Christmas in LA

So surprise, surprise. Mama Momo didnt like my anti-Hanukah remarks from Friday. As Ghostface once said, Word up mommy I love you. So, I guess I'm sorry.

So I'm out in LA for the holidays. I'm chilling with my old pal, big Mike Kassar, aka the Hulk. This kid is the future of the fine-dining industry and was always good for 14 and 10 on a nightly basis.

He's been known as "The Hulk" ever since the Summer of '04. We were playing basketball in the park and Mike was throwing his 6'4, 250lb frame everywhere. The kid is legendary for his sharp elbows and soft left-handed touch, and he was killing everyone out there. After a sequence where he got 5 straight offense rebounds and then threw it back down while wearing a green t-shirt, one spectator shouted: "Damn, that's that n***a the Hulk."

Anyway, it's weird spending Christmas in the 70 degree sun. With baseball at a bit of a stalemate, I wanted to take today to bash New York's finest basketball club, The Knickerbockers, in particular, surprise, surprise, Isiah Thomas, and more surprisingly Larry Brown.

I'm going to make this quick, because it is Hanukah, and Mom I sure am lighting candles and eating latkas like a proper child of Israel.

Anyway, Isiah. Two years on, the guy has performed a 100% overhaul of the team he inherited. That is, not one player from the roster remains.

In that time he has managed to turn the Knicks from a 35-win team in to what looks like a 25-win team. In the meanwhile, the Knicks are completely fucked with the cap for the next 3-4 seasons, appear to be building around Channing Frye, and are maybe the most boring team in the NBA. Nice work, Isiah.

Oh, and did I mention that when the Knicks have a top 5 pick this year it is being shipped off to Chicago thanks to that ingenius Eddy Curry deal?

Basically, you are the absolute worst executive in sports. Every player in the NBA dreams of playing at the Garden. With that and the ability to purge the luxury tax you would think that something good could be in the making.

Instead there is nothing. I like Frye, Ariza and Nate Robinson as much as the next guy, but come on guys, if these guys all peak in three years where are the Knicks? .500? It's all about whats going on in Golden State.

Then there is Larry Brown.

I woke up this morning at 11:30 PT, meaning the Pistons vs. Spurs game was already over.

But does anyone else see what's going on in Detroit? The Pistons, with basically the exact same roster as with Brown are 23-3, they're the best team in the league and look basically unstoppable. Is it possible that this team is just so good that Brown's coaching played second fiddle?

In '04, before they won the title, Detroit was fighting at the top of the Eastern Conference standings. It wasn't until March when they were able to steal Rasheed Wallace away from the then cap-shedding Atlanta Hawks that Detroit went on their run.

So maybe it's possible that in Detroit he had the players.

Then there is Philly. LB put together one dream season in Philadelphia, guiding the Sixers to an Eastern Conference Championship.

But again, there is baggage. This is when the Eastern Conference was the worst. The 4-5 best teams in basketball played in the West and the next best team in the East was the Toronto Raptors. Also, similarly to the Rasheed acquisition, the Sixers brought in Dikembe Mutumbo that year to help them make their real playoff surge.

Then there was the '04 Olympic team. Holy cow was that an embarassment. Not much more to say.

So here we have LB in New York now and the Knicks are the worst they have ever been. Who is responsible? Well according to Brown, he does not have "his type of players". I don't know, Larry. For $12 mil per you should be able to do a little something more with this team.

Now, I'm sorry if this comes off completely negative because that is not my intention. Clearly, Larry Brown is a great basketball mind. But is he that great?

I write this, sadly, because The Hulk is about the biggest Knicks fan I know and I kinda feel bad. The Knicks have nothing going now and nothing really to look forward to. They may be the worst franchise in all of sports over the next three years and that pains me.

But hopefully, god willing, Isiah will be gone and maybe I can become a Knicks fan again.

New Mets?

SM