Happy Anniversary!
"I believe we have clearly seen significant and evident progress." - James Dolan, March 12, 2007
Click here after reading that statement.
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We all caught up with Jason Kidd after the game in Dallas. When he was asked about playing his favorite NBA punching bag, Kidd laughed and said, "It's the first time I've beaten them this year."
Then Antoine Wright chuckled. Kidd looked at him and cracked, "You like that?"
As much as Kidd enjoys his New Jersey legacy -- which includes lifting the status former doormat way above the Knicks -- he'll always lament that everything he did in the Jersey swamplands was in the shadow of the Knicks. The failures at the Garden was a bigger story than the success at the Meadowlands.
“We were on the wrong side of the Hudson," Kidd said. "If we were on the right side, it would have been, things would have been fun . . . er. There would have been a lot more attention to the things we had accomplished and that time would have been documented on a higher level. Unfortunately it wasn’t.”
He was asked (several times by one relentless reporter) if he ever wondered about playing for the Knicks.
“Who knows what could have happened, I don’t know," he said. "Hypothetically? I don’t know.”
But playing at Madison Square Garden will always be special. Kidd says he remembers when the building was tough for opponents. Now, opponents love it.
"Just the electricity of what the Garden brings and now you see a lot of visiting teams and take that to use to their advantage," he said. "LeBron goes for 50. Those types of things only happened when Chicago came to town . . . There’s so much history there. The things that were accomplished by past Knicks, just the history alone could help you go out there and play hard.”
As for what ails the Knicks, Kidd offered a few thoughts. One, which several opposing players have referenced this season, stood out:
"They just have to become hungry again."
*
It's 80 degrees. Time to get the hell out of this hotel room.
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Comments (6)
A little off topic, but is anyone else as petrified as I am after hearing Isiah talk about the draft pick?
Could he actually still be back next year?
picture this - dolan saying that they're giving the team time to gel and build around its young nucleus, and that isiah's back to do that, since this is the team he assembled. is this so far fetched?
im legitimately scared... its like being imprisoned for a crime you didn't comit. you have a four year sentence, and you're finally about to finish it. you're struggling with the day to day prison life and you're about ready to kill yourself, as you can't take it anymore. then, the warden tells you that you're only a few months away from freedom. your will to live is back. you start packing the little you have, dreaming about draft picks, thinking about how great civilized life will be again. you start to not worry as much about your "humiliating losses," the sexual harrassment or the two big guys on the low block. It all doesn't matter that much, since it's all going to be over soon. You could taste it. Then, you get another visit from the warden. There's some legal tie up. And for reasons that no one could explain, you're stuck for at least another year. Back to your cell, the life of a Knicks fan.
PLEASE FIRE ISIAH.
Sound EFX are a nice touch, Alan. Next time, a rim-shot, please.
And, yes, Matt -- I'm petrified, as well. Remember something else: Firing Isiah is only the first step in rebuilding this franchise. There aren't going to be any miracles. Whoever comes in to clean up this mess has a tough job. Ain't gonna happen over night.
@Trane
EVEN IF WE WIN THE LOTTERY I AM STILL WORRIED!
if isiah is back...and i am assuming he will be back
i don't like how he is developing the young talent.
he has no idea of what kind of team he wants to put together so he has a glut of players that all play the same position and the team has no definitive style.
the league is a run and shoot league
and he trades for eddy curry and zach randolph
most teams have athletic power forward types playing center
and isiah after being GM for the last three years just realized that.
that.
he would rather play q-rich at small forward than give wilson chandler the minutes to develop.
bench curry and play malik rose than play randolph morris.
I JUST DON'T TRUST ISIAH'S JUDGEMENT....
HE IS AN IDIOT AND SHOULD BE FIRED BUT HE WON'T BE!
WELCOME TO THE TERRORDOME!
I couldn’t agree more. As Alan says more succinctly: Be very afraid. Because I guess it really could happen:
Nightmare on 33rd Street. If this season was Part IV: The Return of Isiah. Next year will be: Part V. Isiah’s Revenge.
Is Isiah really gonna be around next year?