Patience...

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley once said, “Sometimes that light at the end of a tunnel is a train.” When I read that quote, the first thing that comes to mind is my beloved New York Knicks. In the Knicks case, that train is Isiah Thomas. If there is one person who is capable of running a business or a team into the ground it is Isiah. Isiah has come out in the media and said that he wants the Knicks to be active players in the 2009 off-season. That prized off-season includes a potential all-star cast of free agents including Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. At the same time Isiah was hinting that he would definitely be pursuing Seattle Supersonics free agent small forward Rashard Lewis this summer. How does that even make sense !?! If the Knicks were to complete a sign and trade for Rashard Lewis that would leave of us once again over the salary cap in 2009 and be unable to go after those top free agents. In a trade for Rashard Lewis, my best guess is that the Knicks would have to send Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson in the deal to Seattle. Seattle can have a great PR angle by saying they’re bringing to the two hometown kids back to Seattle and that they are still relatively young and haven’t hit the prime of their careers yet. The Knicks on the other hand fill a need where they have a void at small forward.

Rashard Lewis may be an addition that will help the Knicks out and he is just entering his prime but does anyone look at Rashard Lewis as the savior of the Knicks and assist Eddy Curry in leading us to the Promised Land. Not a chance in hell. There are only a few of those types of players in this league and 3 of them in particular are available in 2 years if we stay put. Rashard Lewis may be a great shooter, but is he the final piece? Absolutley not. Am I the only Knicks fan who doesn’t even care if we make it to the playoffs anymore? All I want is to see a championship banner raised into the Garden rafters by the time I die. As long as James Dolan is the owner and with Isiah at the helm, there is no way I see this happening.

When I sit and think about the New York Knicks finally being under the salary cap and being able to afford one of the best players in the league entering their prime, along with the allure of playing under the bright lights in New York City and being endorsed in the Mecca of basketball, I just cant see LeBron, Kobe, Bosh and Wade all turning this rare opportunity down of playing in World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden. There is not a more alluring offer in sports then coming play basketball under the bright lights of New York City, in addition to getting paid the maximum salary and getting more advertising dollars from all endorsement companies for being a star in New York. I didn’t even mention getting the recognition of turning around a franchise that at one time was one of the proudest and most historical franchises in professional sports.

On another note, look at what the Chicago Bulls have done. After their championship reign with Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and the whole crew, they proceeded to tear their whole team apart and start from scratch through the NBA Draft and let their young talent develop. Granted, it took them a long time to lose the title of being the laughing stock of the league after selections of Marcus Pfizer, Tyson Chandler, the unfortunate Jason Williams accident and the decision to trade of Elton Brand to name a few. Once they started to make better decisions by selecting proven players from the top college basketball programs in the country, like Kirk Hinrich from Kansas, Ben Gordon from UConn and Luol Deng from Duke, the foundation to the Bulls future was put in place. Instead of trading these young talented players for stars, like Pau Gasol of Memphis for example, they decided to be patient, let them develop and since these players haven’t cashed in on these big contracts yet, they were able to make their big splash in free agency with the signing of former Piston, Ben Wallace. What they did is sign that game-changing free agent without having to sacrifice any of their young talent and they are definitely on the path of good things to come. The Bulls haven’t gotten to the finals yet with this cast of players, but they are definitely on the road to doing so.

What intrigues me is that the Bulls executed this plan to perfection, and that was on a much lesser scale in terms of impact compared to what the Knicks can potentially do. What I mean by that is that Ben Wallace definitely made his presence felt, and improved the Bulls dramatically on defense but let’s face it, Wallace is on the wrong side of 30. With the exception of Kobe Bryant turning 30 in two summers, the rest of the crop will just be entering their mid to late 20’s and just entering the prime of their careers. If the Knicks follow the Bulls blueprint, the Knicks would reach an even higher level of success then the Bulls and would immediately be a championship contender.

The thing that gets me crazy is just how full of crap Isiah is. In the past, Isiah has come out and said that the Knicks would have to take the unconventional route of securing talent. His goal is to bring the Knicks back to the days when players would die to put on a Knicks uniform. This is coming from the same guy who refused to come to the Knicks after a trade was agreed upon sending Isiah to the Knicks during their championship run in 1994. Isiah preferred to retire then to ever wear a Knicks uniform. As far plan B went, the Knicks ended up acquiring Derek Harper as their point guard. Imagine Isiah Thomas on that 1994 team with Ewing, Starks, Oakley and Mason. Isiah screwed us then and he is continuing to screw us now.

There is a myth that you cannot rebuild in New York but in my opinion, that theory is bull. New York basketball fans are some of the most knowledgeable fans in the world. All that New York fans ask for is that they can go to sleep at night having confidence in their front office, knowing that their executives will make good decisions. New York fans want to feel as if the organization is heading in the right direction. Once the fans see there is a plan in place, I firmly believe the fans will have the patience to go through a rebuilding process and watch the young talent develop. You cannot convince me that if Isiah came out and addressed the fans stating that the Knicks are going to sit tight, continue to develop their draft picks and let their large contracts expire and in 2 years be serious players in a free agency class that includes arguably four of the top players in the league that the fans would call for Isiah’s head. I just don’t buy it.

Isiah has proven to be a great talent evaluator when it comes to the NBA in selecting players like Tracey McGrady, Damon Stoudamire and Marcus Camby during his days in Toronto and also selecting talented players like David Lee and Channing Frye with the Knicks. What baffles me is how Isiah can be so talented in finding gems in the NBA Draft, like a Renaldo Balkman and Trevor Ariza for example, but can’t seem to find the same success when it comes to trading for talent. There is no better scenario for Knick fans then allowing Isiah to continue to make our draft selections, and not allow him to make another stupid trade. This plan is genius and I am sticking to it. I will still never understand how Isiah didn’t top 3-protect those draft picks we traded to Chicago. Imagine if we used Isiah’s talent in finding players in the draft with a top pick instead of using late round picks from teams like Phoenix and the Bulls.

Former Knicks President, Dave Checketts and a GM even worse than Isiah, which a tough task to accomplish, named Scott Layden, bought into that myth and that is what led us to the joke of a franchise we are today. Back in 2000, we could have let Patrick Ewing’s contract expire and that would have given us the financial flexibility to sign a young, promising free agent or two to help build the Knicks into a perennial championship contender for both the present and future. Instead of starting fresh and stockpiling young talent, we traded for the likes of former NBA All-Star Glen Rice and two white 7-footers in Travis Knight and Luc Longley. What a disaster. The Knicks went with the idea of since we can’t win a championship now, why not just be a mediocre team who makes the playoffs every year so we can have fans in the seats and continue to roll in the bank. James Dolan lost track of winning championships and started treating the Knicks organization as one of his businesses and just kept trying to make a lousy dollar off it.

There are times I wish I was in the movie Celtic Pride, where Daniel Stern and Dan Aykroyd are obsessive Boston Celtics fans and decide to kidnap Utah’s best player, Lewis Scott, who is played by Damon Wayans. In this movie, the Celtics are playing the Jazz in the NBA Finals and in order to better the Celtics chance of winning the championship, they kidnap Utah’s best player. In my dream situation, wouldn’t it be great if James Dolan was kidnapped and prevented from making any more idiotic managerial decisions so the Knicks could win a championship in my lifetime?

At some point next week, I will let you know what I think the Knicks management should do in order to get this team headed in the right direction but for now I will say this. The term REBUILD can be used in New York. If we decided to go forward with the “R” word in 2000 instead of trading for a bunch of has-beens, I am convinced we would be right there in the mix contending for an NBA Championship, or at least playing for the right to compete in the NBA Finals in the weak Eastern Conference. Instead we have been in salary cap hell for the past 8 years, while putting out a mediocre squad out on the court.

We have waited 7 years with no success waiting in the wings, why not be patient for 2 more seasons with a goal actually in hand. The Knicks must learn from their past mistakes, get out of this salary cap hell and lose the title as the “Joke of the NBA”. The Knicks MUST develop their young talent and get their game-changing star in the summer of 09’. Believe it or not, the Knicks do have a bright future if they just stay patient and sick to the plan. THERE IS NO REASON NOT TO BE PATIENT. Isiah, you got your undeserving contract extension so THERE IS NO REASON NOT TO BE PATIENT! Dolan was dumb enough to give you that extension, so at least now you don’t need to make any rushed decisions like bringing Rashard Lewis to the Big Apple. It has been so long since the Knicks have been good; I forgot what it is like to watch a winning New York basketball team.

Can you imagine Kobe, LeBron or Wade under the bright lights of New York City playing on the Garden floor donning the Orange and Blue? Success is so close, I can taste it. If I even get the sense that Isiah is going to do something to put my dreams of a championship in jeopardy, I may help out and assist in making him become the real life version of Lewis Scott, only instead of being kidnapped in my apartment, I will just leave him back in the West Side of Chicago where he came from.