Guest Post: LeBron Be Gone, Thy Will Be Strong

This off-season has made everyone more passionate than normal. Casual fans started listening more intently, and die-hard fans started speaking up even more than usual. A long-time friend of No Regard, asking to be known here simply as Mugsy2Manute, is a member of the latter group. He's also been a Knicks fan since birth and sent us this piece not because we asked for it, but because he couldn't keep quiet under these circumstances. Besides, he's a smart NBA fan and sent it in Comic Sans; how could we say no?

Immediately after LeBron made that first consonant "S" sound in the now ubiquitously quoted "I'm taking my talents to South Beach," many a New Yorker could be seen shoulders slumped, mouth agape, eyes confused. Yeah, everyone had been saying Miami. It did begin to feel like the Oscars where everyone knows who's going to win Best Picture (here's an early vote for The Last Airbender). But seriously, how could this have happened? We promised him everything.


Celebrities from every walk of this city's cultural life offered even more services and luxuries to the man who already has a lot, in an attempt to entice and convince King James that there were perks here that couldn't be had in the other American basketball boom towns. It all failed.

At first glance it felt like a referendum on New York the city, and that hurt. But look closer and the real reason he ran to Miami is self-evident. He didn't reject NYC, he steered clear of the Knicks: The franchise that passed on Ron-Ron, instead drafting Frederick Weis, who never suited up for the Knicks and is known best for being victimized by Vince by le dunk de la mort; the same franchise that appointed Isaiah judge, jury, and executioner only after he single-handedly destroyed the CBA and then brought Steph home with the highest of hopes (hopes which all too quickly degenerated into the soapiest of operas that would have been hilarious if they weren't so pathetic). The team and its management/ownership, not only lost a ton of games, but any shred of self-respect and decency when it decided to take Zeke's side in the tasteless litigation with former executive Anucha-Browne Sanders. These weren't the Knicks of yore with Willis Reed hobbling into the finals to hit one shot on a bum knee, Clyde Frazier showing up to games in decked out to the nines and justifying the look with performances to match. All in all, it seems Bron decided that the city wasn't worth trying to make this laugher of a ball club un-funny. Can you really blame him?

So after suffering such merciless rejection, why is this Knicks fan looking up for the first time in years? Well Amar'e doesn't hurt; anyone who can go through microfracture surgery and not only come back a year later, but begin to dominate again so quickly is just plain nasty. Here is a signing that is indicative of the intelligence, resources, and — most importantly ambition of a basketball team based in New York. Yeah, they inexplicably drafted Andy Rautins.

But Raymond Felton can ball; he was ill in college and is getting even better as a pro. Moreover, he has a relationship with the younger D'Antoni brother (also a coach), from their AAU days. Between this connection and the mustachioed Mike having coached Amar'e in Phoenix, that's a flash of a concept we haven't seen for a while in the blue and orange. Chemistry, folks, sweet chemistry. That's right, we're seeing an attempt to put together a team and not just a cavalcade of anonymous 6'7" SG/SF tweeners being paid 50 mil over 6 years to put up 12 and 7 a night. Yeah, D-Lee is gone, but Anthony Randolph is a young, exciting, big man, Ronny Turiaf is a very big man, and a healthy Kelenna Azubuike can slash, dash, and occasionally wet a jumper. Wilson Chandler is nothing flashy, but a solid 2-guard, with the obligatory cool tats. Danilo is a viable 3-point specialist who hangs out with chicks and Bobby Bacala.

This Knicks team is not a group of world-beaters. But this is a Knicks team With basketball players. And as depressing as it is to admit, that simple fact, in and of itself, means something. Here's to a new hope and a new season.