New York Sports Scoop

It’s interesting how professional sports teams adopt an overall strategy and stick with it for years, even decades at a time. This happens for a variety of reasons such as, a basic philosophy held by the front office, a need based on a physical feature of the stadium or climate, a certifiably insane owner, or a combination of all three.

For the Yankees, the reason is the short porch in right field which has led to a preference for a lineup full of left handed batters, as well as solid lefty pitchers. The Mets have a pitcher friendly ballpark, and as a result their great teams have been loaded with pitching. Giants Stadium is like a wind tunnel, and thus the G-men have always been better off with a great running game, and a dominant defense. I love Eli Manning, and did even before Super Bowl XLII, and the Giants have proven that, like every other NFL team, if you don’t have a solid QB it’s almost impossible to win a Super Bowl, but in order to get there they’re best off running and playing defense. The Jets also play in Giants Stadium, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve had anything resembling a team strategy over the last 35 years, unless of course you consider pissing off every single fan during the draft a strategy.

That leaves the Knicks. Since, like all other basketball teams, they play in an indoor venue so their strategy isn’t nearly as affected by nature. I’ll be honest I don’t know all that much about the Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Knicks teams that won a couple of titles in the early 70’s. I know, I know, how can I write about NY sports and not know about what are widely considered the best Knicks teams ever, right? The reason is the Knicks were the only show in town just as I was reaching the age where I could really understand sports, and form connections to players beyond what my father told me of them. The Giants stopped being good when I started middle school and the Yankees were awful until I was in high school. As a 12, 13 year old football and baseball fan I needed to look to the past to find great teams and players. The Knicks were different. During the prime of my sports-fan development the Knicks gave me Patrick.

I had planned to write a bit about Ewing but I’ll refrain because that is a post unto itself. I have never lived and died with an athlete like Patrick Ewing and my thoughts and opinions on him will take me completely off point, which is, as a Knick fan I love a tough defense. The best thing about Patrick’s game, more than his turn around jumper, was his defense. He dominated the middle. His presence alone changed the offensive game plan of nearly every team the Knicks played. Even the Bulls of the 90’s complained about how physical the Knicks were on defense, while the rest of the league complained about the Bulls. This was the type of basketball I grew up with. I love a dominant big man, and I love great defense.

So needless to say, I’m a little worried about the idea of drafting the Italian fellow. I’d love it if D’Antoni could make the Knicks competitive again, I would just prefer he would do it without someone who looks like a member of the Gotti family. And just to be clear, I’m not making fun of Italians, I’m making fun of Danillo Gallinar, and his haircut:

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