The Best Circus In Town

After 146 years of entertainment the Ringling Brothers Circus is shutting down. The circus provided laughter and excitement for all ages as it has always been pure entertainment. For many years one the of the best venues for the Ringling Brothers show was New York City’s Madison Square Garden as it in the heart the Big Apple. And even though that we won’t see the Ringling Brothers make their way to the Garden anytime soon, there is another circus that has taken its spot.

It’s hard to describe the New York Knicks as a basketball franchise. The Knicks last NBA Championship came in 1973 and although that they’ve come close hoisting the title a few times since then, they have specialized in the art of frustration.

In 2014, Phil Jackson was named as the Knicks team president. Jackson won 11 NBA Titles as a head coach, and two more as a player with the Knickerbockers. But Jackson never ran an NBA front office before coming to the Knicks and he was going to have to learn on the fly under the microscope of the biggest media market in the world. However since joining the Knicks, all that Jackson done is to tarnish his legacy.

Jackson is adamant about the Knicks operating under the umbrella of his triangle offense which led to all of his titles as a head coach. Jackson’s first order of business was to hire a head coach in Derek Fisher who played for him with the Los Angeles Lakers. With Fisher not having any prior coaching experience in the NBA, Jackson expected his transition to be a work in progress which it was as New York would go 17-65 in his first season. 64 games into Fisher’s second season he was fired after reports of him missing practices due to fact that he could not get back from Los Angeles in time where his girlfriend was surfaced. There were also reports of Fisher being linked to women who were involved with some players on the Knicks roster which would lead to him possibly losing the locker room.

Last summer Jackson was looking for another head coach to run the triangle, but Knicks owner James Dolan chimed in on the next hire which led to former Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek taking over the team. Hornacek runs more of an uptempo style of offense, while Jackson still wants the Knicks to operate the triangle which has been a recipe for disaster.

Through 44 games the Knicks are 19-25 which includes going 3-12 over their last 15 games. And just like the Knicks were before Jackson arrived in New York, they are a team that is going in circles.

The Knicks have a star player in small forward Carmelo Anthony who is not going to lead New York to the NBA Title that people were hoping for when he was acquired from the Denver Nuggets in 2011. Anthony is an isolation ball player that needs 20-25 shots per game in order to effective. Jackson’s triangle offense relies on ball movement which is not the case when Anthony is on the court. Jackson had a chance to get from under Anthony in 2014 when he became an unrestricted free agent. But since the Knicks could offer Anthony more money than any other team, he was convinced to stay in New York by the likes of his wife La La Anthony and Jackson.

Jackson sold Anthony on the dream of teaming him with other star players which would lead to championships. But this season what the Knicks have is a roster that lacks star power, while it is comprised mainly of players that were good five years ago.

Last summer the Knicks acquired point guard Derrick Rose from the Chicago Bulls. Rose was the NBA’s MVP in 2011, but he has never been the same player since he suffered a torn ACL during the 2012 NBA Playoffs. Rose is averaging 17.5 points and 4.5 assists for the Knicks this season, but the explosiveness that he had with the Bulls is gone. The Knicks also signed Rose’s former Bulls teammate in center Joakim Noah to a four-year deal for $72 million. Noah was the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2014 as he was a catalyst in regards to the Bulls success as far as being a consistent postseason team. But with back and feet injuries, Noah isn’t the same player that he was in Chicago as he has still managed to average 5.6 points and 9 rebounds in New York City. The Knicks do have their building block of the future in power forward Kristaps Porzingis who was Jackson’s first draft choice with the team. Porzingis is the Knicks second leading scorer at 19.4 points per contest, however an Achilles injury currently has limited his effectiveness.

But the Knicks biggest issues this season have come on the defensive end of the court. New York is 25th in points allowed as they are surrendering 108.3 points per game. In watching the Knicks play defense, there isn’t any communication or intensity which is hard to fathom with Noah on the team. However aside from Noah, the Knicks roster isn’t littered with players that dig in on the defensive end which means that their chances of winning will be hindered. And all of this falls under the category of a lack of leadership for this franchise.

The Knicks find themselves led by a meddling owner in Dolan, a team president in Jackson who is trying to do the old “bait and switch” by discussing his issues with Anthony publicly to the media as opposed to the player so that he’ll request a trade, and a head coach in Hornacek whose style of play doesn’t fit with how Jackson wants the team run. Anthony is an aging star with a bad knee who most people are finally realizing won’t lead the Knicks to an NBA Title, while Rose couldn’t pick up a phone to notify the team about his going back to Chicago to deal with a family issue as he went AWOL for New York’s 110-96 home loss on January 9 to the New Orleans Pelicans. And just as the Knicks have been a mess since 2001, they aren’t getting any better under Jackson’s watch.

There should be a sign in front of Madison Square Garden which reads “doomed to fail” as some of the best basketball minds in NBA history such as Larry Brown, Donnie Walsh, and now Jackson have all failed to clean up the mess that is the Knicks. Attempting to turn the Knicks into a winner is the equivalent of reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic as either the front office tries to build a winner overnight through various trades, or they don’t properly evaluate young talent. Jackson is too set in his ways which were successful for him before, but it is not going to happen in New York. Anthony is another in a long line of All-Star caliber players who upon arriving to 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue were unable to live up the unrealistic expectations that were put upon them. And at the end of the day all that the Knicks have to give to their fans are higher ticket prices to go along with a mediocre product on the court.

But all isn’t lost for the Knicks as they currently find themselves in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and 2.5 games behind the Bulls for the final playoff spot. However even if the Knicks are able to turn things around and make the playoffs, what good would it do them just to extend their season for four more games in order to be swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers? Success continues to be hard to achieve for the Knicks as long as the owner, team president, head coach, star player, and the majority of the roster aren’t on the same page. The only winners in this ongoing Knicks saga are the members of the media as they’ll have plenty to write about while they will continue to poke fun at and criticize this team. However watching the Knicks is worth the price of admission and then some as it is indeed the best circus in town.