Madison Square Garden in New York City has earned the reputation as “The
World’s Most Famous Arena” and for very good reasons. This is the venue
where Vince McMahon held The World Wrestling Entertainment’s first
WrestleMania in 1985 which launched his company to the next level. On
March 8, 1971 Joe Frazier shocked the boxing world by defeating Muhammad
Ali for The Heavyweight Championship. It is where grown people can once
again become children every spring when The Ringling Brothers Circus
takes over MSG. These events and others bring much needed excitement to
the old building on 33rd Street and 7th Avenue, but nothing compares to
the atmosphere of having the two main tenants of Madison Square Garden
once again relevant in the sports world.
The New York Rangers have the best record in The Eastern Conference
of The National Hockey League and hockey fans in The Big Apple are once
again thinking about The Stanley Cup. In The National Basketball
Association, The New York Knicks have once again found life in the past
few weeks thanks to point guard Jeremy Lin. Once again The Garden is the
hottest ticket in town as executives from different businesses around
New York City are flocking there for a sports version of “happy hour”.
This is what is was like in the 90s. The Rangers and Knicks
consistently made the playoffs which reached its highest point in 1994.
The Rangers finally won The Stanley Cup while The Knicks fell one game
short of winning The NBA Championship. Fans of both teams deserve to
have that excitement back. The 2000s saw both teams become laughing
stocks in their respective leagues as they had become cellar dwellers.
Now fans have exchanged frustration for chants of “Lets Go Rangers” and
“Jeremy MVP”.
The Rangers tried to return to glory by bringing in players that
were well past their prime. As great as Wayne Gretzky was, he was a
shell of himself during his three seasons in New York. Mark Messier was
the captain of The Stanley Cup Champions in ’94, but he bolted to play
for The Vancouver Canucks in 1997. Messier returned in 2000 but the
magic in his hockey stick was long gone.
This current group of Rangers are young and hungry. Rangers head coach
John Tortorella has this group playing as a team and they have become
one of the more physical units in hockey. Goalie Henrik Lundqvist is one
of the best in the business as his 1.78 goals against average is second
in The NHL. Rangers victories aren’t always pretty, but they play in a
town that only worries about one thing which is getting the job done.
The Rangers have gone about their business all season and they are
starting to put some distance between themselves and The Boston Bruins
for Eastern Conference supremacy.
The Knicks downfall started when the team traded All-Star center
Patrick Ewing in 2000 to The Seattle Supersonics. The franchise reverted
to what it was prior to Ewing’s arrival in 1985, a laughing stock. The
Knicks consistently overpaid free agents with each new contract being
worse than the previous one. In 1996, The Knicks signed shooting guard
Allan Houston away from The Detroit Pistons. Houston did help The
Knickerbockers reach The NBA Finals in 1999, but he always lacked that
killer instinct to get The Knicks over the hump. What made it worse for
Knick fans was in 2001 when then Knicks general manager Scott Layden
signed Houston to a six-year $100 million extension which Houston never
lived up to.
The Layden regime made way for The Isiah Thomas era as president of
the franchise. In 2003, Thomas traded for Brooklyn born point guard
Stephon Marbury who was expected to return The Knicks to glory. Instead
of Marbury being the center of attention on the court, he got more
attention off of the court in the sexual harassment case involving
Thomas and former Knick employee Anucha Brown-Sanders.
Thomas just continuously handcuffed The Knicks with bad contracts
including those of Jerome James and Eddy Curry. In 2008, Donnie Walsh
became the team’s president of basketball operations as he attempted to
make The Knicks respectable. Walsh tried to climb from under those
contracts. The rebirth started in 2010 when he signed free agent Amare
Stoudemire to a five-year $100 million contract. The pot of excitement
was starting to cook and more flavor was put into it last season when
The Knicks traded with The Denver Nuggets to acquire All-Star forward
Carmelo Anthony.
With Anthony and Stoudemire, The Knicks made the playoffs for the
first time since 2004, but you could see that something was missing. The
Knicks started this lockout shortened season with a record of 8-15 and
angry fans were calling for the ouster of Knicks head coach Mike
D’Antoni. This all changed on February 4th when The Knicks turned to
point guard Jeremy Lin. Lin did not start in that game against The New
Jersey Nets, but he finished with 25 points and 7 assists and thus the
legend was born. The Knicks went on to win seven games in a row
including victories over The Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks.
We have heard everything from “Linsanity” to “Lincredible” as far as
fans backing the point guard from Harvard as The Knicks finally appear
to have the key piece to once again make them a contender. When D’Antoni
was the head coach of The Phoenix Suns, his system worked due to the
point guard play of Steve Nash. D’Antoni’s system has frustrated fans in
The Big Apple, but that is a distant memory now with Lin running the
show.
The Garden had become a dull place in the spring with nothing going
on. Last summer MSG had gone through the first stages of a renovation
process that has stretched to The Rangers and Knicks. This is what makes
The Garden one of the best venues in sports. Chants of defense are
pouring down from the rafters for The Knicks while Rangers fans
constantly want their team to return to the ice for a curtain call after
a victory. There’s no place like MSG and the magic appears to be back.
One of the main problems for The Knicks is that they have too many guys that cannot be effective without the ball. There isn’t enough ball movement between these guys on offensive possessions. The Knicks need to have that sense of urgency from the opening tip and they don’t. D’Antoni never believed in defense when he was with Phoenix and that has carried over to New York. The Knicks have good individual players that cannot play well as a team.
I almost bought into the Linsanity hype also, but the only thing that held me back was all the dang turnovers. He has become better at it. But now he has cut down on the turn overs, he has settled in more. His play came down to earth. Now Im back on that fire D’antoni bandwagon. This system isnt working. I watch most of the Knicks games. I watch Stat and Melo struggle. Two of the NBA’s most premier scorers struggle on offense. I dont think it all these stars’ fault. It is D’Antoni’s fault.Stat and Melo is not getting the ball in spots where they are comfortable. I can understand running plays, but why cant they run more play for Stat and Melo.
When they run plays for Stat and Melo is actually works sometimes. I am tired of seeing fields, and Lin shoot the ball or turn over the ball during crunch time.
They have an insane shooter in Novacain, but they can’t even run a play to get him open since teams found out about him. Reggie was the NBA best shooter for over a decade, and pacer found a way to get him open atleats 10 times every game.
Why is D’Antomi playing that other big guy, I can’t remember his name. The guy sucks. He’s better off playing Jerome Jordan.
Why is that horrendous rookie playing before Jerome Jordan. Atleats when Jordan puts his hands up people change their shots.
Shumpert Needs to stay in the line up. He needs to play atleast 30 minutes a game. The guy is the best on ball defender I’ve seen in a while.
This coach suuuuuucccckks. I know this tema played better without Melo, Heck they look like the Spurs of the East sometimes, but I bet the Spurs get bounced in the first round again this. That Okey Doke is not going to you ball games in the playoffs. Dont fall for the the Okey Doke (Lin).