New York Knicks Fans Hate To Lose

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The Knicks and Celtics went into overtime yesterday and Boston took control pretty quickly as soon as OT started. There was one man with the heart to wear his old school Knicks jersey to the Garden. With the Knicks up 3 before Paul Pierce hit the 3 to tie it up, I know he was feeling good right up until the end. But I’m pretty sure he didn’t like the Knicks effort in overtime.

That’s a “This is some bullshit” face if I ever saw one. I tweeted that joke yesterday by the way, if you followed me on Twitter you would have seen it already. So why don’t you go on ahead and follow @uvtblog RIGHT HERE.

-Brock

Us Versus Lin: UvT Breaks Down the Jeremy Lin Phenomenon

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After football is over I’m always looking for something to keep me busy. I can ride with Duke Basketball until the first weekend in April (when things go well) and at about that point the NBA starts rolling into the playoffs. But the NBA got interesting early this year. Why?

Linsanity.

My boy Lake reminded me that we covered Lin back in the day when we were talking about the “Real HU”. Also known as Harvard University. Check that post out HERE. Lake played Harvard for having an Asian point guard back in the day. He was talking about Jeremy Lin. Oops. I guess we got it wrong too.

The kid doesn’t even have a decent jersey number. He has number 4 here, he had 11 in the pictures before, now he’s rocking number 17. Most athletes roll with their numbers hard throughout life. Lin is like the Honey Badger, he don’t care. When you end up with the number 17, you just picked whatever jersey was on the top of the pile. Lin was happy to have a new 10-day contract, he didn’t care what number he was. That’s the jersey number you get when you forget it is team uniform day and you get there late. No one has ever rocked 17 on purpose.

My bad Chris Mullin, you still have the baddest flat top in all of sport. Terrible Jersey number, but a clean fade.

Look, I like Jeremy Lin. Dude has some killer highlights and dropped 37 on the Knicks. He has the fastest start of any player…ever. Everybody. No one has ever gone from not playing at all to averaging 25 a night in your first 5 starts. No one ever sneaks up like that in the NBA. No one ever goes from the end of the bench to busting Derek Fishers ass in 2 games. Fine, that isn’t the best example. D. Fish spent too much time in that suit negotiating the lockout this summer to be able to hang with someone with a quick first step.

Let’s be honest here though. Jeremy Lin is popular because he plays for the Knicks. The Knicks who should be way better than they are, but have not been able to pull it together since Ewing, Starks and Charles Oakley. Mike D’Antoni went from leading a high flying Phoenix Suns team to leading a kinda boring NY Knicks. A Knicks team that shouldn’t be boring. Then something crazy happens. Stoudemire misses some games with a family emergency and Melo is out with an injury…The Knicks actually start winning. Uhhhh…make that “Linning”, right Charlie Sheen?

Jeremy Lin leads a team without Carmelo and Amare…so they should basically be about as good as the New Orleans Hornets, and starts winning games. Even Tim Tebow thinks everyone should just slow down a little bit before the hype gets out of control. Besides, how long do you think Carmelo Anthony is going to stand for the most popular player in NY being Jeremy Lin? My vote is on about 3 dribbles. The first time ESPN promos a game with “LeBron and the Heat facing the Knicks led by Jeremy Lin”, Carmelo is gonna go back to cornrows raised in Baltimore Melo.

Isn’t part of this story the fact that Lin is Asian? That he is a novelty? Like Muggsy Bogues being really short. Like Nate Robinson winning the dunk contest. Like Ghorghe Muresan being 7’7″, wearing the number 77, and having way more “h’s” in his name than you would expect. The story is so crazy, it doesn’t seem real. Where do they find an Asian point guard who went to Harvard and how did he get into the NBA? Next we will have an Indian engineer from Brown as the Superbowl winning quarterback. He will wear number 0. His last name will be Patel.

The best part about Jeremy Lin is that there is literally no cultural point of reference for Asian basketball players. Sure, we had Yao Ming, but he was a genetically engineered seven foot tall monster. It isn’t like we think all Asian basketball players are all really good in the post with a surprisingly soft touch with both hands who would have had a hall of fame career if it wasn’t for his bad feet because of one dude. So prepare for the vaguely racist nicknames to start popping in any second now. Super Lintendo, All he does is Lin, Lin, Lin. He love you Lin time. That’s my Ninja.

That’s just the beginning. Things are going to be getting stereotypical and racist any second now. Some commentator will talk about how no one has been hotter since General Tso (Tsu?, Cho? Chow?) or how he slices through the lane like a Samurai sword. I know someone is going to say New York has Yellow Fever any day now. Damn, I just said it.

Please stop comparing this kid to Tim Tebow (2 National Championships), Tiger Woods (14 Majors) and the Williams sisters (Serena-13 Grand Slams, 2 Olympic medals; Venus-7 Grand Slams, 3 Olympic Medals).  Sure, Floyd Mayweather said Lin was just getting attention because he was an Asian playing basketball. Everyone’s counter to that is that Tiger was popular because he was a Black kid playing golf. True. But Tiger and the Williams sisters also came out of the block WHOOPING ASS. Let Lin get a few All Star games and rings under his belt before you start comparing him to some of the greatest ever.  Let the kid play, he’s killing fools right now. If he sustains it for the rest of the season, we have something. I bet you he just got an invitation to the Rookie v. Sophomore All Star Game for Kenny the Jet to pick in the top 3. That’s a good start.

So enjoy Jeremy Lin. If you can’t enjoy Jeremy Lin, enjoy how much this Black man does not want to by his half asian son that Jeremy Lin jersey.

You know he’s thinking “This some bullshit man”. I can see it on his face. That smile has absolutely no joy behind it. That means I laugh my ass off at this picture.

-Brock

————–UPDATE————-

I will say this. I don’t care what color he is what number he wears, or where he went to college, there are only a few players this icy.

When the dude getting paid $435 a game waves off everyone else just so he can firmly plant a dagger in the heart of the Raptors, he may in fact be special. Lin-ternational VaLINtines Day Massacre…Lin.

Man Up Monday: New York Knicks

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This is starting to feel like deja vu. But if the New York Knickerbockers are going to continue to embarrass themselves, I’m going to continue to talk about it.

Just to keep it real before I launch in here, let me acknowledge the fact that the Knicks are a lot better than they were next year. They have been really bad for that last 8 years or so. They made it through the Starbury era, the Isiah Thomas era, they bottomed out the squad to take a shot a LeBron and missed out on that, and now they have put all their chips in with Amare and Melo.

You know what? I actually don’t have a problem with the Knicks today. Sure, they got swept the hell up out of the playoffs faster than any other team in the league today. Sure, they let the no big man, old ass Celtics squad beat them down like they didn’t belong in the playoffs in the first place. But the Knicks are actually on the road back. They can actually fill up MSG, people actually care about the games, and they have a marketable star or two. I want to talk about Knicks fans though.

The Knicks fan is an extension of the New Yorker. I’m not talking about the celebrity Knicks fans who sit on the floor and barely pay attention. I’m talking about the average New Yorker. These are the most ridiculous people on the planet. They talk about NY like the rest of us give a damn, and they think their own situation is go great, that the rest of us have studies the intricacies of New York and are supposed to actually understand what they are talking about.

True Story:

I’m in New York, in Manhattan, literally on Broadway downtown walking around and ready to take the train uptown. It is summertime, so it is nice outside. People are wearing short sleeved shirts, women are in skirts. It is a great day in NY. So I start looking for the nearest train station and can’t find one and don’t see on e close. So I do what any rational person would do, I ask the nearest person for directions.

Brock: “Excuse me. Do you know where the train station is?”

NY: “Do I know where the train station is? What does my tattoo say?”

At this point I know I’ve asked the wrong person. I’m caught up in this New York attitude B.S. already.

Brock: “Uhhhh. The Bronx”

Yes, dude had a full forearm tattoo that said “BRONX” all the way up his arm.

NY: Dasrite son. I’m from the Bronx.

Brock: That’s great. What does that have to do with the question.

NY: I’m from the freaking Bronx, of course I know where the train station is.

[uncomfortable pause - literally and figuratively]

Brock: You gonna tall me or not player?

See, that’s the NY bullshit. Did this dude really rep his hood on walking directions to the train?

Which brings me to Knick fan.

You have to love the downward spiral they experienced over the last week and a half. From the Knicks actually being competitive. To Carmelo saying “all the Celtics did was hold serve on their home court”, to the full on bailout of the Knicks being better next year. Well, it will have to be next year because this year is over.

At this point, the Knicks fans are just rooting against the Denver Nuggets. I would be embarrassing it would be if the Nuggets made it farther than the Knicks. Luckily the Nuggets look like they will join the Knicks any day now.

Knicks fan…Man Up! You team still sucks, you still need at least one more piece, and at least two years before you will be competitive. So while the Knicks still suck, why don’t you go ahead and turn down the rhetoric. Thanks.

-Brock

 

Melo Down Monday

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It was all good just a week ago. Last weekend, the NBA All Star game was in full swing and everyone was talking about the second half of the season even though the season is already 2/3 of the way done.  Last week Carmelo Anthony was still rocking a Denver Nuggets jersey and refusing to answer questions about the possibility of a trade, and this week he is in a Knicks uniform.

People are really overlooking that Chauncey Billups over there too. Dude can still get it done and might be the difference on this one.  But here is my question, Why didn’t everyone hate Melo like Lebron?  This dude got drafted by a team and was the best player before he got traded.  Melo talked about his “decision” to “take his talents” somewhere else.  Was it because Melo wasn’t a full on free agent? Because he didn’t let 5-6 teams chase him before he made a decision? He did play the New Jersey Nets pretty hard though. They wanted him bad.

Unfortunatelinski da Rubel is doesn’t have a great exchange rate against the dollar right now.  New Jersey might as well be Russia because Deron Williams just got exiled to Siberia.  He’s out there being told Brook Lopez is the key to the future of the franchise.  Do you really want to have to depend on this dude to get you to a championship?

I know I don’t.

But Melo and the Knicks have the best shot at a championship since the Patrick Ewing Knicks.  They even beat the Heat last night on pure heart and effort.

I’m sure NY is happy now, but you know the NY post will be all over this one by the middle of next season.  Can’t you see it now?

Mel Oh No!

Melo-Drama

Staudmired in last place

I give it until about January 4th, 2012 before New York turns on the new look Knicks.  You want to know what is crazy? That even thought they beat the Knicks, even though they have gotten much better,they still are about 4th in the East.  Once again you need a superteam to be competitive.  Three stars, not two. The Knicks might have two and a half.  I like teams making moves though, the Knicks needed something, they have been hard to watch for the last few years. Knicks fans, time for you to tell us how great da city is while the getting is good.

-Brock

Man Up Monday: New York Knicks

The New York Knicks already got the Man Up Monday treatment back in 2008 when they cleared out their entire roster to with the LeBron James sweepstakes.  We all know how that turned out.

Sure, the Knicks got Amare Staudemire in the Free Agency bonanza of 2010, but they didn’t get much else.  If they are able to pull Carmelo and CP3 next year, they might be working with something, but at this point and after seeing what happened this summer after they pulled out all the stops, I can only file that possibility under “You know good and got damn well that shit ain’t going down” for the time being.  For the last few years, the Knicks have been selling hope like they were in charge of the Obama campaign.  But now they are just going to the bizarre.  The Knicks just hired Isiah Thomas as a consultant to help them with player talent.

Even Isiah didn’t get that one.  Are we talking about the same Isiah that paid Eddy Curry a brohillion dollars?  Or the one who left the Knicks with a $20-25 million a year Stephon Marbury rotting on the bench while he was stacking chips?

Yeah, that picture was taken while Steph was on the Knicks bench.  They had complete control of that situation.  I think Marbury was looking at Mike D’Antoni thinking “Will you shut the hell up while I take this call?”

Oh yeah, and there is also this:

Isiah got popped for an $11.6 million sexual harassment suit that forced him to leave the Knicks.  That is the employment equivalent of bombing the place as you walk out the door.  What the hell is going on here?  Remember when everyone heard Isiah was involved before LeBron’s Decision?  You saw how that turned out right?  What exactly is supposed to be better now?  Did Isiah take the sexual harassment bullet for the Knicks owner or something?

Maybe the Knicks are still paying the dude under some contract that would involve the loss of souls if it was broken so they feel like they might as well use him for something.  I just hope they have the dude on a one way phone line so he can’t actually call anyone in the building.  Isiah is gonna cost the Knicks money if he just looks at an ass.

This has debacle written all over it.

New York Knicks…Man Up.

-Brock

Triple B Goes In On The LeBron James Debate

@Be You and me are eye to eye on this one but I’m gonna go a little bit harder

I had this “Lebron is gonna be playing in D-Wade’s shadow” argument for 4 hours last night and i realized that the only ones spouting this gahbage were Knicks fans. I’ll explain why Lebron’s decision cuts sooooo deeply for Knicks later but first let’s talk about that Cleveland move.

Let’s be honest, the Cavs are losers with a losing tradition. That may sound redundant at first but think about it. Cleveland knows one thing, and that’s loss. They know how to lose to the 49er’s they know how to lose a pennant race. They know Shawn Kemp. They actually love losing. Why? cause it’s familiar. Every Cavs fan has said the same thing for the past 4 years. “Hey they made a good run. Next year is our year”. Cleveland welcomes loss like an old friend coming around at Christmas time. The Cavs have had 7 years to build a team around Lebron but they’ve failed. As they fail in all other facets of the game; style, management, coaching and personnel. I mean the best answer they could come with for “what do we do when Lebron is double-teamed?” is Delante (I’m doin ya mom’s) West. LBJ has been carrying 4 players on his back plus Mike Brown for too long. And for all that work the Cavs still have the same championship record as the Wizards. Resign with that mess…….please?! As Admiral Ackbar says:

Moving along…… The Knickerbockers! Knicks fan took this to heart and they should. They’re not really mad at Lebron thoough. I know they gutted the team to make room for him. They wooed him with tales of “This will be your city” and “This will be your team” and “we got Amare Stoudamire aka New Allen Houston”. Hell they even made a promo with the damn mayor in it! But still Lebron denied them! The Knicks fans know what that really means is…… top talent is actively avoiding their squad. That’s what’s really killin em! C’mon Knicks fans! NY is the blackhole of the NBA. They suck players in and take their best years leaving them with nothing to show it but injuries, age, and a cheap trade to a high profile team late in their career. Plus there’s nothing but foolishness going on on the management level. Reference one Isiah Thomas. The Knickerbockers are quickly approaching Wizards status. I know it, Lebron knows it, Knicks fans know it and Admiral Ackbar knows it. Tell em Acky:

So he went to the Heat. How is this a bad move? Do you really think that he will be playing in Dwayne Wade’s Shadow?! Lebron is too big a talent and a star to be overshadowed by anyone! You think I’m crazy? THEY USE BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO TALK ABOUT THIS MAN! I’m gonna let you think about that for a bit………………………….. Ok? good. In fact as far as the NBA is concerned Lebon IS the Second Coming (no offense to Mr. J) and with this move to Miami he just picked up some Apostles. And you know that D-Wade at the top of the key with King James slashing is gonna produce some of the nastiest highlight reels since Dominique!! Whoever says they’re not gonna watch the first Heat game…… I’m callin em a damn liar!

Lebron you did the right thing. Now go out there and bring the championship back to the East. And don’t listen to these HATERS (in the purest sense of the slang) telling you that it will always be D-Wade’s house cuz, well one more time for the cheap seats Double A!

-Triple B

Man Up Monday: NBA Free Agents

Usually no one cares about the NBA during the off season.  The Finals end, the draft lets you know where all the young kids are going, and you can hang it up until the season starts in the Fall.  This season it is a little different.

King James is on the street along with Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare’ Staudemire, Dirk Novitzki, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, and potentially folks like Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul.  There is an entire all star team of players that might end up in another city next year.  It is like NBA Live ’98 on the playstation where my girl would run that custom all star team of Jordan, Jordan, Jordan, Jordan, and Jordan.  There are a few teams that can actually pick up two of these players and instantly have a team that can contend.  The whole NBA might look different next year.  Dwayne Wade, LeBron and Chris Bosh all met together to see if they might be able to work things out somewhere.  Take a little less money to try to create a dynasty.

Now we all know these guys are all going to get “max” money but there are tiers to how good they are.  LeBron is clearly the prize of the group.  He has billionaires begging him to come, entire cities shutting down and making turrible songs to woo him to their team, and he can instantly make your team better, or as Cleveland may soon find out, him leaving your team will make you a lot worse.  Dwayne Wade is arguably tier 1A, because he is a certified star and a winner.  He will lead your team, make it better and can win games on his own.  Bosh, Pierce, Novitzki, and Staudemire are second tier top guys.  They will have an impact, but if you get two of the people on that second list, you are not guaranteed to make a real run at a title.  Hell, if Cleveland added Novitzki I don’t think they would be automatic contenders out of the East.  Which brings us to Joe Johnson and today’s Man Up Monday.

The Atlanta Hawks are about to guarantee another decade of mediocrity by giving Joe Johnson a six year max deal!  With all this heat on the streets, you are gonna max out Joe freakin Johnson?  Didn’t show up in the playoffs Joe Johnson?  Pretty good but not that good Joe Johnson?  In the NBA one Joe Johnson signs he never has to play another day and he will still make all of that money.  I don’t see Joe Johnson going all out to lead the Hawks to the playoffs.  Atlanta Man UP!

Meanwhile, while the entire NBA could have shifted this summer, everyone is staying home.  Dirk is rumored to be staying in Dallas.  Joe is staying in Atlanta.  Paul Pierce is staying in Boston.  Wade is most likely staying in Miami, the Knicks are still gonna suck, everything is the same.

I’m ready to see some action!  These free agents need to do something unexpected, make a new superteam like the Boston Celtics or the LA Lakers.  LeBron and Bosh should go to Miami, or Wade and LeBron should go to Chicago. It would at least make things interesting.  Otherwise, we are gonna be looking at Kobe Bryant holding that Trophy again in 2011 and listening to Ron Artest’s new single “2 Rings”.

We don’t really want that, do we?

-Brock

Man Up Monday: LeBron James – G.O.A.T. or Just a Goat?

Let the great LeBron debate begin.  It all started in the pivotal Game 5 versus the Celtics.  The game where everyone thought the Chosen 1 was going to simply assert his will on the game.  A game that wouldn’t have even been pivotal if it wasn’t for an once in a generation performance from Rajon Rondo that he shouldn’t have been able to pull of.  (Side Note: Rondo gets the UvT Award for best player who I thought really sucked.  Do you remember that dude at UK?  No?  Exactly.)  We all thought it was time for the Cavs to send the Celtics back to the old folks home as they went on to tackle the Magic in the next round.  Why did we all expect it?  Because it is what MJ would have done.  It is was Magic would have done.  It was what Kobe would have done.  Hell, it is what Reggie Miller would have done and most of the time his squads were over matched.  But instead LeBron looked very…not LeBron.

It was so bad, people were arguing that he did it on purpose.  We had so much faith that the kid could just turn it on whenever he wanted to, that we just expected it to happen.  So when it didn’t  it was because he must have wanted it to be that way.  He must be testing his teammates to see if he wanted to stay in Cleveland.  He turned it off to make people appreciate the things he does for the team.  To set himself up to make an epic comeback in games 6 and 7.  To set up the situation too big for any mere man to over come, only a basketball god would be able to rally back in Boston, the home of the most NBA Championships in history.  But instead he just failed.

At least game 6 looked like he put up an effort.  He had the personal numbers, but he had some pretty terrible turnovers and ended up in the wrong place a few more times than he usually did.  Let’s keep it real though.  LeBron doesn’t really have anything to work with.  Sure he has Shaq, but 2010 Shaq is not “don’t let him catch anything within 8 feet of the basket because he will dunk on you, 1998 Shaq”.  Mo Williams is good, but if that dude played in Golden State he would be Monta Ellis.  Anderson Varejao?  Please.  When you see those dudes lined up against Rondo, Ray Allen, Pierce and Mr. Anything is possible, you know things aren’t all good.  This is a 3+ All-star league if you want to get to a ring.  You at least need two legit all star and a former all star.  Orlando has Howard, Jameer Nelson, Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis.  Phoenix has One eyed Steve Nash, Amare Staudemire, Grant Hill.  Lakers have Kobe, Pau, Artest, Odom.  Lebron was fighting up hill.

Which brings us to the next big question.  What is next?

LeBron is wide open and ready to get paid.  He is so good, he is about to be paid so much money, that it is like opening up the lottery draft again. Only really shitty teams who don’t have any quality players who have legit money wrapped up are in the running to get the dude.  The New York Knicks decimated their team a full on 2 ½ seasons ago to take a run at LeBron.  The Cavs can offer LeBron an extra year at 30 million, so that is not trivial loot, but if he wants to win he might need to look elsewhere.  Loot vs. Ring.  Kobe or Karl Malone.  You don’t get to film high quality flicks like Space Jam, Kazaam, and Steel without some hardware on your fingers.  You don’t become a global icon because you are really good, you become a global icon because you are a winner. Right Shaq?

So let’s look at who is in the running.

Pros:

  • Already have good players around in Derek Rose and Joachim Noah.  Deng and Henrich could also stay, but they could also be traded for another killer (Wade or Bosh).  That gets you in the 3+ all star range and makes them a contender.
  • LeBron has already decided he isn’t wearing #23 next year.  Which is good, because in Chicago that decision is not optional.

Cons:

Verdict:  That squad is probably good for 2 rings in the gap after Kobe slows down.

Pros:

  • They can pay him.
  • He would get to hang out with Jay-Z
  • New Yorkers would treat him like the greatest thing since Pat Ewing, Derek Jeter, and ARod all in one…at least until the Knicks started losing games.
  • People would pretend like he was hotter and bigger than he was because he is in NY.
  • He gets to be a part of the history of Madison Square Garden.
  • There would actually be a plausible reason for him to be wearing the NY Yankees hat he always rocks.

Cons:

  • The Knicks, really, really suck right now.  They start a dude they picked up at the rucker, their general counsel who was Mr. NY Basketball 1994, Common because they thought he looked pretty good in his new movie, and two chicks on loan from the New York Liberty.  This squad will be better because LeBron is there.  Just like….Cleveland.
  • Mike D’Antoni can’t win with his gameplan.  I said it.

Verdict: LeBron realized that if he wants championships, it probably isn’t gonna happen here.  LeBron says no, New Yorkers who for some reason think this is a done deal burn MSG down.

Pros:

  • The new owner is really, really rich.
  • LeBron would gain a huge Russian following.
  • He would still get to hang out with Jay-Z
  • They might move to Brooklyn where he could create his legacy.

Cons:

  • They suck even worse than the Knicks
  • Jersey
  • They aren’t really going to move to Brooklyn
  • The arena would be full of these kids:

Pros:

  • AHNT

Cons:

  • See Above.

Pros:

  • He gets to run with Dwayne Wade
  • Mamis

  • Beasley knows were to get really good weed.

Cons:

  • Dade County is Wade County
  • Shaq would probably want to come back with him
  • Wade and Lebron would take up so much space there wouldn’t be much room to add anyone that good other than the people who show up on the UvT “why are you still in the league list”.

By the way.  Is there still a team in Sacremento and who the hell are they paying right now where they can’t afford to be a part of this conversation?

So LeBron James.  Man Up on your career and your legacy.  You didn’t just let us down, you let yourself down.   Man Up and put yourself in a position to win.  It is gonna be a fun summer.

-Brock

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