Kobblehead wrote:Eugene, you got selective memory bro. Sam requested like 5 different trades that year and by the time Doug got hired, he wasn't even on speaking terms with the front office.
As an out of towner I do not know how accurate this is, but if true it makes sense. The front office, for two years, had been screwing with Sam's minutes and giving them to Marreese Speights. It was just one more example of Stefanski's glorious dream of sacrificing good veterans to create a team of prepubescents, who would grow together into an ominous force of mediocrity. I still think that trading Dalembert was just one chapter of this wet dream.
The year prior to his trade was the worst. Sam sat at the end of games while we were playing teeny-bopper matador while being unable to stop anyone even using AK-47s. Our problems have not been acts of God, but man made. Everyone thought Sam was stupid, but if he did indeed force a trade, we might have been wrong.
I would feel better with that period beyond us, if I didn't suspect a variation of such this year with the treatment of Nocioni and the sacrificed offense of Iguodala. I've been following this team for *# (censored) years, but am gaining acceptance of the reality that I am a dinosaur who cannot understand the beauty of making a team unwatchable so as to ultimately become great. At least when I last felt this way I had the awesome 73 Knicks to help me survive. I pray that my man Melo can ultimately turn that mess around because, while good basketball is still beautiful to watch, I would prefer to see it from teams I have followed since childhood. After Miller left I had to watch Portland, and realized I was too old to stay up that late.