HarthorneWingo wrote:Greenie wrote:HarthorneWingo wrote:
lol, yeah right, a loyally addicted fan since '67 who used to watch what real basketball was with pride as opposed to the BS we play when he's out on the court.
Please, I've been watching the Knicks since before you were even born.
Melo's legacy here is already cemented in stone. FAILURE.
Matches the damn Knicks then.
Failure.
I do. I blame Dolan for making this stupid Melo trade. And then I blame Grunwald for the Bargnani trade. These are the two trades which have set us back for about a decade.
Then I blame Phil for re-signing Melo, giving him the NTC AND the trade kicker. Three bad moves all wrapped up in one. Very bad.
You won't find a bigger Phil guy than me. Unless you've been studying him like a hawk prior to the 80s. I will precede by saying I believe Dolan betrayed Phil from the beginning, perhaps since day one. Phil wasn't gonna put up with that and he gave Dolan an ultimatum some point after DOLAN, not Phil hired hornacek. It went down something like this: "you've been stifling me from the beginning. You are still poisoned by Carmelo/caa/media/and very importantly the fans. We haven't run the triangle one f***ing day since I've been here. You didn't hire me to be prez you hired me to be your whipping boy. I didn't come here for this. I don't need anything from you. I'm here because this is where it all started for me. I'm here cause of Red. And my old teammates, some of my closest friends. I'm here for this organization and these fans. My fiancee is running the Lakers making moves that presume I will be there next year. As an owner, not just prez. She hired Luke for me for christ sakes. There's 8 trillion reasons for me to opt out and return to LA. Money/control/ownership/weather/my fiancee/etc. I love her and I'm grateful but in the end my heart will always be in NY. I'll walk out on you. I won't walk out on red/Clyde/Willis/Dave/bill/and the people from this organization who were so instrumental in my life, on the court and off. So here's the deal. Honor your commitment of 100% control you promised me. It's hard to argue I've had that beyond the honeymoon week of my return to NY. That's it. I'm not asking for anything you haven't already promised me. I will never be capable of bringing a championship here, even if I perform my finest work ever, without your full 100% support from here on out. In or out, Jim, it's your call. I'll respect either decision. I won't respect if you break your word again."
Now keep in mind, Riley should still be here. Those championships in Miami? Those should have been NY's. Dolan drove out Riley, who like Phil gave him an ultimatum. If he drives out Phil, that's it...there's no one left for him to hire and you will suffer until new ownership takes over, if ever.
I don't blame Phil for resigning melo or the trade kicker. Phil knew melo's weaknesses and vulnerabilities, yet was willing and open to working with him. He believed he could get melo to buy in obviously. That was the key to everything. For all of carmelo's faults, Phil still believed in him and that there was enough there to win if things clicked. Tex Winter, the godfather of basketball, the greatest NBA mind on the planet and human history, said in his 50+ year career, the most amazing thing he ever saw was Phil's ability to sell Michael on the triangle. Obviously Phil did the same with Shaq and Kobe and then again with Kobe. The generation today is a soft, entitled, spoiled breed. They put the individual before the team, and brand before basketball. That's not how the game should be, that's not how life is. Forget the lack of talent...I don't see the character in most of today's players for phil to have success with even if he was healthy enough to coach. A few guys come to mind. Lillard, Butler, kawhi...not much else. Phil gave melo a shot and it failed. He knows it and so does melo and everyone here. I don't think Phil could ever win with LeBron or wade or CP3 and those boys.
I don't blame Phil for resigning melo, even though that may have been a precondition to Dolan hiring him. And it's idiotic to blame him for a trade kicker. Everyone has trade kickers. melo isn't a vet minimum player. Trade kickers are practically synonymous with guaranteed multi-year deals.
The NTC is where Phil can be held accountable. But that's assuming he authorized it. I have a very hard time believing he would sign off on that. Especially for someone he never worked with before. Phil could have been a hedge fund billionaire. He knows how to manage money. Most importantly risk. I have a strong suspicion the NTC was a mandate from Dolan delivered on melo's behalf. I hope one day my suspicion will be confirmed. But if I'm wrong, and the NTC was totally Phil's call, he deserves to be blamed for it. It was a bad mistake. But it doesn't outweigh the good he's done for this organization. His tenure so far has been a net positive, especially considering he's treated and attacked like trump. Imagine what he can do with the handcuffs off and with the full support of not just dolan but the fans as well.
Also the SAS kawhi rumor is bs. Unless pop really is that dumb. After all he did trade away one of the best players ever to Phil in the prime of their career for Will freaking Purdue. If pop was even halfway serious about that, kawhi would be at the Knicks practice facility working out right now.
