No, New York, No, New York, No

I'm not going to lie. This year's Knicks team doesn't really excite me. I watched a number of their preseason games, including the bizarre exhibition against Maccabi Tel Aviv, and to borrow a phrase, this team don't look too f*cking good. 

Although they do work hard on both ends of the court, the team lacks a go-to offensive weapon, a reliable defensive presence, a consistent shooter and a vocal, veteran leader. In theory, Al Harrington is supposed to fill these various roles, but if anyone expects Harrington to do this, they haven't exactly been paying close attention to Al throughout his career.   

Headed into the season, the Knicks have a ton more questions than they do answers: Is David Lee worth the long-term investment? Is Wilson Chandler a foundational piece, or is he just a role player? Can Danilo Gallinari play in the NBA? Is Nate Robinson anything more than a sideshow? Has Darko Milicic finally figured it out? Was Jordan Hill worth drafting? Is Toney Douglas any good? Is there any team desperate enough to want Jared Jeffries and/or Eddy Curry?

If the Knicks can answer half of these questions in the affirmative, I'll consider the season a resounding success. Going forward, though, the future fortunes of the Knicks, no matter how much progress they show on the court, will rise and fall based on one question and one question only: Will they land LeBron? 

"What Jordan Did to Ehlo Was Dead Wrong"

Earlier this morning, LeBron James visited Dan Patrick's radio show. Patrick asked James, who grew up, oddly, idolizing Michael Jordan and rooting for the Cavaliers, what he thought of Jordan's iconic jumper over an outstretched Craig Ehlo in the 1989 NBA playoffs, the first of Jordan's many, many, many signature shots. It seems the shot still raises LeBron's hackles: 

What Jordan did to Ehlo was dead wrong. For him to go up and act like he was going to take the jumper and wait for Ehlo to land on the ground. And then shoot it. He should have not done that to Craig Ehlo.

I doubt very much that LeBron actually remembers this shot. He was 4 at the time. Still, the iconic shot was on heavy rotation throughout the early 90s, and made a minor comeback a few years ago, in one of the best series of Gatorade advertisements ever conceived. There was, simply, no escaping the clip, or Jordan's greatness. Cavs fan or not. 

Line of the Night

51 points. 9 assists. 4 rebounds. 3 blocks. 2 steals. LeBron James. 

Line of the Night

42 points. 8 rebounds. 4 assists. 1 steal. 1 block. LeBron James. 

Line of the Night

55 points. 9 assists. 5 rebounds. LeBron James, king of the fadeaway three-pointer. 

Party Crashers

Further to my previous post about the potential renaissance of NBA's Slam Dunk Contest, I'd like to nominate both James "Flight" White and Keith "With Hops This Good, I Should Have a Nickname" Clark, both of the National Basketball Association's Development League, as participants in next year's contest against defending champion Nate Robinson and early favorite LeBron James. 

This is exactly the kind of athleticism that keeps the annual dunk contest relevant; it would be a crime against the league if it were to remain unnoticed.  

Keith Clark's third attempt, a 50. 

James White's answer, his second consecutive 50. 

Good lord. You can check out more of White's and Clark's incredible dunks here. Seriously, they're worth the look. Enjoy. 

(Via TrueHoop)

Odds & Sods

The NBA decides that LeBron is one rebound less than awesome, and Mo Williams should probably just leave his game at home during the All-Star weekend. The Minnesota Twins hire their first groundskeeper in 20 years, while the Red Sox send moving vans to Fenway, as part of its annual Truck Day. Ray Lewis can set his sights on Florham Park, but Matt Cassel should probably hold off packing his bags, at least for now.

As Kingfishers Catch Fire

I used to think I had this game figured out. But LeBron has gone and muddled my idea of what a basketball player is supposed to do. Even now, 19 hours later, I’m still not in a position to process fully the significance of last night’s performance. Honestly, at this point, any cogent articulation of LeBron’s signature game, at least on my end, could very well take years, even decades, to spit out. You would think Kobe’s 61 points would have prepared me, but the King’s immediate answer has left me at a complete loss. All I can say is, while Kobe’s offensive output brings to mind, as I replay it in my head, the cold, beautiful efficiency of the Baltimore Catechism, LeBron’s 52-point triple-double—the first in 25 years!—makes me think of the weighty grandeur of a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem.

Or this scene from Vision Quest.



Either is appropriate. Really.

I guess what I’m fumbling at is the idea that Kobe’s game made me stand up and take notice-- even if his 61 points came at the expense of my Knickerbockers—but LeBron’s magnificent game against the Knicks, 48 hours later, made me rethink my prefabricated notion of what it means to believe in the King and the National Basketball Association.

Line of the Night

52 points. 11 assists. 10 rebounds. 2 blocks. LeBron James. 

Line of the Night

33 points. 7 rebounds. 4 assists. 2 blocks. 1 steal. LeBron James. 

The Best Player in the World, Blindfolded

Well, sort of. From Chris Ballard's amazing profile of LeBron James comes this startling fact about the most dominant player in the league. Until last year, LeBron couldn't see six feet in front of his own nose. Seriously. 

Ballard writes:

Despite his estimable court vision, up until a year ago, James had trouble seeing certain things. Like, say, road signs. 

[...] Thus during high school and his first five years in the NBA, James operated in something of a haze, which must make all the players who got torched by him feel great. Only James claims it never affected his game. "I could see everything on the court. I never had a problem with here" -- he holds his hands to the side of his head, indicating his peripheral vision -- "it was right here in front that I had the problem."

Then, a little over a year ago, James got Lasik surgery. Now, as he puts it, "it's kind of cool, because I can see stuff in the distance. I'm like, So that's what that is! 

Pressed, he admits it's probably improved his on-court performance too, saying, "Well, I have gotten better."

I thought LeBron, like all great players, would improve his game by refining his jump shot, or picking up his intensity on the defensive end. Both of which he's already well on his way toward accomplishing. I never thought, though, that he would get to the next level simply by addressing an easily correctable physical disadvantage. It's like he's been playing his entire career right-handed before finally realizing that he is, in fact, better with his left.  Or that his vertical leap has been hindered somewhat by an undiagnosed bout of polio.  

Is it really possible that the greatest player in the world is only now, in his fifth season in the league, finally operating at full capacity? 

(Via TrueHoop)

Line of the Night

33 points. 14 rebounds. 9 assists. 1 steal. LeBron James. 

Witness, Again

FreeDarko weighs in on the significance of LeBron's Friday night magnificence against the Celtics, in relation to Kobe's equally impressive--yet entirely different-- Friday night gem against the Pacers.

One thing's for certain: As of right now, LeBron's play casts Kobe in an entirely new light. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Kobe is mortal. He pushes himself, not the laws of what's possible. His vocabulary is all that basketball has to offer, not the possibility of total transcendence and reinvention of those parameters. Don't get me wrong, the Lakers' finest remains larger-than-life, but it's not the same as LeBron's ability to make us rethink what might happen on the court.

I touched on this briefly here, in Saturday's edition of "Line of the Night," although not nearly as deeply. My comment was basically this: Kobe good; LeBron REALLY good. 

The point remains, however, that LeBron can, at this point in his young career, do things on the court that Kobe could never do. Does that make him a better basketball player? I don't know. I think it just means that LeBron is much more fun to watch.   

The rest is just details. 

Line of the Night

38 points. 7 rebounds. 6 assists. 4 steals. 3 blocks. LeBron James. 

Line of the Night

28 points. 7 rebounds. 7 assists. 3 blocks. 1 steal. 0 turnovers. LeBron James. 

Friends in High Places

When Knicks President of Basketball Operations Donnie Walsh freed up close to $46 million in cap space for 2010, he did more than just make the Knicks the prohibitive favorite to sign LeBron James when he opts out of his contract. He may have also put the Yankees in a better position to land their biggest free agent target this winter: C.C. Sabathia. 

According to ESPN's Buster Olney, the idea of LeBron James suiting up for the Knicks in two years could very well convince his good buddy to put on the pinstripes this spring.  

Sabathia developed a friendship, through his years in Cleveland, with LeBron James, as the two became the biggest stars in a small town. They have bopped around New York together in the past, and on Friday, the Knicks made trades that are being viewed as precursors to their pursuit, in another 20 months, of James.
Presumably, at some point, Sabathia and James have shared a conversation about living and playing in New York at the same time -- Sabathia for the Yankees, James for the Knicks. James, as the world famously learned in the playoffs of 2007, is a Yankees fan.

Olney cautions, however, that Sabathia isn't even close to coming to a decision about his future, and he is still weighing a number of factors, like staying in the National League or pitching in his home state of California, that could very well determine where he ends up playing next season. 

Still, the Yankees' reported offer of $140 million over six years, coupled with the King's possible arrival in the Big Apple, could likely tilt the balance in the Bombers' favor.