You can thank the union for the lockout is seven times more frequent than Halley’s Comet, which is every 75 or so years.

Ken Berger has the full scoop on the link to the right of this page.  Reading about the lockout is more confusing than an Escher print.  I would prefer not to.

The lockout is almost here.

Just when the Knicks were on the verge of getting good.

We finally made the playoffs.

We have two all-stars in Carmelo and Amar’e, a proven, veteran point guard in Chauncey Billups.  We have young interesting pieces such as Landry Fields and Shawne Williams.  We have relative unknowns such as Jerome Jordan, Iman Shumpert and Josh Harrellson.

We are well aware of our weaknesses, no defense, not enough rebounding, not enough size, not enough perimeter shooting.

How much can this team improve going forward, now that the team’s great architect has been laid off by the great tyrant?  This team as it is currently constructed is entirely Donnie Walsh.  Walsh will not be able to see the fruits of his labor from the same seat he occupied in section 52, about six rows behind the team bench.  Instead he returns to Indiana, confident he built up a good team, but ever so doubtful James Dolan will keep his hands off of it long enough to see the promise land.

In a way the impending lockout is a blessing, the longer it lasts, the less damage Dolan and his yet-to-be appointed yes-man will be able to inflict on the now improved yet admittedly imperfect roster.  Dolan is still trying to prove how down he is, so Maverick Carter, World Wide Wes, these people from CAA will waltz into the Garden and request trades, court side champagne to pour onto the garden’s floor, M&M’s of a certain color, whatever they want.  It’s on Jimmy.

Dolan held it against Walsh that he didn’t land LeBron, even though LeBron’s stock has plummeted, both in terms of marketability (remember that one financial company that suggested the only team LeBron could make a billion with was the Knicks, that he had 0% chance of making that much if he chose to go to the Heat?  Same kind of psychic powers Starks4ThreeYes seems to possess) and in terms of validating himself as the “King” on the court.  He might be the top talent in the game, but he has yet to show up in any of the Finals games he’s played in, and right now, I’d rather have Carmelo Anthony than LeBron James because at least Carmelo wants to be in New York, wants to make New York a winner again.  He’s a real man.

So the casual Knick fans are just waiting for CP3 to arrive to dust off their Knicks uniforms and wear them in public.  The die-hards continue to go to the games, pray Isiah stays in Florida and away from 2 Penn Plaza.

The last time there was a lockout, the Knicks made it to the finals in 1999.

At that time,we had Sprewell in his prime, Marcus Camby in his prime (I’d take him now, thank you), Houston, an injured Ewing that thought he’d have another shot at it (he didn’t).  I don’t remember the shortened season sucking, I just remember how well my Hail Mary’s seemed to be working once the playoffs hit.

The season was over the moment the Melo trade was completed.  Kenny Smith said as much on TNT when he said the trade was not made for this season, but for the future.  We have two of the top five scorers in the league, but no defense, and a coach that doesn’t emphasis much defense, despite being a defensive player when he won all those championships in Italy.

We need to look at Przybilla, or Dalembert, or any shot-blocking big man that will agree to come aboard for a one-year contract.  We probably will be a better team next year, if for any other reason because we will have some sort of training camp together.  Honestly I’m not sure how training camp will work if there is a lockout.

I hope Jerome Jordan is better than Jordan Hill.  I hope Jerome Jordan is better than Jerome James, for that matter.

I still would like to believe that if the Knicks make the playoffs, that Jim Dolan would have enough common sense to extend Donnie Walsh to stay at the helm of the New York Knicks franchise.

The other two guys, they each got four full years to run the show in New York, why should Donnie be treated any differently?  By my count, it has only been 2.5 years for Walsh to turn the tides of failure into a championship caliber team.

I don’t care for the NY Press, trying to push Dolan into making a decision right now, like a bunch of bullies (indeed they were language arts dorks in high school, but secretly wished they were jocks), they may have a point, Donnie should be treated better, but I am skeptical when it comes to some of these writer’s intent.  Some of us actually love Donnie for the Knicks team he assembled, other people like Adrien Wojo, may just be looking for sensationalism.  You don’t have to work for the NY Daily News to look to get a rise out of your readers.  The fact is, the last time Dolan made a mid-season contract extension, it was a colossal mistake with dire consequences and new all-time lows for Knicks fans everywhere.

Still, if Dolan doesn’t end up keeping Donnie on, it’s time for me to choose to not live with the insanity of being a Knick fan while James Dolan is the owner.  Cancel my subscription to your demolition.  Send my credentials to the house of Prudential.

For other die hard Knick lovers, such as Tom Brokaw, that day came years ago.

For me though, in my eyes, the greatest Knick since the legends of Patrick Ewing, Clyde and Willis, is Donnie Walsh.

Sometimes cancers can be too big to remove.  Left unchecked, they will end up killing the organism until the living, breathing spirit is dead and gone.

It’s a damn shame too, I have no doubt Knick fans are the greatest basketball fans on this Earth.  No one at 2 Penn Plaza knows this to be true more than Donnie Walsh.

No one else could have come up up with Knicks Legends night.  Maybe one day Donnie Walsh will be honored during Knicks Legends night.

It has been a while since I’ve seen an NBA article by George Willis, good to read he’s still around.

Tough game to watch last night. They were able to control the tempo, which of course, spelled our doom. After the first quarter we had 31 or so, I thought it was still possible, but with Lee was on the bench for a good portion of the fourth, and Nate not able to stop Felton from driving into the paint due to the size difference, we started clanging three point shots because that was all we could get, and that was that.

It was a winnable game, because Charlotte didn’t have a strong offense, but they had that Larry Brown stamp of approval defensively, and it completely disrupted what D’Antoni hoped to do on the Garden floor last night.

Kudos to the former D’Antoni players Bell and Diaw, they both played very well for Charlotte.

Brown said before the game that if the Knicks make the playoffs that Nate should be considered for the Sixth Man of the Year award. Nate has certainly been the scoring catalyst for this team since the all-star break. Yet I still think with all his physical talent, he could do even more defensively, i.e. reading the passing lanes and anticipating, just being a ball hawk like Mookie, Payton or even that other guy that used to play for Charlotte, Muggsy. The talent is there, it is just a matter of how he wants to use it.

I apologize for the lack of posts towards the end of July. Not much happening in Knicks land right now, so I figure we might as well take inventory of just what we had at the end of 2007-2008 New York Knicks season, and what exactly we have as of right now, having just past the midpoint of the off-season.

Of course, this can all change at any minute. The powers that be continue to alter this well-documented losing roster. Considering the low stock value of some of our more expensive players, it may take some time to really put together a cohesive and competitive Knicks basketball team.

My barber is from Italy. He’s around 70 years old, an old-school guy named Pete. I don’t know how much Pete really knows about NBA basketball in the 21st century, but I was getting a cut the other day, and I was talking to Pete about D’Antoni and Gallinari and he said “watch them win the title next year.” I laughed, and respectfully replied, “I think it’s going to take a little more time before they can compete for a title.”

But I like the positive thinking. You have to aim high if you’re going to hit your mark. I hear that’s what D’Antoni is all about. I’m just glad they’re no longer pouring gasoline on the salary cap fire. Just because MSG has money to burn doesn’t mean they should literally burn it. We’ve had this problem since the days of Patrick Ewing, trying to get the quick fix. Someone finally stepped up, took the helm and decided to take on a new approach, hopefully the right approach to the problem.

Half way through the season defenders and I won’t lie to you: it has been a tough season for the orange and blue. I want to know how everyone sees this going down, check out this survey and please take the time to be honest about these knicks.