A Big Blue win would keep focus off Knicks

Frank Franklin II/AP

New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony (7) and Amare Stoudemire (1) react in the final seconds of the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, in New York. The Knicks won 85-79. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

SAN FRANCISCO Well, because I’m a glass-half-full, cock-eyed optimist, the good news for the Knicks is that their extreme makeover of Madison Square Garden, which the fans sure helped pay for with a rather epic ticket increase, seems to be a great success. The bad news is that success such as this doesn’t extend all the way down to the basketball court.

It is one of the reasons why the Knicks ought to be rooting for the Giants as hard today as any diehard fan. Because a victory over the 49ers at old Candlestick Park means two more weeks of Giants coverage like teams get in the high school paper, and the Knicks get to keep playing dreary basketball covered in the back of the sports section.
But, oh man, if they lose, that becomes a problem for the Knicks, because then there is way too much sports down time between now and pitchers and catchers. At which point there is no good place to put the big-city spotlight except on Mr. Dolan’s fancy basketball team.
It has come to this, fairly early in the season: The Knicks have to hope that when aging point guard Baron Davis comes walking on the court, he will give them more inspiration than Willis Reed.
If the Knicks don’t play better, and soon, Mike D’Antoni may be the one to take the fall, because this certainly isn’t going to be the fault of the de facto general manager, Mr. Dolan. He’s the one who took over the Carmelo Anthony negotiations last winter and gave away half his team to get Anthony out of Denver.
The Knicks had failed to land Le-Bron James. But they needed to make a Heat-like splash, especially if they were going to raise ticket prices as much as 49% after the season. So Carmelo would be the Knicks’ LeBron. Or so they thought. And Chris Paul would follow and, well, you know the rest of it.
So destiny brought Anthony to the 2010-11 Knicks. Anthony wanted his money with a lockout looming and wanted it now. And he wanted to play where he wanted to play, too. Why not? He’s a modern NBA star. Dolan? He wanted an even bigger star to go with Amar’e Stoudemire, whom he’d paid nearly $100 million. And now the Knicks, going into Saturday night’s game with Denver, have a 20-27 record since Anthony came to town. So far it hasn’t exactly been the Dave DeBusschere trade.
Doesn’t mean the Knicks won’t get better. Doesn’t mean they won’t eventually get solid, thoughtful guard play, from somebody. For now, though, they play the way they play, because they are a basketball team named Carmelo Anthony. They get booed off the court even when he gets his points, the way he got his money, get booed into the locker room in their new fixed-up house.
After they lose the way they did Friday night, Carmelo is forced to explain getting ejected in the fourth quarter because he got into a playground chirp-fest with Brandon Jennings on a night when Jennings had outplayed and outscored him. Carmelo said it was because he didn’t like getting “punked.”
Knicks fans, the ones paying those bust-out prices, are the ones who feel like they’re getting punked. These are the same fans who were asked to pay those prices believing the 2011-12 Knicks were about to be some kind of rocket to the moon despite getting swept in the first round of last spring’s playoffs.
A couple of weeks ago, Charles Barkley told me the Knicks don’t defend, rebound or have a point guard “but other than that, things are lovely.” And laughed at the notion that the Knicks, as presently constructed, were going to be a contender in the Eastern Conference. People laughed at Barkley, even though in a short season the Knicks have lost at home already to Charlotte, Phoenix, Milwaukee.
It makes you wonder now who the new Knicks’ savior will be. First it was LeBron, then Carmelo, then Chris Paul. Even Tyson Chandler. Maybe next we will hear Phil Jackson’s name, loud, if D’Antoni gets it. Maybe Jackson won’t care about this mismatched talent and only care about getting his money the way Carmelo did.
Maybe the real question about the Knicks is this: Can you build a championship team in the pros around Anthony, strictly a shooter now, the way Syracuse did when he was a freshman in college? The idea that he was LeBron was always ridiculous, because whatever happened to LeBron at the end of the Finals, he has an amazingly complete game, and impeccable basketball values.
The Knicks need more than Carmelo’s scoring, more than better guard play. They also need depth, but they traded that to Denver. You know how many points they got out of their bench the other night against Phoenix? Seven.
And by the way? We haven’t even talked about what was supposed to be the dynamic duo of Melo and Amar’e yet. Maybe because Amar’e looked happier and better with Raymond Felton than he does with No. 7.
This all goes back to Carmelo calling the Knicks’ bluff nearly a year ago when Donnie Walsh had all the cards going into the trade deadline. You hear now that if the Knicks didn’t pull the trigger, Carmelo was going to the Nets. If you believe that, you believe a 66-game schedule in what feels like 66 days is a good idea.
So, yeah, the Knicks should be rooting hard for the Giants. If the Giants lose, if they move out of the way, the boos for the Knicks could be louder than ever, from seats more expensive than ever. Maybe the only Knicks fans who feel really lucky these days, at least until the Knicks get this thing turned around, are Time Warner customers. They don’t have to watch.