What is this "basketball" of which you speak? And does it have something to do with Karim Garcia?

i was real excited to see some kind of response to this (38pitches):

http://tinyurl.com/2wqwvz

all i can say is wow.

One of the personal thrills of my life was working for Woody Allen. I was the apprentice editor on his musical "Everyone Says I Love You." Worked on it four about six months. At the time, I wasn't a Woody fan, but I had been an enormous fan when I was in high school, so it was a kick. For the first three weeks or so, nobody bothered to introduce me to the guy, even though it was a relatively small cutting room and he was there every day. Finally, I just started chatting with him. Asked him about Peter Sellers, I think. (He said Sellers was a very unhappy man.) Then about Lenny Bruce (he thought Lenny was pretentious). Mostly, we talked about the Knicks, who I knew he was going to see every night. I asked him about the Riley Knicks compared with the old days. "Y'know FrAAAziah and MonROW..." Don't remember what he said so much as how he pronounced their names, in classic Woody fashion. He even gave up his cherce tickets to me on a few occasions.

The other night, at a screening of Woody's new joint, a colleague shot him a question about the Knicks. Woody said he'll keep going to the games, and was planning to be courtside last night.

My friend/colleague asked what should be done about the Knicks, and Woody said this: "I think they're a great, great supporting cast in need of a leading man. That's how I would look at it as a filmmaker. They're very, very talented. They just need one more thing, and I think it would all suddenly come together, and people would be very pleasantly surprised."

Unfortunately, my guy didn't get to follow up for the rebound, and ask who, or what that one "thing" (Pearl!) might be -- or suggest that the best addition might be the subtraction of Isiah -- but clearly, the Woodman is still a diehard.

I guess Woody was just being polite not mentioning Isiah, but it's also possible that "the neurotic artist" is still so in awe of "the unencumbered player" that he fails to see what a walking disaster player is as a basketball executive.

Last time I was at the Garden was about a year and a half ago, a Springsteen hootenanny. Sat directly beneath one of the old Knick banners thinking what a foolish disgrace this team has become. And think how worse it's gotten since.

0 No "Rap Attack?"

I still bump "Delancey St" & "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" from time to time. The latter has darker lyrics than what was released on the Fresh Prince's album.

Dolan almost bought the Yankees. Keep that in mind the next time there is an urge to complain about Hankenstein.

4 "I think they're a great, great supporting cast in need of a leading man."

Sounds like he's calling for a point guard...

2 I'd have to say one of the most suspect performances during this steroid era was Schilling's performance in the 2004 playoffs. His ability to pitch on one and a half legs smacks of HGH, if not steroids use. So, for me, his ridiculous rant seems like someone trying to distract people from looking at him.

And, what, since Ortiz doesn't get mentioned (thank you, Mitchell), he gets a free pass? But Roger has to return his Cys?

Gimme a break. I hate Schilling. Cheater. Blowhard.

0 "the original 'Magic' though he's of course better known as 'Pearl')"

Wasn't he also known (in the Rucker League and in other places where his unorthodox genius could most fully flourish) as Black Jesus? That's my understanding, and it was also my inspiration for my self-given nickname while studying and flourishing as never before in pickup hoops games during a semester abroad in Shanghai: White Confucius.

0 Man, for the 3rd year in a row I believed the hype and thought the Knicks would be competitive, I went and downloaded their schedule into my PDA from their website. I started to believe when they were 2 - 1, then....well....then they became what we've seen since Zeke started running the club.

I've always hated the C's, I learned to hate the Celtics before I learned to hate the Red Sox. Growing up in the 80's, it was only after Rags' no-hitter and him K'ing Boggs in '84 did I start to hear and learn more about the history between the Sawx and Yanks, but I never fully understood it till I got much older - my teenage years.

The Celtics with Bird, McHale, Parrish and DJ, were the team I first learned to hate with a passion. I hated how the Bulls constantly broke my heart, but I did admire their intensity and I loved watching Jordan play - he was Pedro, before there was a Pedro. The difference with the Jordan Pedro was that he actually was a NY killer. The Celtics, however, represented something worse in my eyes...was it their uniform, the Garden, Johnny Most, fan base, etc? I just despised everything about them. But my Knicks never stopped playing hard in those days, the Knicks had a lot of lovable players then:
Gerald Wilkins
Kiki
Trent Tucker
Oakley
Ewing
Mark Jackson
Greg Anthony
Doc Rivers
Mason

I miss my Knicks, I don't even recognize the franchise any longer. It's not even the team, it's the entire organization - just like you said, Alex. Zeke is only part of the problem. I'm afraid the Knicks will be awful till at least 2015. The team and franchise have no heart

Between St. John's and the Knicks, the NY basketball you can see is probably at Rucker Park.

10 : Most of the Knicks that you mention actually were the ones who pulled the Knicks far past the crumbling Celtics in the standings. As a Celtics fan living in NYC throughout the Starks-Oakley era, I came to really admire their effort and even root for them. Going back a little farther, I loved Bernard King. How could you not?

Grover Washington! Mr. Magic. Lol. I was just listening to "Cinderfella" last night, speaking of old records. "Brand New Funk" is one of my favorite cuts from that Fresh Prince, Jazzy Jeff album.

Bernard King. The Best. Big Ass, high ass. Virtually unstoppable offensively. What a load he was. Josh you should do a post on the Ernie and Bernie show, even though they didn't have cards in college.

13 : I vividly, vividly remember the Bernie and Ernie Show Sports Illustrated cover from the late 1970s.

3 That's way cool, Alex.

What a great gig, what a great experience.

And speaking of that film, I've noticed Woody has a thing for Mahler.

Everyone Says I Love You features Mahler 4 as Julia Roberts' aphrodisiac.

Husbands and Wives features Mahler 9 as the symphony Judy Davis and Liam Nison go to see on their first date. Judy Davis says, "It began well...he should have cut it down...it was a bit long."

And in Manhattan, Mahler has a place in the old Academy of the Overrated. He's the first mentioned, iirc.

If only you could have asked him what his deal is with Mahler, I'd love to know!

Oh well, next time.

:)

10 That may have been the first time I saw Mase referred to as "lovable."

Didn't like the Celtics either. Few people were happier than me when the Knicks came back from being down 0-2, winning gm 5 @ the Gah-den.

Was too in awe of the Bulls (er, Jordan) to really hate them.

12 I listen to "Cinderfella" every so often; I love the way Dana Dane tells a story...

No bad feelings at all for the Bulls, Knicks fans? They stole your lunch money way more than the Celtics ever did (in fact the one time when both the Celts and Knicks were peaking--1973--the Knicks prevailed, albeit in part because Havlicek was playing with a broken arm). Doesn't anyone remember Pippen stomping arrogantly post-dunk on Ewing? Phil Jackson sanctimoniously whining that the Knicks were dragging the sacred and beautiful game of basketball down into the gutter? There had to have been a little Bulls-hate there somewhere.

10 Those were my Knicks as well! I think my Walkman got the least amount of tape-playing use ever growing up, cuz all I did was listen to the Yanks and Knicks on the AM radio.

Pat's missed finger roll against the hated Pacers in '95 still kills me. A bunch of us were caravan'ing back from the Shore after my senior prom, listening to the game on the radio. I remember hearing the missed shot, and seeing my friend punch the roof of his car, a few lengths ahead. These being the days before cell phones, we all coordinated to pull off at the next rest stop and commiserate. My girlfriend at the time was about as fired up as I was, God bless her. I imagine if we'd stayed together, we'd be going all Bonnie and Clyde (Barrow, not Frazier) on Isaiah and Dolan right about now.

8 I agree. Schilling is a sanctimonious SOB - and he sure does go on and on and on and on and on and on about it. But I don't see any reason to assume that he never used PEDs just because he's said so.

The schadenfreude of Red Sox fans shows how much people are missing the point. Sure, Yankees were using PEDs, but so were players on every other team, including Red Sox. And not just Gabe Kapler, but stars. Schilling and Ortiz? Why not? For that matter, Yankee fans shouldn't assume that the list is complete. Tino Martinez, even Derek Jeter? Again, why not?

Some people are suggesting that the Yankees' championships should be re-evaluated. That's just all wrong. I assume that every team had its users, and hence that the teams as a whole were competing on an even playing field.

18 I was too in awe of the Bulls to hate them. Pacers & Heat, OTOH...

And I may not be the most religious person, but I prayed for a Knicks-Suns final in '93.

I never hated the Celtics like I disliked the Bulls later on. Hey, who can forget Ewing's three from the corner against Boston?

Nah, I wasn't in awe of the Bulls, just flat-out loathed them. I was a Jordan fan when he was at UNC and then during his early years, but when they got so good and spanked the Knicks repeatedly, I just hated the guy. For what it's worth, however, I think you can argue that, out-manned as they were, those Knick teams gave the Bulls a tougher time than virtually any other team. I'll never forget watching the Finals in horror when His Airness had 103 temperature or whatever it was, and the Jazz just let him take open shots. Man, if Jordan came out sick against the Knicks, you could bank that he would have been taken out on a stretcher by halftime. The Knicks were boneheads and bruisers. They weren't a great team, but they were tough.

0 Agreed, Alex. Isaiah needs to go, but the problems will not stop with Dolan at the top. With the Rangers doing well, unfortunately that will stroke his ego and make him think that he's a capable professional sports team owner.

I was looking at job opportunities at Cablevision a few years ago and spoke with a contact there. She mentioned that Jim Dolan is a total a-hole who loved to manage by screaming and was more concerned about the Knicks than Cablevision. The best thing he did, actually, was that he hired people that were capable of running the company, because he certainly wasn't capable.

18 For me, there were bad feelings at the time that have slowly gone away as time has passed. I remember feeling both anger and wonder at how Jordan could single-handedly torch the Knicks. Pippen was a guy that I hated, all his whining, sitting in '94 when Phil called the last shot for Kukoc.

10 Trent Tucker, wow. I remember when he hit that 4 point play against the Bulls in the '89 playoffs (too bad they lost). He also did the impossible and hit a game winning shot with 0.1 seconds left. I forgot when that happened. They implemented the rule that it can only be a tip in with less than .3 seconds left after that.

23 I remember that 4 point play. I loved that.

16 I remember when the Knicks came back against the C's that year, I was so happy. I still remember during the 80's I was convinced that Bird could never dunk because I never saw it, then one game when the C's were playing the Knicks he intercepts a pass and goes down the court and he f'ing dunked.

I was heartbroken, I could have gone my whole life not seeing Bird dunk. I don't remember seeing Bird dunk again, thankfully.

22 The Jazz let him take open shots because if they so much as breathed on him, they'd get called for a foul :)

You're right; the Knicks may have been outmanned, but they made up for it by playing tight D. And that is correct, they were a bunch of bruisers back then. Don't remember many bonehead/thuggush moves; at least nothing other than Charlie Ward in the '97 playoffs.

They played the game so tough that the NBA instituted rule changes after the '94 Finals. "No blood, no foul," is the way it should be :)

Damn, I miss those days.

24 : Funny you mention Bird dunking and that Knicks comeback playoff win in the same comment: Bird feebly popping his reverse dunk attempt against the Knicks during that series is the exact moment when I knew the glory years were absolutely, incontrovertibly over.

And since we're reminiscing about the Knicks of the 1990s, may I offer my nomination for the greatest dunk of all-time: Starks' left-hand jam against the Bulls.

26 I had a poster of "The Dunk" hanging in my room :)

http://tinyurl.com/2uxen8

Note Ewing shoving BJ Armstrong out of the way

About the only people who considered Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley 'lovable' were their mothers... ;-)

Re: The Knicks - I had begun to think I had gotten bored with the sport itself, but then I realized it's got everything to do with the current state of the team at the Garden - no personality, no pizazz, just nothing.

Anyone seen the 'Spring of '94' documentary on MSG? Go watch it this instant if you need a reminder of how exciting things were on the court that year.

On the ice too!

It's funny, dunks are so passe, such a regular part of the highlight loops, it's hard to imagine a dunk like the one Starks had having the same kind of impact...but it was so improbable. The young, scrubby Starks elevating over Jordan and the mighty Bulls, left-handed no less. Would have been a better highlight--i.e. the Jeter flip--had the Knicks won. But in a sense, the fact that they lost made the dunk stand out even more, if that makes sense. Both piteful and wunnerful.

My NBA history book pretty much ends with the retirement of Willis Reed.

In the winter of '79-'80, my high school team played a game in the Garden. For $3 (or was it $6), students got to sit in the red seats for the high school game and then move up to the blue seats for the Knicks-Golden State game that followed. In the pro game, the lead changed hands frequently, the two teams were consistently within 5 points and no one in the entire Garden (players included) seemed to care less. I walked out in the middle of the 3rd quarter, along with much of the crowd. That was the only time I ever left a pro sporting event mid-game -- until the 16-0 thrashing in Comerica last August (yes, this is still a Yankee blog).

A side note: My interest in the NBA was re-kindled just a bit when Joe Dumars and Larry Brown introduced to Motown a teamwork-and-defense-centric game that evoked memories of Holtzman's Knicks. It's a bit ironic that the Pistons have built a champion on a Knick model while the Knicks crumble under the foibles of a Piston star.

0 "Knick fans have been called the most loyal of all New York sporting fans."

Nope, Rangers fans have that attribute.

20 While it's not impossible for Tino or Jeter to have used, they didn't go from a contact hitter in an extreme hitter-friendly ballpark to an MVP candidate slugger in a less-than-friendly hitter's park (at least for lefties in terms of HR) virtually overnight. The fact that Ortiz is not featured in the Mitchell makes the whole thing a travesty.

32 Al, you may want to check out the following article;

http://tinyurl.com/39pupx

[33 That article made me think how good Nick Jonson could have been (could still be) if not for all his career injuries.. Who knows?

33 Yes, the Twins may have mishandled him, but it's a long way for a lefty hitter from 20 HR in 125 games at the Homerdome to 48 HR at Fenway.

32 It's pretty well acknowledged that Minny biffed on keeping Ortiz, and were it not for the Yanks having an (at the time) (supposed) embarassment of riches at 1B at the time in Giambi and Johnson, he could very well be a Yank. In fact, The Boss wanted him and Cashman eveidently had to explain patiently that as nice a player as Ortiz was/could be, they had a $17M man there as well as an up and coming OBP machine...

I'm not saying Ortiz is or is not a juicer, but the whole idea that he came from nowhere is a little confused- just a wicked little combination of a guy developing slowly in the backwaters of Minnesota, and really hitting his peak in the white hot spotlight of beantown.

35 Given health, I doubt it. Besides, it appears Ortiz has hit more HR's on the road than @ Fenway.

37 Not surprising, but he played in the same road parks (not sure about interleague, though) in 2002.

In truth Ortiz went from 20 homers in Minnesota to 31 homers the following season in Boston, so it wasn't quite overnight that he surged to league-leading homer power. I'm not saying he (or anyone) is above scrutiny, but he was a big dude (i.e., not like skinny young Pirate Barry Bonds) with a hole in his swing with the Twins, and then he was a big guy who slowly closed up that hole in his swing with the Red Sox. Maybe he used something, but it's possible he just matured as a hitter (most likely I suppose is that it was a little of both).

39 The guy had high OBP, so the hole could not have been that big. I remember being surpirsed in 2003 by how different he seemed from the way he was in Minnesota. One game comes to mind, the one he won by hittint a line drive off the Monster off Armando Benitez who was on the Yankees for some reason.

40 : OBP numbers for Ortiz in Minnesota in seasons where he had more than a handful of at-bats:

'98: .371
'00: .364
'01: .324
'02: .339

Not bad, but not really that stellar either, and the fact that the first couple seasons are better than the last couple seem to support the picture of a talented batter struggling to find consistency at the plate.

40 He had a high SLG too, increasing every year from 2000-06.

Benitez was brought in for a couple of weeks. Bullpen help, I guess. Don't know why they didn't keep him instead of trading for Jeff Nelson. Was Osuna sucking at the time?

41 Hitters with big holes in their swing tend to have OBP lower than .339 (say .239). Is it possible that instead of a good hitter strugling with his mechanics, what we saw was a guy whose fly balls acquired a few extra feet and started