Is this the reason why the Knicks suck?

2038-01-19T03:14:07Z

During much of my childhood, the New York Knicks along with the Chicago Bulls made the NBA Playoffs worth watching because for one, you knew when those teams went at it in a seven-game series, you were going to get your money's worth.

I vividly remember where I was when Patrick Ewing made an impossible three to send the Knicks to the NBA Finals, at my house with my grandmother, drinking a Capri Sun Fruit Punch in the sweltering Memphis heat.

Five years later, I would witness another clutch performance in the NBA Playoffs by the Knicks as Larry Johnson hit a three that literally brought down the house in the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers, who was at the time, poised to become the new dynasty in the Eastern Conference with players like Dale Davis, Rik Smits, and a still-pesky Reggie Miller.

Almost a decade later, the Knicks have fallen by the wayside due in part to poor management as well as the one thing that many fans of lousy teams go see if the Grizzlies/Clippers/Sonics/Knicks get blown out at home by the Suns/Spurs/Mavericks/Pistons.

The dance team.

Tuesday afternoon at my friend's apartment near the University of Memphis, I flipped through the latest edition of ESPN Magazine and looked at sports' dream jobs, jobs that we college kids could get if we study hard and play less like our mommies and daddies tell us to do while we're in school.

Lost in the shuffle of doing paint jobs for NASCAR teams and public relations for an NBA team was every blue-blooded American boy's dream.

Travel with the dance team, which in this case, was the New York Knicks City Dancers, which was something that came into play a few years back by the Knicks' public relations department for entertainment and visibilty in the New York City area.

And something that may have helped in some way, put a stop to the Knicks' success and turn a once-proud franchise into a laughingstock because of their dingback leader of a coach, one Isiah Thomas, who probably couldn't lead a pack of dogs sledding through the Alaska cold, has run the organization into the ground without any chance to defend itself.

For 60 years, the Knicks' fellow charter member, the Boston Celtics, didn't even think of putting a dance team on the court because Red Auerbach didn't want people to be distracted from the game on the court.

Day after Red dies, the Celtics' dance team make their debut and dances their way through one of the worst seasons in NBA history.

I guess they didn't pay attention to the Knicks' blueprint for dancing with disaster.

Leftovers From the Bon-Ton

Is this the reason why the Knicks suck?