Where's the contract?

Marc Berman of the New York Post seems fairly certain that James Dolan is on the verge of signing Mike Woodson to some kind of multi-year contract with the Knicks. We can then remove the "interim" from Mike's title. I wish I was as sure of this as Berman is, and I suspect Woodson is, too.

Why, exactly, has it taken Dolan so long to come to the conclusion - and that's assuming he's come to the conclusion - that a coach who got a team that was dead in the water to go 18-6 over the final 24 games is the right man to start the next season? I don't know, but it probably has nothing to do with any serious move Dolan might have been making on Phil Jackson - or, for that matter, John Calipari, who probably should have been tested for drug use had he decided to leave his national championship machine in Kentucky for the New York grind house.

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Phil Mushnick remains unapologetic about "New York N-----s" column.

New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick wrote a pretty idiotic column last week (part of which you can read below), in which he suggested Jay-Z should rename the Brooklyn Nets the "New York N-----s." Mushnick remains unapologetic -- since we reported on Mushnick's stupidity last week, he's hit us with a few scathing emails. The gist of his rants: we're assholes, and he ain't no racist. His proof: he claims he outed the deceased, racist, Nazi-sympathizing former owner of the Cincinnati Reds, Marge Schott.

"I'm never comfortable using that word [nigger]. That's the way I was raised. Shame on my parents," a sarcastic Mushnick writes. "The ONE time I spelled it out - for accuracy - I was widely condemned as a racist. So either way, I'm a bigot. I know what's in my heart and my head, the way I was raised, and the way I raised my kids. But you've painted me a racist. Good work, James. And good work, if you can get it."

As we pointed out to Mushnick, we never called him a racist -- not once. We don't know the guy and won't speculate on his racial sympathies. What we do know is that he used the word "n-----s" in a column, which is an incredibly stupid, insensitive things to do -- regardless of the context, or the race of the person using the word.

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www.theknickswall.com

"This series is not over," said Amar'e Stoudemire after Saturday's 100-67 slaughter of the Knicks at the hands of the Miami Heat. "We've got to learn from our mistakes today and get ready for the next one."

Coincidentally, this is exactly how General; Custer's last dispatch from the Little Big Horn read. Perhaps the biggest mistake the Knicks made was in going out with a game plan based on beating the Heat through physical intimidation.

The Knicks committed 21 fouls in the first half alone, giving Miami a 28-5 free throw advantage. The most spectacular foul, of course, was the hit Tyson Chandler put on LeBron James with 1:36 left in the half. Incredibly, coach Mike Woodson, Chandler, and the rest of the Knicks are still insisting that it was not a flagrant foul. Take a look from several angles:

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awwwwkward

For the past year, the New Jersey (soon to be Brooklyn) Nets have banked their hopes on landing superstar center Dwight Howard--either through a trade this season or as a free agent this summer.

And by just about every account, Howard was set on leaving his Orlando Magic for the Nets until a last second change of heart hours before last month's NBA trade deadline.

So Howard probably won't be coming to Brooklyn, which sucks for the Nets on the basketball court, but look on the bright side: his prima donna act won't be here too.

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Police are now looking for a group of vandals that worked Wednesday morning to let subway riders at thee stations across Manhattan and Brooklyn ride free. The group -- wearing masks, hoods and gloves -- chained open emergency gates, taped over the MetroCard readers and posted signs that read, "customers ride for free." According to the New York Times investigators are still trying to determine whether the group acted "as part -- or in sympathy with --" Occupy Wall Street or another protest group. "We don't know who is behind the incidents or what the motivation is," an NYPD spokesman said Saturday. On Thursday, reports emerged that about 20 stations across the city saw gates opened to protest MTA cutbacks. [NYT]

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www.wnymedia.net

​So with the Final Four set -- No. 4-seed Louisville vs. No. 1-seed Kentucky and two No. 2 -seeds, Kansas facing Ohio State -- before we move on, it's time to take a quick glance back at what everyone was calling a tournament of upsets just a week or so ago.

And, of course, there were upsets. None of us will soon forget two No. 2 seeds, Missouri and Duke, going down in flames before a couple of 15-seeds, Norfolk State and Lehigh. But by the time we reached the Sweet Sixteen, as the AP pointed out last week, 14 teams from the six major conferences already had slots - the first time that's happened since 2003.

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This past Wednesday afternoon, an hour or so after Mike Woodson replaced Mike D'Antoni as coach of the New York Knicks, we wrote that it was probably bad news for Jeremy Lin, because Woodson--a product of old-school coach Larry Brown--favors isolation plays for his stars instead of D'Antoni's point guard-favoring, free-flowing, seven-seconds-or-less system.

Later that night, during the Knicks/Blazers game, Lin was the first Knick subbed out--only halfway through the first quarter, by the way--and sat for a lengthy stretch. He finished with 6 points, 6 assists, and 6 turnovers--his worst numbers since that Miami Heat smackdown two weeks ago.

Well, according to a report by the New York Times, our analysis was pretty spot on: Mike Woodson said the ball will go through Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, and if the game comes down the last shot, either one of those two will take it (meaning moments like this--inarguably one of the highlights of this season so far--won't be happening again anytime soon).

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Did he jump or was he pushed?  Irrelevant now since the way things are going it's unthinkable that Mike D'Antoni would have wanted to stick around the Knicks much longer, even with their trouncing of the Portland Trail Blazers 121-79 last night.  

Was he mellow with Carmelo? My guess is that D'Antoni's denial that there was any trouble between him and his coach is probably truthful. Of course, personal differences don't necessarily take into account professional disagreements, namely that D'Antoni wanted to play pick-and-roll and Melo wanted to get the ball on his lonesome.

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One of the leitmotifs of this condensed and frantic NBA season so far has been whether or not superstar center Dwight Howard will be traded.

The 26-year-old Howard, supposedly unhappy with the direction of the Orlando Magic--the only franchise he's ever played for--requested a trade at the beginning of the season.

Much like many other superstar athletes, Howard's desire to leave is less about winning than desire to live in a major market/city, where off-court/field pursuits are more accessible.

Howard's theory is, if he played in New York, Los Angeles, or Dallas (the three teams he wants to be traded to), he'll become more famous, garner more endorsements, and have more off-court gigs (like acting in crappy movies or releasing a terrible rap album, etc).

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It's the time of year for office pools and for articles about what's wrong with college basketball in general and the March NCAA tournament in particular.  Most of the arguments for both are covered by Steve Wieberg in Friday's USA Today.
"Attendance, a key vital sign in any sport, is slipping in college arenas as fans have digital access to games in ways that would have seemed futuristic just a decade ago. Young superstars -- think Texas phenom and now Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Kevin Durant -- play at the collegiate level for one year before seeking NBA riches," writes Wieberg.

"Scandals have tarnished marquee schools (Connecticut and Syracuse), while conference realignments have buried rich and storied rivalries (Kansas vs. Missouri). And coaches' salaries continue to soar, reinforcing the view -- fair or not -- that college hoops is first a business."

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