New York Knicks: 10-plus years in free-fall with no signs of slowing

Hopeful, confusing and disappointing

Stories coming out of the Knicks’ camp would continue to be a rollercoaster and for me, mostly fall into three different categories: hopeful, confusing, and disappointing. I’m sure it will come as no big surprise, dear reader, that most of it would be disappointing.

Confusing
On September 26, 2008, it was reported that a 37-year-old Allan Houston would again be part of the New York Knicks at least for training camp in hopes of making a come back. For real!?

Disappointing
On February 2, 2009, Kobe Bryant wracked up 61 points against New York. Unsurprisingly, at least to me, there was at least one attempt by the New York media to downplay this performance. Because why not? At least it’s an interesting way to present the information that the Knicks had suffered yet another humiliating loss.

Disappointing
On February 4, 2009, LeBron James dropped 52 points on the Knicks in an almost triple-double performance that came incredibly close to being historic since 50-plus point triple-doubles are pretty rare. I say ‘almost triple-double’ because on review the League would take away one of James’ 10 rebounds.

Hopeful …?
On November 16, 2009, reports came out that Knicks’ President Donnie Walsh was considering the possibility of bringing another aging, past their prime veteran to the team this time in the form of Allen Iverson. It wouldn’t be the worst veteran the Knicks had ever considered as Iverson recorded double-digit point averages for his entire NBA career.

Disappointing
Donnie Walsh would ultimately decide to pass on Allen Iverson and Knicks fans were not happy. Personally, I think this should be labeled as hopeful since it represented the teeny-tiniest hope of a new direction for the team that by this time had a long history of signing guys who used to be great but were no longer on that level because time marches on.