The Knicks look pretty good by comparison. At least they are honest about it all being about the money.

“Far be it from This Blog to tell commissioners how to run their sports, but it feels that the NBA would be better served if David Stern took a break from fanciful talk of contraction, and from fashionable union-busting, to call James Dolan in and tell him that Isiah Thomas is no longer welcome in the league, thank you. (He only has 11.6 million reasons to do so.) It’s odd how commissioners lose their lunches over players who misbehave in bars, but suddenly start singing soprano when the plutocrats run their teams into the ground, or hand them over to manifest incompetents whose reputations for sleazebaggery are hallowed by legal judgments.”

[15] Ken, I pretty much agree with you, but it’s not even the losing that bothers me. I don’t need the Knicks to win a championship, although of course that would be, you know, nice. It’s the combination of staggeringly obnoxious behavior AND complete ineptitude on the part of the ownership… for example, many Mets fans are frustrated with the Wilpons, for good reason. But I would take the Wilpons in a heartbeat over James Dolan. At least you can usually sort of see what they’re trying to do, even when it’s not a smart move, and they obviously care about what the fans think and want to do right by the franchise, although they don’t always manage it. Dolan’s behavior is spoiled, classless, unaccountable, and because the Knicks make up only a tiny fraction of the mega-empire he inherited, unlikely to ever change. GRRR.

That said, I believe I also made this argument before and I can’t believe I said it then either, but you can’t compare Steinbrenner with Dolan under this circumstance. For one thing, George had a previous background owning and operating a (basketball!) franchise and won a championship with that team (The Cleveland Pipers, ABL 1961), something Dolan cannot claim under either circumstance. George also had a coaching history in college football, also nothing that Dolan can claim in any respect. Most significantly, George had a strong work ethic that paid off for just about every company he owned or was involved with; even when the ABL failed in 1962, he managed to pay off his creditors within a few years, and he also turned a failing company his family purchased and made it profitable during an economic downturn before buying it outright himself. All of that before he even owned the Yankees.

Dolan? It’s highly doubtful that work ethic made him the CEO of Cablevision. There is nothing to indicate that he has any experience or even that much interest in sports to begin with and if his record with the Knicks and Rangers is any indication, if his sole or predominant business was as owner and operator of a sports franchise, he would have failed miserably and likely gone out of business, if not into bankruptcy, and George would probably have been running both teams after buying them up. In Isiah, Dolan has found his equal; a like mind for business and a cognizant dissonance with regard to their self-image, public image and abilities. I guess Isiah completes Dolan, for what that’s worth…

By most indications, with what these two men were given by their fathers, George turned a successful business into an empire, while Dolan has squandered away much of the pride from two important city franchises if not their monetary value (which is hard to say he had any direct effect on to begin with.) Neither of these two are personalities I would admire, but for what they’ve done for their sport, I’d study George and get a degree, while with Dolan I’d organize a book burning. They do not compare except in controversy, and even then George outclasses Dolan. Hmph and phooey…

Like Alex, I haven’t stopped rooting for my team, I just stopped paying attention. I wake up from time to time when something competent happens. But in the end, it just killed my interest in the NBA as a whole.

It’s too hard to win a championship without an inner-circle hall-of-famer on your team. And there are only a handful of them at any time, so you need to get lucky and win the right lottery in the right year, or you’re stuck. Even if you have competent management, like the Mavericks, you can get stuck in a slightly-above-average mode for a long, long time unless you luck into a great player.

Another reason I prefer baseball. There are dozens of ways to build a championship team. In the NBA, there’s really only one or two.

After Steinbrenner horribly and unjustly dismissed Buck following the great 95 series with the Mariners, I vowed to stop rooting for the Yankees. I recall the day after his dismissal, there was an entire day of calls to this effect on WFAN, with proclamations of season ticket cancellations, etc. Anyway, I quickly realized that I couldn’t follow through on my “vow.” Who was I going to root for anyway? Besides, rooting for a team isn’t something you can just turn on and off. I hate to get all philosophical, but our wills don’t work that way anyway. They are subject to forces that act on them.

I think it can be said that a person who cares enough to be upset at his team, so that he promises to “divorce” them, also probably cares too much to follow through on his promise.

I am a Yankees fan. They are a part of who I am in a way my other teams aren’t (Knicks, Giants – not that I’m going to or can stopping rooting for them any time soon). Anyway, I’m kind of glad that my whole promise to stop rooting for the Yankees thing in 95 didn’t come to fruition (as I said, who was I kdding anyway), since they seemed to have done pretty well since then.

http://www.gq.com/sports/guides/201103/nba-guide/knicks-are-back

There is an argument to be made for getting Melo, absolutely. But the Knicks had ALL the leverage here and Dolan seems to be blowing it. That’s not even the issue, though, it’s (potentially – hasn’t happened yet) bringing back Thomas after Donnie Walsh spent YEARS trying to undo his many completely inexplicable, ludicrous moves… gah!

I agree, though, that the idea that one day it’ll all be worth it is what keeps so many people with their teams. If you leave them and then come back just when they win, that’s hardly be satisfying.

as for Melo, I’m of the mind that if you can trade a rental-PG (who I happen to love) and two guys who are going to be completely expendable (Galo, WC) for a Top 10 player to match up with the superstar you already have, you do it. I would love to think that a team like the ’70 Knicks could win in today’s league, but truth is this is a star driven league where you win with 3 big guys and a bunch of filler. It sucks, but thats what it is. So I probably make the play for Melo.

and as for Zeke, its a total joke. But I still say a lot of this has been pumped up because it makes for good copy. Isola has been driving this angle since day one, and its a matter of record that he’s had an axe to (rightfully) grind with MSG since Dolan tried getting him thrown off the beat.

I will always be a Knicks fan. But for I don’t know how long now, I’ve been keeping my fandom on the back burner. I don’t think about basketball. It’s too painful. They don’t just suck (actually they don’t suck this year at all), they have been such a horrid organization I can’t bear to watch them or read about them.

As often happens the great ones have said it best in the past. In this case F. S. Fitz:

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.”

But I had been a casual fan of the Philadelphia Eagles my whole life (long story), and I had no problem dropping them when they signed Michael Vick. The only time I watched them this past season is when they played the Giants…rooting on the G-men against them. And I HATE the Giants (long story).

But I can’t think of a situation that would make me abandon the Yankees.

But then again, I also don’t think there is just one kind of fan. There is the Roger Angell brand, the kind who has loyalties to several organizations but otherwise drifts, and then there is the Mike and the Mad Dog die-hards who think you need to, well, die-hard with your given teams.

I’m a fair-weather Knicks fan myself. They are always my team of choice but I don’t feel so much pain when they are awful. Emma, you’ve got an out though cause you are from Jersey–although the Nets are originally from Long Island–and they are moving to BK.

Thing is, if you jump ship now, are you allowed, in good conscience to ever come back with Dolen owning the team?