If you're one of those people that needs their NBA fix 24/7, than you should really look into adding the NBA League Pass to your cable package. Starting today you can preview the League Pass free for a week. This is your chance to watch your favorite team outside your local market and track fantasy players. The package provides customers with up to 40 live out-of-market games per week across 10 channels. Customers who order by Nov. 3 will save $20 with the early bird price of $169 or four installments of only $42.25 each. The package is distributed by iN Demand to every major cable system across the U.S. (From Dime Magazine)

 

 

"When you set up yourself by basically saying, 'We're going to (stink) for the next two or three years,' I don't think there is any way that can be good for your team. They're not going to win because those guys know they're not going to be here next year. To expect them to give 110% is unrealistic." -- Charles Barkley

Sometimes Charles Barkley sounds like a fool with diarrhea of the mouth. But, then there are those times when Charles knows what he is talking about and is willing to share the raw truth according to Charles Barkley's brain.  This time, with his brain and mouth in sync, Sir Charles tells Frank Isola (See Charles Barkley rips Knicks' president Donnie Walsh for bad management) why he believes that the Turtle's management strategy sucks.  In addition to criticizing Walsh, Barkley has indicated that he wants to be an NBA GM.  He wants his chance to fail at a job which he says doesn't require the mind of a brain surgeon.

Charles knows basketball and basketball players, whether he can manage the salary cap is another issue.  The gist of Charles's criticism of Walsh is that the Knicks players will not play as hard because they know that they will not be with the Knicks next year.  He says,

"The Knicks don't have a good team. I think waiting to do all the free agency thing has hurt the camaraderie and chemistry on the team. Those guys aren't dumb. They know they're not going to be around."

I'm a little torn about Barkley's analysis.  Undoubtedly, the 2010 strategy is not a good one -- no one has ever built a winning team the way Walsh has gone about it.  It is doomed to fail and fans are doomed to make excuses as to why getting LeBron was not the objective.  On the other hand, Charles cannot be totally correct that the Knicks will not play hard because they are a bunch of expiring contracts. I expect the infusion of youth (Milicic, Douglas, Jordan, Landry), energy (Jeffries) and incentives (for Nate and DLee) will have the Knicks playing hard for most of the season.

As to chemistry, Barkley forgets that Lee, Chandler, Jeffries and Robinson are going into their third year together.  Douglas fits in perfectly.

The real on court problem will be the amount of energy the high octane offense plus defensive pressure requires.  The Knicks are thin in talent and they will not be able to keep up the pace over an 82 game schedule.  Last year, it took players a while to adapt to D'Antoni's offense, especially after the changes required when Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford were traded.  This year, with defense added, it is as though they have a new system and a new coach.  In that regard, they will be exposed as a young team.

Charles has a point, but he doesn't know who thinks they will be with the Knicks next year.  Even the expiring contracts have incentive to audition nightly for their next contracts with the Knicks and the opposition.  Plus, there is no guarantee that the Knicks will secure the free agent they want which means no one really knows what will happen next summer.  Not even many of the players.

''This is our job. A lot of us are on our last contracts, and we want to win. 'We want to make the city proud of the Knicks again.''

-- Chris Duhon

The NBA Season starts tonight. The marquee game is the Celtics v. Cavaliers in Cleveland.  What a way to start the season, but on the other hand. . . .

OMG. Blake Griffin has a busted (stress fracture) knee cap and will miss the first six weeks.  That's not only bad for the hard luck Clippers, it is horrible for fans who will miss an extraordinary talent.  It will be even worse if the fracture impacts his future hops.  He should return by the time the Clippers visit the Knicks at MSG on December 18th.

Perhaps the Knicks' luck will change this season starting with the fact that Jared Jeffries will be able to start the season on the court instead of a hyperbolic chamber or cast.

With a little luck, we're hoping this season keeps our attention more than last season did.  In fact, the past summer was more exciting than last season and this summer we did practically nothing -- except draft Chris Duhon's replacement which is not wholly insignificant.  Remember, we first told you during the summer that it is a matter of time before Toney Douglas eats up most of the minutes at the point.

So let's get ready and do a little housekeeping before our first regular season game.

LIVE BLOGGING

Regular Season Live Blogging begins tomorrow.  So far, the producers of the Live Blogs, to which everyone is invited, are me, Peaceman and Orange and Blue.  JayBee will eventually join us as a producer.  Anyone else who is interested please let me know.

Blogging, out of necessity, has resulted in a language all its own, that may vary according to the blogging community. This language includes shorthand in the form of acronyms which are used in certain blogging communities to speed up writing, allow for reading ease and/or to creatively circumvent censors geared to ban certain words or phrases.

The Knicks blogging community has its own special language which is constantly developing, especially when the acronym massa, Steady, is at the keyboards. These quick developments can take newbies and even some surprised regulars, without assistance, a while to understand. When I first started posting on Knicks Knation (a perpetually dying commercial blog), I would ignore certain acronyms simply because I had no idea what they meant. For example, it took me forever and two days to figure out that "ROFL" was not a perverted dog bark, but shorthand for "rolling on the floor laughing." I now imagine how many funny jokes (or jokes mis-identified as funny) I probably missed simply because I did not understand the blogger language.

In that spirit, I offer the FANATICS my revised  compilation of often used acronyms and their meanings; it is my Acronym and Phrases Dictionary which was first published on Knicks Defense, one of our former blog homes. This is meant to be a benefit to the newbies, but hopefully, it will also serve those old heads, like myself, who just skip what they don't recognize or understand. This list is not exhaustive, so feel free to add to it; nor is it a guarantee that you will finally understand what a FANATIC has written, but it should reduce some of the guess work and enhance your FANATICAL Fellowship.

(also published at SportsOnMyMind)

They are two of the greatest point guards in NBA history.

These Hall-of-Famers waged fierce battles against each other.

But only one of them would be selected to the 1992 Dream Team.

And only now would we learn about the real story of the friendship between Isiah Thomas...

and John Stockton.

Some folks were surprised last month when John chose Isiah to present him at his Hall-of-Fame induction speech - an honor Joe Dumars also once bestowed on Thomas a few years earlier.  Said Stockton,

"We've had some tough battles, but one thing I know for sure is that he has showed up many times in my life and made a major impact for me, and a lot of it is behind the scenes".

Stockton - who also credits Thomas with having "changed my entire view of basketball" - echoed the same off-court theme a few days earlier:

"He's done some things behind the scenes that people don't know about,... I'm certainly not going to talk about them now ... but he's shown a lot of class."

Did he say, "A lot of class?" ... was Stockton talking about THAT Isiah?