The Little Engine That Couldn't

With many in the Bush administration leaving, one would hope that they'd take a few New York Knick executives with them. This year was terrible for the Knicks. Certainly, losing is bad. However, what bothered me more was the lack of effort on most nights.

I'm a Larry Brown guy. Larry Brown wasn't able to turn the Knicks around this year; that's obvious. The fact that he couldn't motivate his players does raise questions about his ability to coach this team. If Larry doesn't come back, I hope we turn back to Herb Williams. He has been a long time Knick, player, assistant coach, and head coach. While he was head coach, at least the Knicks played hard. Perhaps lower expectations will actually create better results.

I am not one to call a player out, at least not one on my favorite team, but the Knicks need to get rid of Stephan Marbury. He has left three teams that have become great teams after his departure already. He's not a winner and his game doesn't compliment anyone else in the league.

Being the eternal optimist that I am, here are the bright spots in the Knicks' future. Obviously the three rookies and Eddy Curry is a good start. I was upset to hear that Larry Brown doesn't like Nate Robinson's game (considering they're both 5'9"), but I hope we keep Nate. We don't have a high draft pick in this year's draft. How can that possibly be good you may wonder? Well, we don't need another pre-madonna thinking he's the team's savior only to be another Marbury. Isiah Thomas has shown that he drafts well and perhaps he can find another gritty player later in the draft, who will give this team some heart.

As for the rest of the league, as with everyone else, it is atrocious that the 2nd best team in West gets the 4th seed and has to play the best team in the 2nd round. Equally as bad is that the Nuggets, the 3 seed, don't get home court advantage in the 1st round. They should actually be seeded worse, but the NBA must be consistent. The better seed should get home court advantage no matter what their record is. If they have a worse record, give them a worse seed.

To rectify this, the NBA should either guarantee each division winner a top 4 seed (which would give them the home court advantage in the first round) or simply guarantee each division winner a spot in the playoffs, but seed according to record.