So You Want Crazy?

So many sports going on and almost no focus this Election Day. How can sports compare with today's Obama-McCain duel? Even with Obama seemingly firmly in control, one must only think back to Bush's surprise win, and his steal of Florida, to keep tonight's interest solidly on election results.

Not that there's nothing happening, especially on the New York sports scene. The Mets picked up Delgado's option, thank God, and are, by all accounts, avidly seeking Brian Fuentes, if not Francisco Rodriguez, to shore up their bullpen. Shore up may not really be the right term; an entire replacement might certainly be in order.

Then, of course, there are the NY Football Giants, yes, your favorite team (probably) and mine, the GEEEE-Men. Even after a decisive win over the Steelers, and then the Romo-less Cowboys, who looked pathetic on Sunday, all the news is about the misbehaving Plaxico Burress, whose production has been down and who has (gasp!) missed meetings and practices (as Iverson says "It's just practice, man").

And speaking of Iverson, you'll notice that the Pistons traded for Iverson, not Stephon Marbury, to replace Chauncey Billups in their backcourt. And a certain N.Y. Times sportswriter says the Knicks have to do something with Marbury. It's apparently more than his sensitivity can bear to see him sitting on the end of the bench, in shorts or in a snazzy 3-piece suit.

Life is crazy. It's always been crazy and seldom is it really fair. It's crazy that one of the Super Bowl heroes should get a nice contract extension and raise, and then seemingly lose all perspective, despite his teammates' pulling for him. But Burress will always be Burress, much as Manny has always been Manny. It can be painful to live with him, but it sure is nice to have him double-covered all the time.

It's crazy that one of the best Knicks guards should occupy the bench when lesser players run around not doing very much. But people make their own beds and Steph is on record as not willing to accept one penny less than the 21 million he has coming to him. And Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni is on record as wanting to play an up-tempo game with good defenders, hardly a Marbury forte.

You want crazy? How about the Browns benching their quarterback Derek Anderson for 2nd-year man Brady Quinn? Anderson's leading receiver, Braylon Edwards, drops more balls than he catches. His All-Star tight end is more concerned with staph infections, and their origins, than with playing. His defense can't stop the run (except, inexplicably, against the Giants) and two of his other potential receivers, Donte Stallworth and Joe Jurevicius, have been hurt. Not only that, but it's a short week, and the Browns need to play Denver on Thursday night. And a loss might kill this year's playoff chances for the Brownies. That's really crazy.

It’s crazy that the Pistons should trade possibly the single biggest reason for their success these last five years or so, point guard Chauncey Billups. Iverson certainly won’t take them over the top. I guess Iverson’s expiring 21 mill contract was a consideration, a huge one, but it certainly isn’t fair to Billups, or the rest of his teammates for that matter.

Of course, all this craziness pales in comparison to other more important considerations in our lives. Take the war in Iraq, for example. A pointless and unwinnable war, it killed and maimed our youth, drained our financial resources, weakened the dollar, and went a long way towards totally destroying our world image.

You want crazy? How about lending billions and billions of dollars to people who couldn’t possibly handle that kind of debt? And then bailing out these criminally-inept companies with our hard-earned money. And doing so without really consulting the populace; after all, we’re too stupid to understand the reasons and the consequences.

You want crazy? One of the questions on my ballot is whether we should take further action to make sure our legislators have to consult the public on any of their fantasy projects, not just some of them. The crooked politicians in New Jersey find a way around everything.

Crazy? How about paying huge site license fees for the right to purchase a seat to a Giants or Jets game? How about the folly of building a new stadium at all? None of these stadiums were really needed, not the Giants/Jets new un-named stadium, not the new Yankee Stadium, not the new Mets home(although it was time for Shea to bite the dust), and not the new arena in Newark that the Devils call home.

Crazy? How about a new stadium for the Rutgers football team? Don’t we have better things on which to spend our money? That this team plays totally forgettable football is not really the point. Who really asked for a new stadium?

Oh, and who can forget the Dallas Cowboys? Jerry Jones is getting a new stadium too, maybe the biggest of them all. Did he really need to take on a guy named Pac-Man? How was that helpful, except to make Terrell Owens look like Mr. Rogers in comparison? Backup quarterbacks? Not for Jerry. Surely, Brad Johnson and that other guy would be able to hold the fort.

Ah hell, I don’t care. Let Marbury stew on the end of the bench. Maybe he can chew on his money, or his contract, while he’s sitting there. Maybe he can contemplate the wisdom of getting himself an agent. I know he’ll enjoy watching Larry Brown come to town on Wednesday.

Play or sit Burress, I don’t care. Personally, I think the Giants would have a lot more trouble winning without him. It’s those long arms, and the speed, and the sticky fingers on those hands, and his teammates really do seem to like him. Is he an idiot? Probably, but I think he’s no crazier than Coughlin in the final analysis.

Yeah, life, it’s as crazy as the choices we have today.

D'Antoni Sono Buoni

After hearing a good deal of nonsense about how Mark Jackson was promised the job, and how it's somehow "confusing" that a bad team would hire a good coach, I was happy to hear both Mike D'Antoni and Donnie Walsh debunk those rumors and express some difficulty in even understanding why a bad team could NOT hire a good coach.

The shock jocks on WFAN and YES did it again though. I keep thinking they can't say anything even more shocking than the day before, but they surpassed themselves today.

One key piece of research, I would think, that one should do before an interview is to know the interviewee's name. After two or three times calling the coach "D'Antonio", they finally managed to correct themselves. They later excused themselves by saying that "a lot of people have gotten it wrong" and "it's a hard name".

I keep asking myself WHY I continue to listen. The answer lies in the fact that their show gets ALL the important interviews. Their show has become so popular over the years that it has become a huge sports forum. And that's to every sports fan's benefit, but, still, for two Italian-American interviewers to botch another Italian-American's name is embarrassing to me, both as an Italian-American and as a New Yorker.

In any event, so far so good with D'Antoni and Donnie Walsh too, for that matter. D'Antoni made it clear that he can coach, he can be flexible, that he didn't come to New York just for the money, that he and his family both love New York, and that he gets along very well with Stephon Marbury.

He also explained that he coaches to the strengths of his team, and he had very skilled offensive players in Phoenix as well as a 6'7" center. He also had to defend his record in Phoenix, as if that record needed any defending, but he made it clear that they lost to San Antonio (THAT'S where they got the "D'Antonio" from, I guess), arguably the best team in the NBA for years.

Mr. Walsh made it clear that he NEVER offered the job to Mark Jackson, that he liked Mark Jackson very much, but that Mike D’Antoni was the most qualified person for the job. And nobody could argue with that, not even those two. He made it clear that, before making any big decisions on personnel, he would first determine his current player’s talents, in what scheme they would be most effective, and only then would he make decisions on acquisitions.

Walsh also made it clear that he would never swap a player with just one year left on his contract for one with three or four years to expiry. That, of course, was a discussion with respect to Marbury, who, although he will earn (well, maybe “earn” is too strong a word) about 21 million dollars next year, it will only be for one more year, and, besides, he made no bones about the fact that he recognizes that Stephon is a very talented player.

Walsh also answered the question as to whether he ever said that he wanted a defensive coach. While he didn’t say that, he clarified that defense is certainly important and stressed the significance of point differential rather than points made or given up on either side of the ball.

Given the stated process, it’s hard to believe that progress will come quickly for the Knicks. That being said, however, Walsh has pulled rabbits out of a hat before with Indianapolis.

And D’Antoni has had success at every stop. From West Virginia to the NBA,ABA and Italian League as a player, than as a coach, he’s been part of winning teams and sometimes championships. Of course, he had incredible success with Phoenix of the NBA. And, judging from the reactions of the Nets’ Boki Nachbar to D’Antoni’s hiring, he’s also a dream to play for.

So what’s not to like? I’m not sure I like his mustache, but I struggle to find anything else. In fact, for as much flak as Knicks owner James Dolan has had to take over the years, he seems to have hired the best possible choices for both GM and now coach.

Let’s see what transpires though. Let’s see what happens when D’Antoni runs smack into the horror of Eddy Curry as center. That to me is a gigantic problem, and will no doubt be D’Antoni’s biggest challenge. There are Marbury, of course, David Lee, Jamal Crawford and Zak Randolph with talent, but the rest of the roster is expendable. Combined with the fact that a few of those expendable players have a few years left on their contracts, some of the problems become long-term ones.

There’s always hope though, especially with good people at the top. And that appears to be in place. If they can sign their probable lottery pick in this year’s draft, success could be right around the corner. After all, Isiah’s team was doing creditably just two years ago before injuries to Crawford and Lee.

When Crawford and Lee returned, however, there was Zak Randolph, who, for whatever reason, never worked out, although he should have been a big help. His stats had been among the highest for power forwards in the entire league. Unfortunately, the fragile Curry never seemed to recover from the challenge of having another inside scoring presence. And neither player played defense.

Isiah always seemed to think he could just acquire good players, and everything else would work itself out. Maybe they did to his mind in Detroit. Isiah never flinched when asked about how Marbury would mesh with another fine scoring point guard, or how Randolph and Curry would co-exist. Of course, they never did, and I wonder to this day whether Isiah is worried yet.

Probably not, he’s got some guaranteed money coming his way. And, no doubt, he’ll still be useful as a consultant. As long as the questions are pointed to past experiences, everything should be just fine in Knicks-land.