Copyright New York Daily News
As the regular season in the NBA plays out and stretches out it unfortunately may turn out — at least for the Knicks — that the rest of the Eastern Conference didn’t get the memo that the Knicks going to the NBA Finals was somehow pre-ordained because the Celtics don’t have Jayson Tatum and the Pacers don’t have Tyrese Haliburton. Maybe, in the famous GameDay words of Lee Corso, not so fast. This isn’t about a handful of games at the start of the season, or the adjustment to Mike Brown’s system (it’s almost like the word “culture” being thrown around still when we talk about Aaron Glenn; every time we read or hear about Brown’s “system,” everybody drink). This is about the prevailing wisdom, around here anyway, that the Knicks are so loaded and the rest of the conference is so diminished that it really is championship or bust. That’s what our guy James Dolan clearly decided when he fired Tom Thibodeau after Thibodeau had taken his team to the conference finals for the first time in about a hundred years. Because before we talk about where the Knicks actually are, and how the rest of the conference seems perfectly willing to come out of the locker room and play the season without fear or favor, remember how we got here: They were dancing in the streets outside Madison Square Garden last spring, all the way until Haliburton made a crazy Game 1 shot that seemed to bounce up to the retired jerseys before dropping dead of exhaustion through the basket. Of course that was right before Dolan acted almost insulted that his team lost to a Pacers team that in reality had been one of the two best in the league after Jan. 1 (along with the Thunder). No matter. Dolan fired Thibodeau for losing to a Pacers team that might have won it all if Haliburton hadn’t gotten hurt in the first quarter of Game 7 of the Finals, something the Knicks were never going to do last season. By the way? This was also an Indiana team that slapped the Cavaliers in the playoffs. And we’re talking about a Knicks team that had to survive a first-round rock fight against the Pistons. No matter on any of that, either. Dolan no longer wanted the 67-year-old Thibodeau to be the sideline face of his team any longer, despite the way he had brought the Knicks back from irrelevancy and — did we mention this? — had the fans dancing in the streets. So Thibodeau got blamed. Karl-Anthony Towns got blamed (it won’t be the last time with him, believe me). Jalen Brunson? Not so much. Now Mike Brown is here and preaching patience. At Dolan’s Garden? Good one, Coach, no kidding. This is one of the things Brown said in Chicago the other day, in the runup to the Bulls doing whatever they wanted to Brown’s team on Friday night in Chicago (135 points is still a lot, right?): “It’s hard to get a true evaluation in the first five to 10 games. I think y’all have been in this league long enough, the first month or month and a half, everybody feels like they have a chance and guys are playing hard and engaged and sometimes you have teams that are on top, they’re not going to finish on top.” Well, that’s the plan for the coach’s up-tempo system. Brown is supposed to take the Knicks to the next level because he’s already playing more players, and playing faster. And maybe this all works out so well that the Knicks do make the Finals for the first time since 1999. Or maybe the Bulls, 5-0 after Friday night, are really good and so are the 76ers if Joel Embiid stays healthy. And maybe Giannis and the wounded Celtics are going to play the season, too. The Knicks are deep and talented. So are a lot of teams. But are they talented enough? And it sure does remain to be seen just how much better they’re going to be in Brown’s system — everybody drink — and if they really are going to play more defense this season than they did last season, even if they didn’t play a lick of defense in Chicago on Friday night. We’re also going to find out if there will be less ball-hogging and ball-stopping with their guards. And if they can all consistently pass the ball the way elite teams are supposed to. We’re also going to find out if Brown can get as much out of Towns once Towns fully has his legs underneath him, because that’s supposed to be part of Brown’s job description, as well. Is Towns ever going to be a great defensive player? He’s not. Nor is Brunson. But Towns was a third-team All-NBA selection last season. He averaged more than 24 points a game and more than 12 rebounds a game and you know what those are? Those are Patrick Ewing numbers. He’s also a good guy who wants to win. “Not just a good guy, a great guy,” Towns’ college coach at Kentucky, John Calipari, told me. But it really is the new coach’s job to figure out the best way to use Towns in this new sys… well, you know. Towns is not just another complimentary player on this Knicks team. If Brunson has been ordained as their No. 1, Towns has to be 1A, the way he was a year ago. He described himself as feeling a little bit lost the other day. Something else the new coach, who wasn’t close to being the first choice of either Dolan or Leon Rose, is supposed to figure out The Knicks don’t play their 6th game, a rematch with the Bulls at the Garden, until Sunday night. There are months and months for the Knicks to start looking like an elite passing team, maybe even starting Sunday night. Maybe this group truly can go to the next level come next spring, because the talent is there. Maybe they can scare the rest of the Eastern Conference half to death just because they’re coming off an appearance in the conference finals. Just know that if this version of the Knicks — so much like the last version of the Knicks — does stumble, it won’t be Dolan’s fault, or Rose’s, or the new coach. Remember: In 2017, the Yankees were ahead of schedule when they made it to the American League Championship Series, and into their sport’s final four. Then Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman decided Joe Girardi had taken that team as far as he could. Girardi was out. Aaron Boone was in. You know how long it took the Yankees to get to the next level and make it back to the World Series? Seven years. If it takes the Knicks that long — or if they never make it back to the NBA Finals — maybe they can blame that on Tom Thibodeau, too. WE DESERVED SEVEN GAMES, THE TUSH PUSH ISN’T FOOTBALL & THE NBA IS A LOAD OF … This would have been a World Series to remember even if Kike Hernandez’s running catch in left field didn’t start the pretty thrilling double play that ended Game 6. It still deserved a Game 7. So did we. And for the last time, I want everybody to stop saying that “Game Seven” are the two best words in sports. As my old pal Barry Stanton always liked to say, the best two words are these: “We win.” Can’t believe the Jets didn’t give Woody the game ball after the Cincinnati game. If the Tush Push is still a legal play after this season, then the members of the NFL Competition Committee must have heads full of air. The refs can’t properly call penalties on the Eagles half the time. Last Sunday, they couldn’t identify an obvious fumble or even know when to blow the whistle on it. For the last time, it’s not football. It’s like watching a car get towed. If we ever move on from our Giannis obsession around here — if such a thing is even possible — how long before we start wondering if there’s any way for the Knicks to get Victor Wembanyama? Always gets you right here when Alex Rodriguez calls Derek Jeter “Cap,” just because of the special bond we know they’ve always shared. I don’t know who calling the shots with the YES network didn’t like John Flaherty’s work, but whomever it was has no taste. Scott Woodward is the guy who signed off on the contract for Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M that saw Fisher getting paid $76 million after he got fired. Somehow, thought after a boneheaded deal like the one he gave Fisher, Woodward ended up at the athletic director at LSU. And now we see that school on the hook for $54 million with Brian Kelly as Coach Kelly takes his sunny disposition down the road. There must be a place for a financial genius like Woodward in the current administration. Maybe in tariffs? The minutes-police guys must get giddy every time Mike Brown sends Tyler Kolek into the game. So we can limit the number of times a pitcher can throw over to first base in a baseball game but we can’t limit the number of times Shohei Ohtani can be walked intentionally? How does that work? Billy Donovan didn’t forget how to coach. The Bulls — at least before this season — had forgotten how to give him enough good basketball players. Worth mentioning again that this was Michael Jordan’s idea of load management: He played 82 games nine times. Played 81 once. 78 another. Then, in his last season, the one during which the turned 40, he still went to the post 82 times for the Wizards. You know what the real load is? Load management.
