Knicks

What do you do if you own the New York Knicks? This team is a disgrace to the NBA and to hard working people all over the planet. How strange is the world of sports? These bumbs are getting thousands of dollars per game yet can't find the energy to compete or play hard on a nightly basis.

Their star player has missed several games, one for insubordination, in a reported fight with Isiah Thomas on the team plane and others for the death of his father. (Those missed games are understandable.) But the best thing Stephon Marbury has done for basketball is sell decent, cheap sneakers to kids. He said he would like to play in Italy some day. If I'm the Knicks, I arrange that deal. What team in their right mind would want this guy?

What to do with Isiah Thomas? How long can this go on? Isiah must have some incredible friendship with Mr. Dolan because this is ugly. He is simply not getting it done. His players do not play hard. He has humiliated the franchise in the court room. Has fans staging rallies in front of Madison Square Garden. Had his team participate in one of the ugliest brawls (that he instigated) in NBA history. Yet still goes to work everyday. Amazing! Bring back Scott Layden!

Time to clean house and start all over. At least we can all get $14.95 basketball sneakers now. Maybe the consumer wins but not the Knicks fans.

The Bulls fired Scott Skiles and said " No hard feelings, oh........ and Merry Christmas. Now Go, Go, Go" today. The Bulls are off to a horendous start this year with a team loaded with talent. Besides having a All -NBA defender in Ben Wallace, the Bulls have some major scorers in Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng. For whatever reason chemistry was bad and now Skiles will have to figure out how to spend the rest of his holidays.

The Bulls were recently wacked by the Celtics on Saturday. That should be of no surprise considering the Celtics are knocking everyone out by large margins. But why are the Bulls playing like craparoni? The energy level is low. This team has several high energy players and Ben Wallace is the focal point of that energy. Is age coming into play for Wallace? If he can't defend he is virtually useless on the court. Joakim Noah is a great high energy player but is not likely to develop into a consistent scorer at the NBA level. Tyrus Thomas is another fine player who can make things happen. But other then the occasional high light play is very inconsistent.

That leaves the perimeter players to carry the load. In the NBA that is rarely a good thing unless those players are truly special. These guys are not that special. The Bulls could still run off an impressive run and maybe they grew tired of Skiles. However the new coach (Larry Brown?) will have to find that energy and some low post scoring to go with it (Aaron Gray?).

So in the mean time, Skiles should make plans for four. Isiah Thomas may soon be joining him in the millionaires unemployment line in 2008.