Your Communist New York Knicks

To write about Isiah Thomas these days seems like piling on. He’s been skewered by journalists, players and especially the local fans. Today they took to the streets to protest his mere existence in their beloved organization.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/sports/basketball/19garden.html?_r=1&ref=basketball&oref=slogin

Normally I’m opposed to franchises kowtowing to the general public because it often leads to both fiscal and personnel errors in judgment. This is especially evident in the wake of recent success and years of connection to one team. For instance, many of the faithful Red Sox Nation wanted to bring back local heroes like Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe following the sweet, sweet victory in the 2004 World Series. Because of their success in the aforementioned series and the body of work throughout their careers they were offered big contracts in the off season by other teams. Loyalty schmoyalty. The future looking Red Sox severed ties with their now overpaid and over the hill heroes and moved on. They almost certainly wouldn’t have won the World Series this year or be in line to consistently compete if they still had those two pitchers filling spots in their rotation. But I digress.

The purpose of this post is to compare the current Knicks organization to ‘communist countries’ like Venezuela, Russia and Iran. I use quotes because these countries are actually ‘republics’ with leaders elected by the general populace.

Inefficient use of raw materials – Check
Iran has some the biggest oil reserves in the world and yet their economy suffers because they don’t have the wherewithal to properly refine the oil. A tax ration was imposed on the citizens earlier this year that caused riots. The NY Knicks are paying more players not to play nearly as much as some teams are paying their players to participate in the 07-08 season. The players that are ‘contributing’ to the current season are doing so at a clip that would make the mid to late 90’s Clippers look like the current Celtics.

Corruption – Check
This one is fairly easy. Sexual harassment costs the franchise 11.5 million and management doesn’t do anything to reprimand the source of the problem. Sounds like a culture bereft of integrity and chock full of corruption. I could link to a number of stories detailing rampant corruption amongst government officials in these countries, but I won’t because government corruption seems to be a fact of life regardless of what type of government is in place.

Propaganda machine – Check
Many of these countries operate their own TV stations that disseminate information to the masses. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/05/28/venezuela.protest/index.html
The Knicks have the MSG network, which fired Marv Albert for being realistic about the team a few years back. I think it is fair to say that he is the preeminent voice of the NBA and to let him go to the rival NJ Nets is an absolute joke. I’m sure the fans don’t miss him much.

Lack of Free Speech- Check
Can you speak out publicly against the government without fear of harassment?
In Russia, the answer is no.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/015-5754-113-04-17-902-20070420IPR05700-23-04-2007-2007-false/default_en.htm
Gary Kasparov, a national chess champion and opposition party member, was arrested while attended a public rally. The arrest is ridiculous and harkens back to days of the hammer and sickle. Can you speak (or display on poster board) your mind at the Garden? The answer, sadly, is no. Yesterday at the Knicks game, a fan was removed from the building for holding up a sign right behind the bench that said, “Fire Isiah”. I’m fairly certain that had the sign read, “Isiah wears great ties” nothing would have happened. Escorting him out of the building under the guise of maintaining sight lines for other fans is utterly ridiculous.

Protesting Citizens – Check













The NBA – Where amazing happens (except in New York where amazing isn’t on the list of things provided by Mother Knickerbocker.)