Just three-and-a-half hours after the Yankees and Joe Torre officially ended their rocky 12-year relationship, I was forced (by my undying love for the feeble Knickerbockers) to sit through two-and-a-half hours of preseason basketball that featured neither Comeback Kid Allan Houston, or the recently-insane Stephon Marbury.
To be honest, I can’t recall why Steph sat out last night, but I know it was nothing major. Having said that, the progress report for Houston is far more bleak. Isiah Thomas sat him down last night because he was concerned that Houston might aggravate his arthritic knees on the second night of a back-to-back. If you ask me, if Houston, 36, can’t play the second night of a pre-season back-to-back after logging only 7 minutes on the first night, I’d say his career is over.
If you ask Thomas, he would agree. After the game a reporter asked if it was accurate to say that Houston has a “slim” chance at completing his unlikely comeback via making the Knicks roster. Thomas’ answer: “I’d say that’s accurate.” So, as of now, it looks like Hou will be beaten out by Fred Jones, Wilson Chandler and company. I’m not in camp so I can’t say if this is fair or not, but I can say it’s disappointing.
Yes, I was one of the many to scream and yell over his massive contract years back. Yes, I used to scream at Allan Houston to “play some (expletive) defense.” Indeed, I fell asleep many a time during a Knicks offensive set which featured an Allan Houston pick-and-pop for a 17-foot jumper from 2001-2004. That being said, Allan Houston’s comeback was one of my 5 reasons I was excited for the upcoming season.
Now that it looks like that may not in fact happen, I want to pose a challenge to you orange and blue faithful: I want you to come up with 5 POSITIVE reasons to watch the Knicks/things to look forward to, when watching the the Knicks in the 07-08 season. I specify POSITIVE because there are dozens of comical, absurd and abundantly negative reasons to want to watch the Knicks. To be more clear, I mean things like:
- Seeing how long it takes Zack Randolph to get caught smoking a joint while driving drunk in his SUV in Midtown and then claiming, “Nah, the joint wasn’t mine. It was Darius Miles’. Oh, wait…he’s not on the Knicks? Ok, it was, it was…damn it.”
- Watching each game intently until Isiah decides he’s had enough of female NBA referee Violet Palmer and screams out, “B**ch! Don’t you know who I am?! I run this show!” from the sidelines and is promptly NOT fined by David Stern
- Watching to see if the Knicks can actually finish an entire game without having one, single assist and turning the ball over 45 times…hey, are you saying it’s not possible?
- Watching to see if James Dolan actually starts drinking again during the season.
While likely, all of these things are negative. Funny, but negative…so you can’t use them, capiche?
Here’s my list of 5 reasons why I’m excited to watch the Knicks:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Hey, with this attitude, anything’s a positive! I challenge you all to fill in these blanks.
And, in closing, “BRING BACK OAK!!!”