Enough already about LeBron, Robby tells me. And I'm fine with that. I'm happy for LeBron. I'm pleased that after all his soul-searching he saw fit to convene those hopeful little Knicks fans together at the Greenwich Boys and Girls Club and tell them he was "taking his talents to South Beach." I'm glad that he's decided to pursue his championship (ships, I guess we should say) with the Heat, a team that now has two of the NBA's top three superstars and three of the "Big Four" free agents from this year's super class. All they need now is Kobe, and there'd be no competition whatsoever; they wouldn't even have to play -- we could just hand them their rings. Truly a courageous "Decision" by the King.
I suppose deep down, what's really bumming me after all this is that the Knicks don't have D. Lee anymore. Last season I bemoaned the loss of Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph, and in recent weeks I've been fretting about the imminent loss of Lee. My two older sons, Knicks fans both, would constantly berate me for being short-sighted. That you had to have a plan. And that the Knicks had a plan.
Okay, so now the long-awaited Summer of 2010 has come, and for all NBA purposes, gone -- and this is what the plan was all about? That we dumped any even half-way decent players we had? That we just went through two of the most dismal seasons in post-war history? That we didn't get LeBron? And that we spent $100 million on an "upgrade" for David Lee -- the only Knick who's done anything for the past two years -- except that the upgrade doesn't rebound nearly as well as Lee and scores a whopping three points more per game? (Oh, yeah, right -- his dunks are a little scarier.)
My immediate reaction to all this was that I'd just stop watching the Knicks -- but who am I kidding? I'm addicted. Always have been. If I watched Eddie Lee Wilkens and Hawthorne Nathaniel Wingo, and I watched the last two seasons, you know I'm gonna watch this year, too.
Hey, maybe Amar'e will make me forget David Lee. Let's face it -- I'm not good with change. My sons always remind me that I was inconsolable when the Mets got rid of Ty Wigginton to make way for David Wright. (My reaction may not have been quite as nuts as the juxtoposition of those two names makes it sound. After all, we did see both of them in last night's All-Star game . . .)
Over the last few days I've seen coverage of the Knicks new, post-free-agent-sweepstakes "core." And any way you slice it, we're gonna need a lot more help if 2010-2011 isn't going to be just like 2009, and 2008, and 2007, and . . .
Frederic Weis, are you out there?
- Hank
