And the Knicks Get Worse

If there is one prediction I got completely right from my 2014 predictions article, it was the one where the Knicks would continue to shock their fans.  I didn’t think the season could get any more surprising and disappointing following last night’s loss against the Mavericks.  The Knicks mounted a valiant comeback and tied the game (after being down 8 with a minute and a half to go) only to loss on a physically impossible shot by Dirk.  The ball seemed to hit the back of the rim and then float all the way up to the heavens before gently clanking the front of the rim and lightly falling backwards to its rightful home of a nice, warm net.  Carmelo Anthony stood there dumbfounded, wondering what he did to deserve such crappy luck.  The Knicks had messed up their last possession (yet again) and lost on another buzzer-beater.  This time it wasn’t their fault.  Nobody messed up on the defense; they were just had by a lucky shot.  Now we can count luck and good fortune on the opposite side of the tug-a-war against the 2013-2014 Knicks.  As I said earlier, last night was supposed to be the final nail in the coffin of New York Knicks surprises.  But boy was I wrong.

Today I woke up to see that Raymond Felton was arrested on felony gun charges.  Did anybody see that coming?  On a team featuring JR Smith and Metta fucking World Peace, who would have foreseen Raymond Felton being the first Knick in prominent legal trouble?  The Knicks are now criminally bad.  In basketball reality, the only people that will miss Raymond Felton will be the opposing squads.  Their point guards will have nobody to blow past for the easy layup.  Hell, they may even have to break a sweat to achieve a new career high.  Maybe Woodson will play a different lineup and give Tour’e Murry some more time (he was pretty good in his limited minutes).   Regardless of the basketball implications, the Raymond Felton arrest saga is just another mind boggling occurrence to happen this season.  The 76ers and the Bucks may have fewer wins than us and the Nets may still be a major disappointment, but the Knicks are truly the worst team in the National Basketball Association.  This is the squad other crappy teams tell stories about to cheer themselves up about their own woe and misfortune.  In the future coaches will tell their young players tales from this Knicks season to scare them straight.  They’ll recall the story of how a potentially good basketball team fell to its demons and became a world class laughingstock.  Oh how the students will gasp when they learn all about the constant last second boneheaded decision making that cost us many winnable games.  If tales from the 2013-2014 Knicks do not scare a player straight, then nothing will help that lost soul.  Forget about him.  He belongs to the ages now.

This Knicks team has now reached into the bad form of legendary.  They have become infamous.  I will fully understand if Carmelo Anthony leaves the team and joins another more competent squad.  After seeing this travesty of a season unfold, I will not hold anything against him.  Bad coaching, bad decision-making and bad play has turned this season into a trip of Kafkaesque horrors.  My only solace is that the Yankees are returning in a little over a month.  Otherwise, the Knicks are lost.  And not just for this season, but for as long as James, white man blues band, Dolan captains the ship of the USS Knickerbocker.  This man has proudly put out the most dysfunctional franchise in the NBA for over a decade and turned a once semi-proud organization into a sham of a mockery of a travesty (I paraphrase Fielding Mellish).  Right now all we can do is sit back and cringe at the remaining ride ahead while waiting for the next utterly disgusting development to emerge from the 2013-2014 New York Knicks season.