Curmudgeoning

I know there's no point in having a negative attitude about life and moping around.  That said, I don't really care what I know.  I'm going to bitch.  Sue me.

Less than a year ago, I was very much enjoying being a Knick fan.   Donnie Walsh was proving himself to be my favorite GM ever.  Simply put, it was a joy to root for a team that he was running.  On the court, Donnie's work seemed to be coming to fruition.  The addition of Turiaf, Felton and Stoudemire to Gallo, Chandler, Toney and the rest had them showing flashes of great team chemistry.  The Landry phenomenon looked like one of those kismet-y luckouts that pushes a team toward contention.

Yes, Stoudemire acted a bit like a rockstar celebrity, but on the court, he backed it up pretty well.  And surrounded by a bunch of guys that seemed to truly believe in defense, Stoudemire seemed to fit perfectly.  I felt like I was in the middle of something really nice.

Fast forward to today.

1. First of all, we lost Gallo and Chandler and Felton and Mozzie and had to watch an ill-prepared hodgepodge of a team try (and largely fail) to figure it out.  Shit happens - what can you do?  I still have hope, but at this point I'm still bumming a bit.  We had a team that seemed to care most of all about basketball...

2. Amar'e yanks his back and we can't even win one playoff game from the goddamn Celtics. 

3. Walsh, still in charge, presides over a couple of draft picks that I've come to be very hopeful for.  But then he leaves, and the spectre of Dolan expands to cover most of the sky and block out the sun.  I hate when that happens.

4. The lockout.  It's apparent to me that the owners are intent on breaking the players, or at the very least continuing the lockout past November to the point at which the players will be missing paychecks.  It's clear to me that Stern & co are not interested in making a deal.  I could see this going the way of the hockey lockout.  The owners, most of whom have made awful basketball decisions, are seriously playing hardball because they want a NHL or NFL type of system and they're not going to stop until they get it.

Meanwhile, since there's no actual basketball happening, the news we get about basketball is mostly about the locked out players doing this or that bullshit.  I get ESPN the mag delivered to my house, I think it's a perk from my internet deal - and it's awful because it's not about sports.  It's about big star celebrity athletes doing celebrity things, talking about their bodyguards of the clubs they go to or the cars they drive or the video games they play or the clothes they wear or some bullshit.  I don't..... really.... care about Amar'e's ideas of being a fashion consultant or putting on a fashion show.  I mean, I like people that have style, but I'm not a fan of fashion shows.  I don't really care about what Carmelo is wearing or the new fancy apartment in Manhattan or what was featured on Lala's reality show.  I don't watch it.  Maybe Lala is a nice person.  I don't care.  I like basketball.  I like to watch basketball players play basketball and talk about basketball games.  Amar'e and Carmelo seem to like the other trappings of celebrity a bit too much.

It seems to me that basketball players, during a lockout like this, should be a)working on their game, b) keeping in touch with their teammates and c) working on making a new basketball league, collectively owned by the players.  That would scare the owners back to the table in a hurry.  But no, I gotta hear about this celebrity shit - and I have the misfortune of having two of these celebrity superstar guys on the team I root for.   I mean, part of this is certainly ESPN's fault.  They'd rather suck up to the superstars and their rich and famous lifestyle.  I wish they'd go find Toney Douglas and find out what he's working on and what his thoughts are on the lockout.  But I guess that's not what they do. 

OK, I'm done.  Shit has fallen so far so fast.