I at the press table
And Dolan slumped in his chair
We're equally bored
and locked in a cold stare
Jimmy what do we make of this string of bad luck?
Of Marketing VPs getting filthy rich and interns getting filthy in the truck?
Of a coach you won't fire and a star you can't trade?
Of some sandbagging contracts which you grossly overpaid?
Yes, what of Isiah and his ubiquitous grin?
(Van Gundy was grouchy, but at least he could win)
The current team is not good,
let the record show this fact;
Yet you ignore everyone else
and keep falling for his act
Eddy was the future, now suddenly Eddy can't play
Stephon was benched, but still had his own way
Z-Bo would be a good fit, now the lineup is all wrong
At what point do you get tired of hearing this song?
To the bench brigade we go!
Let's resort to desperation;
Seek help from reserves
as your source of inspiration:
On David! On Nate! On Jared and Rose!
On Jamal and Renaldo and Fred, I suppose.
To the bottom of the standings
To the top of the draft board
Now dash away, dash away
Hopes one and all;
As you passionately proclaim
"Fire Isiah!" each night
Merry Christmas, my Fixers
thanks for coming to the site.

The Kobe Kraze...ain't nothing like it. Not even LeBron gets this kind of rock-star treatment here at the Garden. It's a shame he only makes one visit a year.

Kobe could reach the 20,000 point plateau today here on one of his favorite stages in the game.

The celebrity list is a long one today. Jerry Ferrara, Rosie Perez (somebody get an ice cube), Q-Tip, Pearl Washington, Michael Ray Richardson, Jadakiss, Marilu Henner, Ed Lover and Charles Oakley, who they had better give some GardenVision love to this time.

Enjoy the game.

STARTING LINEUPS
KNICKS
Randolph
Richardson
Curry
Crawford
Jones

LAKERS
Odom
Radmanovic-*
Bynum
Kobe
Fisher

*- Luke Walton is out with a sprained ankle.

**- Stephon Marbury will not play. Isiah Thomas said he spoke with him on Friday, but hasn't since. Interesting situation developing here. Marbury has filed a grievance for the fine the Knicks slapped him with for missing that game in Phoenix last week.

Time to spoof my favorite show, which I truly enjoy and appreciate....but if there is ever a cause for an emergency remodel, it's at 2 Penn Plaza. This is the first of a series, because it would be too long for one blog.

Here's how I think it would go...

[Fade in to Ty Pennington and his crew on a bus in midtown Manhattan. Ty wipes froth from his lips, scratches his crazy hair as if he has an itch, but really he doesn't, and is wringing his hands. One of the models on the show, who plays a "designer" quickly pops a pill in his mouth and Pennington's eyes go from crazed to glazed to dazed. She snaps a rubber band that he wears on his wrist and suddenly Ty comes to.

"We're in New York!" he screams, lifting his arms to the ceiling.

[Director reminds Ty this is the part of the show where they have to be somber and reverent and pluck the viewer's emotional strings with a troubling video about someone who owns a house that is a wreck. Director reminds the camera crew to make sure not to catch any homeless people in any of the Manhattan B-roll]

Ty tries to control his shaking as he pushes a video tape into the VCR on the bus -- logos and colors and product placement everywhere...and you wonder why Ty is suffering from ADD, among other things (dude clearly can't keep any weight on) -- and sits with the rest of the beautiful crew (plus Paul DiMeo, the "regular joe guy in the glasses") to watch.

[Note to cameraman: Make sure to get a cleavage shot of Paige Hemmis as you scan the crew.]

Isiah Thomas appears on the screen.

"I grew up on the West Side of Chicago . . ." he begins.

"Yeah!" Ty roars. "Chi-town! Let's go! Are you with me? Bus driver, move that..."

[Director again warns Ty if he doesn't start producing tears and expressions of sadness, he'll be sent back to TLC to do more episodes of Trading Spaces. Ty immediately turns on the water works. West Side of Chicago? he thinks. Try doing all the carpentry for that wack job Hildi Santo-Tomas. Now that's oppression.]

Thomas' story is abruptly cut off and it appears someone recorded over the remainder of the video. We see no faces, but hear a narrator. Sounds eerily like Red Holzman...

"This was where I used to work," begins a low voice with a old-school New York accent, as a slideshow of history is played on the screen.

Willis Reed. The Limp from the Tunnel. Clyde. Earl the Pearl. The Comeback. DeBusschere and Dollar Bill. Jackson. Meminger. Fall-back Baby. Truck. BK. Patrick. Action Jackson. X-Man. Oak. Starks. The Dunk. LJ. Allan. Hubert. The Shot. Latrel. Camby. Jeff-Van-Gun-Dee!....

"This place maybe never kept the shine it once had back when I worked here," the voice says, "but it always had a solid foundation. And we felt we were the epicenter of a game this entire town embraced as it's own. But things haven't gone so well the last few years. We're overwhelmed by structural damage, poor craftmanship and just plain neglect. Here, let me show you what it looks like today...."

A more recent slideshow begins with images of Stephon Marbury and a towel over his head. Isiah smirking on his video deposition. Steve Francis dribbling in a complete circle before falling down with an ankle sprain. Nate Robinson shoving JR Smith. Eddy Curry being rejected by Andreas Nocioni. Tim Thomas in a staredown with Marbury. Jerome James standing along the sidelines on the first day of training camp. Jalen Rose sorting out his buyout money on a hotel bed and then rolling in it. Jeff Van Gundy walking out of the Garden, getting into his Honda and puttering under the speed limit as far away from the mushroom cloud as he can. Zach Randolph turning his back on his man to complain to a referee, then losing where the ball is until he realizes it's already on its way to the basket, out of the hands of ... yes ... his man. Marcus Camby snatching his 20th rebound for Denver. James Dolan slumped low in his courtside seat, unaffected by the spiritless play of the players he pays millions yet growling about ushers and security personnel who make a few bucks a game so they can buy their kid a Wii for Christmas this year.

[Cut to Ty and the design team, pan their saddened faces. Focus on whomever conjures a tear or makes a motion as if to wipe one away].

"The foundation isn't just crumbling, it's actually quite useless at this point, according to several credible architects in the business," the voice says with a hint of equal parts dispair and disgust. "The electricity still worked a little up until last season, but now the wires are so crossed and worn there's hardly a flicker. The heating system is totally shot mainly because the furnace has stopped working during a trip to the West Coast earlier this year. And the winter's here get very cold when there's no heat in the building....."

That part of the video suddenly is cut off as abruptly as it began and Isiah is back on the screen, grinning and shrugging.

"...The bills are just piling up. $18 million last year, $11.5 million this year and that's not counting the luxury tax we're forced to pay. A plea was made to the NBA this summer by one member of the media to relieve us of our bad contracts and let us rebuild. But the league denied our request! If the league offices were in Indiana or Detroit, they would have supported us. But we're left here, on our own, to live with this mess we created. It's just not fair. I mean, it's not my fault. The media is tough on us for bad decisions we've made, the fans boo when we play poorly and opposing teams seem to enjoy beating the snot out of us. It's just not fair!"

[Cut to Ty, bawling]

"Shut it off! Shut it off!" Ty screams.

[Director reminds Ty about his penchant for being "over the top"]

"I think we've seen enough," Ty says, wiping his eyes. "These people need our help."

[Cut to 33rd Street, where Ty stands with his trademark bullhorn (as if he needs it) ready for roll call]

Goooood morning Knickerbocker family!

Jimmy! Steve! Isiah! Glen! Herbie! Stephon! Eddy! Zach! Q! Jamal! . . .

[One by one, the characters come running out with teary expressions of relief (except for Dolan, who immediately fires a security guard for not decking the skinny guy with bed-head shouting with a bullhorn outside his building). Isiah heads straight for Ty and the two share a peck on the cheek that is reminiscent of he and Magic Johnson from the NBA Finals.]

"Show me your house," Ty then says, dripping with more sap than a cut maple.

They walk around the corner and enter the building under the Seventh Avenue marquee. Everything looks normal in the lobby, which is beautifully decorated and celebrating the great tradition of the grand hall. But then another set of doors open . . .

[Cut to commercial. Ty hawking Sears products, such as a Craftsman sledgehammer, which is good to demolish your anticipation for the season. Or a cordless drill, to put holes in every excuse you hear. Or how about a Kenmore stove, where you can burn all the money you spent on tickets.]

The show returns with a quick highlight of what took place in the opener. Ty, tears and tortured souls. Then to those doors again...which open.

[Cut to inside the arena...the Knicks are in the midst of a home game. Full house, as usual. Crowd roaring, "Dee-Fense!" without the need of canned synthesized encouragement from the PA system, as in most other NBA arenas. The team on the floor doesn't seem to comprehend the message urged by the fans. Eventually the defense breaks down, someone is left wide open and a dagger drops through the basket. Timeout is called.

Boos.

They get louder and louder. [Cue ominous music; cut to astonished expressions by Ty and the crew. Avoid designer Michael Moloney, who seems oblivious to the game and is wondering what's with all the tacky drapes hanging from the ceiling?] A chant of "Fire Isiah!" rises up around them and the crew braces itself.

"I feel like this place could come crashing down at any moment!" Ty says to a handheld camera.

To Be Continued....

See ya in the Funny Papers.

Tomorrow marks the fourth anniversary for Isiah Thomas as president of the Knicks. He told us this morning that he likes the direction the franchise is headed and even added "I think we're pretty close this year."

This concludes the entertainment portion of your evening.

STARTING LINEUPS
KNICKS
Richardson
Randolph
Curry
Crawford
Jones

BOBCATS
Wallace
Okafor
Mohammed
Richardson
Felton

*- Stephon Marbury isn't with the Knicks

* - Adam Morrison (ACL) and Sean May (right knee surgery) are out for Charlotte

* - Jared Jeffries' buddy through Brand Jordan, Terrell Owens is here at the games. America's Team is in town to play the Panthers tomorrow night.

James Dolan wasn't present to see it, but a lesson was learned by Isiah Thomas and the Knicks tonight. The fans in New York don't boo lack of talent. They boo lack of effort.

Consider the lineup Isiah had on the floor in the second quarter against the Cavaliers: Fred Jones, Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson, David Lee and Malik Rose. That group turned a one point lead into a 13-point halftime advantage.

Yes, it was against a lethargic Cavaliers team that looked more like the Knicks of recent games....yes, even the worst team in the NBA is going to win some during an 82-game season.

But we can't just keep pounding on the negatives. They've been well-represented (the offense is simplistic, the starting five is poorly constructed and the coach uses a random rotation that messes with a player's confidence).

Let's take the positives out of this win and learn from them:

Lee's numbers stand out in the boxscore (he scored 12 of his 22 points in the second quarter), but what you don't see is how that group collectively worked as a unit. Passing, cutting. Legit screens set by Lee and Rose. Attempts at defense and not allowing easy layups. Lee made sure to foul LeBron hard enough so he couldn't complete a three-point play. Rose showed some hops he once had earlier in his career by stuffing Sasha Pavlovic on a dunk attempt.

Rose also found a cutting Lee for an easy score. Crawford had four of his six assists at the half because he kept the ball in constant motion. Dribble-drives, passing, moving. Honest effort. Also helped that the Knicks shot the ball well all night. Over 56 percent on the night. 50 of their 108 points were scored in the paint, but the perimeter shooting (the Knicks were 8 for 17 from downtown) was key. Q-Rich had his best shooting night in a long time. He hit 4 of 6 from three-point range and was hot early.

During most of that second quarter, Isiah had more individual talent on the bench -- Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph and Stephon Marbury -- than on the floor, but wait...what do my wondering ears do I hear?

A jolly old Garden filled with holiday cheers.

That group may not win you a championship, but they're more entertaining than what Thomas had been going with. And that group wasn't getting you a ring any time soon, anyway.

What Thomas needs to do now is stick with a set rotation. Stop looking to get people minutes or looking to protect people's minutes. Stop worrying about the size of the contract you are now burying on the bench and how you'll be criticized for admitting the guy you gave big money to can't play.

The Yankees do it all the time (see: Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson, Kenny Rogers....). It's worse when you try to ignore a problem everyone else is already aware of (see: Chad Pennington, Alexei Yashin, Scott Boras....).

Go with your group, establish a standard within the team. Whomever doesn't meet this standard takes a seat until he does. Let majority rule (as in, if the team votes against allowing a player who ditched on them to play, you DON'T play him) and let the players hold each other accountable by rewarding those who adhere to the standard.

Let the first guy who complains get a ticket to the Steve Francis/Penny Hardaway "rehab assignment" vacation club.

Isiah does a lot of tough talking. What he needs to do is start walking the walk with his players. Only then will he have a chance to win back his locker room.

The "Pink Slip" protest rally held outside MSG this afternoon drew a lot of coverage, as some of you might have seen on the 5 o'clock local news. There will be a story in our news section.

Isiah Thomas was asked about it before the game and said, "I have no reaction to it."

Lively crowd so far. Eddy already in foul trouble.

Sorry this is late.

STARTING LINEUPS
KNICKS
Randolph
Richardson
Curry
Crawford
Jones

CAVALIERS
Gooden
James
Ilgauskas
Gibson
Pavlovic

Enjoy the game.

Meet Jason Silverstein. He's a 23 year old from New Jersey who now lives in Manhattan. And with a Sharpie and food tray, got himself on the back page of Newsday.

Silverstein emailed me this morning to let me know he was the guy in the picture. Gave me his number and then proceeded to tell me his story.

He came to the game with the intention to hold up a "Fire Isiah!" sign. He has a friend who has season tickets right there behind the Knicks bench, right next to the tunnel that leads to the locker room. Prime real estate at the Garden. Coincidentally, Silverstein is into real estate.

He brought a blank sheet of oak tag to the game and kept the Sharpie in his pocket. He knew if he wrote "Fire Isiah" on it before he entered the building, they'd never let him in. So he kept it blank and kept it by his seat. But by halftime, Garden security, who had taken notice, decided to confiscate the blank sheet.

But Silverstein had his white, styrofoam tray that came with his food. You see, lower bowl people get waiter service.

Late in the game, as the Knicks crumbled to dust in yet another embarrassing loss, Silverstein scribbled the collective refrain that echoed throughout the Garden:

Fire Isiah.

He added an arrow and held it strategically, so it pointed in the direction of the subject.

Within seconds, Garden security removed the sign and escorted Silverstein out of the building. But not before photographers from the local papers caught his act.

During our conversation, Silverstein also made it a point to back Mara Altschuler, the fan from that same area who last week said Isiah chastized fans behind the Knicks bench when the Knicks played the Mavericks on Dec. 10. "Everything she said was true," said Silverstein, who says he attended that game as well.

A little background on Silverstein: He graduated last year from Thomas' alma mater, Indiana University. He runs a team in the EBC at Rucker Park called "Team Certified" and, in those circles, he's known as "the Mark Cuban of Rucker."

Once Garden officials moved him out of his section, Silverstein said he went peacefully because he had made his point (and hoping James Dolan, seated adjacent to him, saw the sign). He wouldn't give the Garden officials his name because he was afraid it might lead to being banned.

"If I can't go to Knick games, my life is over," he said. "As bad as it is, I'm still going to go to the games."

* *

I believe it was posted in the comments section, but I'll give it some pub here. There is a growing campaign for a fan protest rally to take place Dec. 30 at the Garden before the Knicks-Bulls game. If you're mad as hell and don't want to take it anymore, click on www.knicksprotest.wordpress.com and get your angry on.

There was Eddy Curry huddled with Malik Rose in a corner of the Knicks locker room, both players still in uniform almost a half-hour after the game had ended. The big fella seeking counsel, no doubt, from the veteran. A room that likely aired it out before the media entered probably wanted to air out some more after they heard what Isiah Thomas said in his postgame address.

"There are a lot of things that can be said about me and teams that I’ve coached and the way I played, but I never been accused of not having heart or competing," Thomas said. "Tonight was very discouraging to me because we didn’t collectively play with heart and compete like I know I did.”

The tough talk may be a few weeks too late, but if you watched the game you couldn't argue with him. The Knicks were tied at 64 with 5:51 left in the third quarter and will Jermaine O'Neal on the bench with his fourth foul. Things couldn't have been more favorable....

.....and yet turn out so unfavorably.

As the Knick defense made Indiana's Mike Dunleavy suddenly turn into Larry Bird, the "Fire Isiah!" chants got louder and louder. Fans marched around the Garden with signs calling for Isiah's head. James Dolan was there, front row, to witness it all. But we all know how he feels, at least according to his handlers. Dolan hasn't talked to the media since he gave Thomas his contract extention last March.

The record since that day? 11-32.

Exhibit A, your honor.

It seemed last season the players rallied around Thomas, who was in the final year of his contract. They were happy to be rid of the Larry Brown disaster and never expected there would eventually be an Isiah Thomas disaster to endure. But once Steve Francis jumped on that scorer's table in Washington . . .

I asked Quentin Richardson, an undisputed leader in the locker room, if that rally aspect was missing this season.

“I don’t know about that, about us rallying or not rallying this year," he said. " . . . I don’t know.”

* *

* - Jared Jeffries, brought in to be a defensive stopper, couldn't get in the game in the third or fouth quarter to put a longer, quicker defender on Dunleavy? Jeffries saw zero minutes.

* - Nate Robinson also didn't play a tick, though some of the crowd chanted for him in the latter stages.

* - Good to meet Giaps, a Fixer who came by after the game to say Hello. Hope you didn't pay for that ticket my man!

* - One unfortunate member of the electronic media who happens to physically resemble Dolan -- full goatee, curly hair and a bit rotund -- was making his way down to the locker room as the game ended when a fan spotted him and roared "Hey Dolan! F--- you!"

After three quarters here at the Garden. Knicks losing by 10. Here's the scoop on the Curry prediction....it never happened.

As we were trying to figure out the origin of this so-called prediction by Eddy Curry, which the Pacers players were talking about before the game, it was discovered that one reporter who spoke with Curry made a joke at this morning's shoot-around that Curry just told him he guaranteed a Knicks win.

Someone overheard it and took it as fact and ran with it...all the way to the Pacers locker room.

Gotta love New York.

Talk around the Garden is that Eddy Curry has guaranteed a Knicks victory over the Pacers tonight. I don't know who he said this to, but it had to have happened before I spoke with him. Curry never mentioned the Pacers when I talked to him this morning at the shoot-around, but that doesn't mean he didn't say it to another reporter.

The Pacers locker room was a-buzz with Curry's apparent prediction.

Meanwhile, the Knicks locker room was a-buzz with Nate Robinson's dunk on Randolph Morris during a pregame one-on-one competition.

DOINK!

STARTING LINEUPS

KNICKS
Randolph
Richardson
Curry
Crawford
Jones*

PACERS
Dunleavy
O'Neal
Murphy
Granger
Tinsley

*-Stephon Marbury will dress and will play.

Apologies for the weekend absence, Fixers. I needed a few days to get some sh, I mean, stuff, um, sorted out. Thanks to K-Berg and Hot Rod Boone for picking up the slack. And thanks to the Fixers for taking the keys off the table and keeping the place warm while I was away....loved the 'Fire Alan!' chant....also liked the suggestions.

I also agree you should give Wilson Chandler some more ticks. Why not? You know he'll play hard. But before we get to that and the discussion as to who to keep and who to dump in the Great Knick Rebuild, Part XII, let's get to current events....

Here we are a year and a day after the infamous brawl against the Denver Nuggets. I bring it up only because it provided a turning point of sorts in a season that was heading nowhere fast a a year ago. OK, so in hindsight the season still eventually headed nowhere, but it didn't happen as fast.

And that night, Dec. 16, had something to do with it. You as a crowd suddenly went from jeers to cheers because you loved the effort of the undermanned squad, which took last-second wins over Utah and Charlotte a year ago this week. The team went from whining about the lack of home crowd support to being galvanized by a roaring Garden.

They didn't win with much more frequency, but their effort was more respectable. Stephon Marbury emerged out of the doldrums in January and for most of the second half of the season was the Knicks' best player. They were on the verge of capturing a playoff berth, mainly because the East was filled with teams that had losing records.

You noticing what I'm noticing?

No, I'm not jumping on any bandwagons. In fact, I stick to what I've been saying all along: this team needs a ball-moving point guard and a shot-blocking center (not named Jerome James, that is). One of the two has to have some leadership quality. The rest of this team is fine as it is, loaded with a strong supporting cast of foot soldiers. All they need is a cause (like they had last year, when they were rallying around Isiah Thomas).

We've been hearing from Isiah that there is still plenty of season left. A little less than three-quarters remain. But take a peek at the January schedule and you have to believe these next two weeks are what will judge what this season will be all about. You have Indiana tonight, Cleveland on Wednesday and Charlotte on Friday. Then at MSG against the Lakers, at Orlando and home against Chicago to end the calendar year.

At nine games under .500 already, you can't afford anything less than 4-2 over this stretch. I don't care what the Nets, Cavs and Bulls are doing. You are 3.5 games behind Milwaukee for the final playoff spot.

And if you're still there in January, then it's time to start worrying what the Nets, Cavs and Bulls are doing, because history shows these teams to have the ability to run off a winning streak. This Knicks group never won more than three straight last season and two-in-a-row is this year's longest run of success.

So will it be playoff calls or ping-pong balls? These next two weeks might provide the answer.

* *

* - Stephon Marbury participated in the shoot-around this morning, but didn't speak. We're told he is planning to maintain some media silence while he works his way back into shape.

* - Malik Rose was here, too, and, apparently, the story that he didn't make practice yesterday because his car was snowed-under is legit. Neither Rose nor Thomas will suggest the veteran is getting traded or cut any time soon. You can bet if he is put on waivers, teams such as the Nets, Cleveland and even the Bulls might want to grab him up to strengthen their respective benches.

A die hard Knicks fan sent this to me early this morning. I watched it and had to share. What a great era in basketball those days were.

Here is one of several crushing Knick losses from the 1990s, when they always seemed so close but couldn't get that one critical win. Still, when you watch this, you see what the current Knicks team is lacking -- and it's not talent.

This will be bittersweet, but enjoy.

No matter what the high-ranking Garden officials are whispering to select members of the preferred media, this can't last much longer. Even as Isiah Thomas desperately tries to adhere to James Dolan's strict media policy that prohibits public criticism of players or the organization -- note: Thomas has $24 million left on his contract and wants to make sure he gets every penny -- he could not avoid the obvious after yet another defeat in which the Knicks showed no collective determination to win.

I asked him after the game, when do you reach a point where changes need to be made?

He paused a moment and I knew he was formulating his words and carefully reviewing them in his mind.

"You give it some thought . . . " he started, before another long pause.

"You know, if things do change," he then said, "it'll be a conversation we have with the players, before I have it with you. Just out of respect.

"I'm not going to come in here after a loss and then tell you, 'I'm gonna start changing things' and I haven't said that to the players."

What I know is he didn't have anything to say to the players after the dreadful loss to the 6-17 Sonics last night at the Garden. He went into his office and then right to the interview room. When he was done speaking to us, every Knick player had already dressed and split. David Lee was the only Knick to stop and talk with reporters.

Thomas tried to shake things up five games into the season when he attempted to bench Stephon Marbury. That blew up in his face and was only made worse when he surrendered to Marbury to the point that he went against the players' vote and played Marbury against the Clippers after he had ditched his team in Phoenix.

Since then, all Thomas will do is put up an optimistic front in regard to his players, when all anybody wants is for him to just be honest: This team is in desperate need of a ball-moving point guard (how many times recently has Thomas made reference to the Knicks' needing "better ball-movement" in their offense?), Curry's alarmingly awful defensive instincts make it impossible to play him and have obliterated any potential he had to be an all-star, Q-Rich, considered the heart-and-soul leader of the team last season, is not the same since that back surgery last spring . . . the offense is about as creative as stick-figure art.

"We're not a good team right now," Thomas said, sort of acknowledging all of the above.

The first and most obvious change to be made would be in the coach's chair. I wouldn't put it past Thomas to remove himself as coach -- as long as Dolan approves -- and hand over the team that has tuned him out to someone else. But can you see anyone with credibility (and with that comes ego) accepting the job under Thomas?

Jeff Van Gundy's name keeps coming up in the media, but I don't think you'll ever see him back on the Knicks bench. I say this because it's hard to believe Dolan would agree to this, considering that Van Gundy was one of the few people who had the courage to tell it like it is around here, something Dolan despises. The second is that Van Gundy only has to look at the roster, consider the contracts and know it's almost impossible for him to win with this group.

Some of you in Fixer Nation are already having visions of ping pong balls dancing in your heads. If only there were a Ewing, a Durant or Oden or LeBron, to that matter, ready for the Class of 2008. With 61 games left, it's too early to tank. And with so many other team's putting up mediocre records in the East, a playoff berth isn't at all out of the question.

But if you want that to remain a possibility, you have to act now.

So if Thomas is to stay, as those high-ranking Garden officials have insisted, what other changes could take place?

What you don't want to hear about is another ill-fated and half-hearted lineup shuffle. Moving someone like Curry to the bench is merely re-arranging the furniture. It's like sending Marbury to the bench. Unless you have someone who could do a better job, what's the point?

What the Knicks need is a blockbuster. A locker room-shaking deal. A move that creates buzz, creates a little excitement and changes the atmosphere of the room.

A wish list:

- A ball-moving point guard who lives off assists, not points, and works the offense from the top of the key like a traffic cop. A heady player who knows how to get Jamal Crawford his shots while also keeping Zach Randolph happy and yet has the stones (and credibility) to bark at either of them when Jamal goes into chuck-and-duck mode or Z-Bo morphs into a Black Hole.

- A shot-blocking center who will finally keep people out of the damn paint and not be afraid to use the six fouls the NBA gives you in each game. A big man who inspires confidence in a defense that too often is caught running around because no one trusts the other guy to be where he's supposed to be.

You get those two elements, you might have a reason to believe even Isiah can't mess it up.

Now what they don't need is more of the same rhetoric from the team president and coach that the organization believes in the players it has.

Why? Because judging by their effort and body language, the players no longer believe in the players the team has. And when you reach that point, you need change.

That's why you can expect it to happen.

They're insulting our intelligence again.

When you ask any of these so-called "high-ranking Garden official" types -- which begs the question, since Garden VP Barry Watkins is so close to James Dolan and so skilled at getting his word out, who has more influence right now, Watkins or Garden president Steve Mills, who is never allowed to address the media? -- they'll tell you Dolan is a loyalist. That's why he won't give up on Isiah Thomas.

You know, loyal, like he was to an icon such as Marv Albert. Like his people were to Charles Oakley when he sat courtside at a game earlier this season but wasn't given the typical GardenVision love that singer James Blunt, seated next to him, was given. I mean, how many times to we need to see that Fat Joe and Steve Schirripa (Bobby Bacala) are at the game? We get it, they are season ticket holders!

Dolan's loyalty is then explained by his handlers with a point to the Rangers side of the MSG family, the area that is almost as ignored by Dolan as the Liberty. They say Dolan stuck with Glen Sather, who endured some awful years early in his tenure but has recently guided the Rangers into an above-average NHL team.

I saw a former Ranger in recent months and we talked about the Knicks for a while. I then said to him, "Now I know how Glen lasted so long with you guys." He shook his head, said, "I don't even want to go there" and walked away with a laugh.

But is Sather really deserving of the credit in turning the Rangers from an overpriced embarrassment of a franchise into something that resembles stability? Ask anyone in the know and they'll tell you former assistant GM Don Maloney (now in Phoenix) and coach Tom Renney played a much bigger role, along with the restrictions of the NHL's new salary cap, which forced the Rangers to buy out of bad contracts and stop adding new bad contracts. Renney and Maloney, meanwhile, also worked on drafting players who fit their needs and - what a concept - then developed them.

Pop quiz, Fixers: When was the last time the Knicks drafted and developed a prospect that became all-star? A follow-up: When was the last time the Knicks drafted and developed a player who became a consistent and credible starter for them?

(I'll give you time to think about it. Answers at the bottom of the blog).

Sather never looked to take credit for the work Maloney and Renney did. In fact, he stays out of the public eye more than ever now. What you can say about Sather is he hired quality people and let them do their job and let them take the credit. He even let them do most of the talking. Renney represents the Rangers more than Sather does in the media these days. Before he left, Maloney, too, was always open for an interview.

Some say it was just how Sather wanted it. He'd rather spent his time so far behind the scenes in choice locations such as Palm Springs or Banff.

If Dolan wants to be so loyal to Isiah and Garden people want to point to Sather as evidence loyalty eventually pays off, someone ought to have Sather invite Isiah out to his tony getaway in Alberta. Have a cigar and a sip of Remy Martin, relax on the corinthian leather sofa by the roaring fire.

And let someone else handle the Knicks.

* *

Sometimes you realize after a story is published that you should have put something higher up in your story. This morning, I came to that conclusion. The point to be made in the wake of the latest controversy -- Isiah vs. The Fans, Part II -- is what he suggests in his own words. Here's what I had at the bottom of the story in today's editions.

One more time, with feeling (and a little cut-n-paste):

(SNIP)

With evidence that his message is no longer getting through the players -- their lack of effort is Exhibit A -- Thomas is looking to the crowd to do what he apparently has been unable to do: motivate.

"I do know that ... the players we coach here, you can gauge their emotional response, and when they're aggressive and when they're tentative," Thomas said. "Right now, my team is a little tentative and a little hesitant. My job is to get them going and to get them aggressive and to get them confident."

So what comes first, the effort or the cheers? Even Thomas admitted that the crowd on Monday got behind the team once players such as David Lee and Zach Randolph started making an impact and helped cut a 23-point deficit to seven with a little over three minutes left. Truth is, it's not the players who are under constant heat; it's Thomas, the man who made the decision to put lumbering Eddy Curry on Dirk Nowitzki in the first half (the reigning MVP had 19 points on his way to a season-best, 36-point performance).

(UNSNIP)

* - To me, what's more disturbing than a coach jawing with the fans -- quite frankly, I don't mind a little give-and-take -- is a coach who allows his players to use outside forces, whether it is the crowd or the media, as an excuse for not performing. After Monday's game, there seemed to be more frustration with the Garden crowd and the boos and the chants than with the actual defeat itself.

* - Listening to sports talk radio on the drive back from practice yesterday and Mike Francesa brought up the point that fans should stop going to games. That it would be the only way to send a message to Dolan.

I disagree only because of the Three Percent Rule that we've discussed for about a year now. The Garden revenue makes up just three percent of the Cablevision revenue. Even if no one shows up, Cablevision will hardly feel it in the pocket. and with less people around to boo, Dolan and Isiah might actually prefer the quiet. That's why I maintain that, if you can afford it (or the tickets are free), you should continue to go and continue to voice your opinion. Make sure he hears you loud and clear.

Gimme a little Howard Beale:

I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!

* - Quiz Answers: Mark Jackson. Drafted in 1987, an all-star in 1989. And Charlie Ward, drafted in 1994 (behind Monty Williams).

Fixers, we have apparently come full circle.

It was a year ago that the Knicks, led by Isiah Thomas, were complaining that the Garden faithful were too faith-less; that they treat the team too harshly when it has an ocassional stinker or two . . . or 10; that they just won't look past the ugly and love them for what they are, which would be, apparently, one of the most promising 14-loss teams in the NBA at the season's quarterpole. This a year after they were the best 33-win team in NBA history.

How can anyone work in this environment, where people demand results or, at the very least, an honest effort? How can anyone perform when they're constantly being held accountable for their performance?

Just imagine if the owner was so demanding.

"If you were a player or a coach, could you handle that every single night?" Jamal Crawford asked regarding the nightly boos and chants Thomas and the Knicks face at home. "Could you?"

Jamal should know not every Knick is directly booed. David Lee is greeted with cheers when he enters the game. Renaldo Balkman, as well. Even Nate Robinson, my little wayward son, still draws a positive reaction. Zach Randolph, when he's giving his effort like he did in the second half against Dallas, is another who will always hear appreciation.

But Eddy Curry? Not when he plays so uninspired. Jared Jeffries? Clearly the fans have made a decision on his signing. Stephon Marbury? Up until the sudden death of his father and the circumstances that surrounded it, he was considered the ultimate lightning rod for the fans' ire. I don't expect he'll receive that same treatment when he does return from his bereavement, but it might not take long for him to return to the front of the line.

All of the above, though, always have a shot at redemption. A solid performance, a gutsy, honest effort. A win.

Isiah, however, has already passed that point of no return. He's run through it as if it were tape at a finish line.

You'll be reading this morning all about Isiah's apparent exchange with fans behind the Knicks bench during Monday's 99-89 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. You'll hear about this woman who cut to the press table with more purpose than Curry on a pick-and-roll after the final buzzer to share what she heard Thomas saying to the fans who were heckling him from the not-so-cheap seats. You'll be informed that Thomas apparently told the fans that it was their fault the Knicks were making mistakes, missing layups and looking completely confused at both ends of the floor.

You'll need to know that this woman said Thomas was telling the fans that in Indiana, where apparently real basketball fans exist, the people there wouldn't be booing the team. That the Knicks get a more supportive crowd in New Jersey when they play the Nets. That it's the fault of you, the "Sixth Man".

You'll want to be reminded that only last week this same man said you as fans had every right to boo and chant.

Now, it's all your fault.

"Is that how it always is around here?" Randolph asked me after the game, which included the loudest "Fire Isiah!" chant so far, heavy boos for another lackluster performance by Curry and yet the usual roaring encouragement of "Let's Go Knicks!" and "Dee-Fense!" when the Knicks made a late surge to cut what was a 23-point deficit to seven in the fourth quarter.

Z-Bo finally got his act together in the second half, which was one of the few positive things that happened for the Knicks last night (there, I wrote something positive). But he seemed conflicted by the crowd reaction. He said he "ain't never been in a situation like that."

He said in Portland, the fans never got on the team that way. I had to explain to him: See, in Portland, like most other places, when the team sucks like you guys suck, they stop going to games. Here in New York, people keep coming. They sell out the Garden on a Monday night to see Dirk Nowitzki, the reigning MVP. They'll sell it out to see great players, such as Iverson, Kobe, Nash and Wade, but also just to see good teams, like the Utah Jazz, Orlando Magic and even the Golden State Warriors. And when the home team doesn't give them a show, they boo you until you're hiding under a towel and covering your ears.

Or until you give them a reason to cheer.

"You can't get caught up in that," Crawford said of the range of emotions that come from the Garden crowd. "I've seen that a lot in the four years I've been here. Fans don't come here to boo you, they come here to cheer you on. And amidst all of that, they do what's popular; the 'Fire Isiah' chant. We've just got to play through it."

Coincidentally, it was before the game that Isiah went on another one of his "Let me tell you how it is in New York" monologues.

"Every game is life or death. Every game is the season. There’s no 82-game season, it’s one game you’re on, one game you’re off. That’s the unique passion that New York brings because the people here are thirsty, they want it and they expect for you to give it to them every night . . . It really does bring out the best in you and you’ve got to give it here and you’ve got to bring it, whether you’re a coach, whether you’re a player, whether you’re a guy catching the subway to get to work every morning . . ."

The guy catching that subway in the morning probably makes more of an effort than Curry does on the defensive boards.

The news today involves the settlement that was announced today between the Garden, Isiah Thomas and Anucha Browne Sanders. Read the details here in the AP story. Our news people are working on a story for the print edition.

As for tonight's game against the Mavericks...

STARTING LINEUPS

KNICKS
Randolph
Richardson
Curry
Crawford
Jones

MAVERICKS
Josh Howard
Nowitzki
Dampier
Harris
Terry

Stephon Marbury is not at the game. Malike Rose is once again on the inactive list at his request. He has not, however, officially asked for a trade.

In fact, Thomas says no one is on the block. "We're not actively looking to move anyone," he said before the game. "We like what we have."

Enjoy the game.

Stephon Marbury has had an excuse for his lack of focus lately. Eddy Curry? None.

The Knicks will probably go without him tonight against the Dallas Mavericks. I could give you a little preview, consider matchups (who is going to guard Dirk?) and discuss how Isiah Thomas needs to get Zach Randolph going early in this game and get him in the right frame of mind quickly because he's losing him . . .

But . .

I just keep going back to my previous blog and the contents within. The philosophy that things aren't as bad as they seem, because everyone else in the East has double-digit losses, too. That hole in the Ozone layer, you know, it's not that bad if you compare it to the size of the earth. Doomsday is still at least 100 years away, we've got time.

I'll check in tonight pregame. Try to give you guys what you deserve. I need a mulligan this morning.

Here is Isiah Thomas's optimistic view after losing by 28 to the Sixers to complete a miserable home-and-home sweep and send the Knicks into last place in the Atlantic Division.....after Eddy Curry puts forth yet another emotion-less performance, after Zach Randolph gets lost in the offense....after the ship be sinkin once again because there still is no rudder....after the team fell seven -- SEVEN -- games under .500 before they've even reached the quarterpole of the season...

"The perception is that we are out of it, but when you look at the losses in the East, everyone has 11, 12, 13 losses. There are a lot of teams in the situation we are in. We just have to keep working hard to find out way out of it."

Yes, Fixers, there are 12 teams in the East that have 10 or more losses. The Knicks' 13 Ls are tied for the second-worst. Only the 4-15 Miami Heat, who are in even more of a troubling tailspin than the Knicks, have more. But considering the talent on the Heat, you tend to have more confidence that they and the Chicago Bulls, at 6-12, will eventually snap out of it.

The Knicks have never given that kind of long-term evidence. In fact, the way they have played suggests only more of the same unless some major changes take place, either with the coach or with the roster. Some form of a shake-up needs to be done.

But don't expect it. As Ken Berger wrote in his column for Sunday, James Dolan, who was in attendance for the Sixer blowout, was smiling with Isiah Thomas after the latest disaster.

Smiling. When Forbes values your franchise as the highest in the NBA and your value actually goes UP three percent in a year that includes no playoffs and the public embarrassment of a sexual harassment trial, you have reasons to smile.

You also have no motivation for change. Just keep shoveling out the rhetoric and turn up the volume on the bass machine when the crowd starts chanting "Fire Isiah."

Sure, the good news is this awful start has only dropped the Knicks 2.5 games out of the final playoff spot with three-quarters of the season still to play. Not much ground to make up in order to make the playoffs. But is that the only goal here? What ever happened to the quest for mediocrity, which used to be a .500 record?

And shouldn't the manner in which the team loses games count here?

Losing games and playing uninspired, inconsistent basketball reigns in the East. Hey, everyone is doing it!

Howard Stern is in the house. On the MSG celebrity list for each game, the name and affiliation are listed. You know, as in, "Fat Joe, rapper" etc. For Stern, his affiliation is simply stated:

Howard Stern, The King of All Media.

Does Howard Stern have a blog? Because if he doesn't then technically he can't be the King of all media.

Dean Meminger is also at the game tonight.

STARTING LINEUPS
KNICKS
Randolph
Richardson
Curry
Crawford
Marbury

SIXERS
Evans
Iguodala
Dalembert
Green
Miller

* - An interesting name on the inactive list: Malik Rose. Rookie Wilson Chandler is dressing.

Enjoy the game.

Stephon will start. Eddy Curry, who rolled his ankle during the walk-through on Wednesday and had to sit out the game against the Nets, is back, too. Isiah Thomas said Curry "had a good workout" in the morning. "He didn't trip on any lines," Thomas added.

KNICKS (6-11)
Richardson
Randolph
Curry
Crawford
Marbury

SIXERS (5-13)
Iguodala
Evans
Dalembert
Green
Miller

Enjoy the game. Considering the weather, I think I'll have to skip my traditional post-game cheesesteak run and just focus on getting on the road back to Long Island. Thanks to some of your comments and emails, I have some new places to check out.

Twenty-four hours after burying his father, Stephon Marbury sat in a locker room at the Wachovia Center and preparing himself to play here tonight against the Sixers.

"To be honest, I don't want to be here," Marbury said, "but it's something I gotta do. It's my job. It's something I love to do. I just want to get back into the swing of things.

"It's tough," Marbury added, "but my father's in the ground now, there'