Expectations were high and the results were dismal, so the Knicks decided to chase after the best available coach and gave him the richest contract in the league to transform an underachieving team into a winner.
Among the many leaps of faith taken in franchise history, the one that brought Pat Riley to Madison Square Garden in 1991 ranked with the best of them.
The Knicks were coming off a 39-43 season. But Riley fashioned them into instant contenders, taking them to the Eastern Conference semifinals the next four seasons, with two trips to the conference finals and another, in 1994, to the NBA finals.
It is one of the brighter chapters in Knicks lore, and a relevant reference point with the imminent introduction of Larry Brown as the team's new coach and savior. Eager optimists will surely draw parallels because Brown inherits a team that won 33 games last season and has not won a playoff series since 2000.
But the reclamation project placed in Brown's hands is in worse shape than the team Riley inherited 14 years ago. And the road ahead promises to be much tougher than the coming pomp and circumstance would suggest.
Brown will be introduced as the Knicks' 22nd head coach at noon Thursday at Madison Square Garden. It took two solid days of negotiations -- which were completed Wednesday night -- a week of heavy lobbying and a contract that will pay more than US$10 million a year to land Brown. That will prove to have been the easy part.
When Riley stepped in -- for what was then a league-high US$1.5 million a season -- he was immediately able to work with a solid roster. The Knicks had one of the best centers in the game, Patrick Ewing, and they had hard-nosed role players with All-Star abilities -- guards Mark Jackson and John Starks and forwards Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason and Xavier McDaniel.
The Knicks as currently constructed are expensive and flawed, and it will require much more than Brown's coaching genius to revive their winning spirit.
The Knicks' best player, Stephon Marbury, might need to change positions or, at a minimum, change his approach to the game.
Their trigger-happy shooters -- Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson and Maurice Taylor -- will have to tame their scoring lust and add a defensive edge.
Their young players -- Mike Sweetney, Trevor Ariza and the rookies Channing Frye, Nate Robinson and David Lee -- will have to grow up quickly and develop thick skins, or get used to sitting on the bench.
Their new center, Jerome James, will have to develop an NBA work ethic. But then, that particular requirement might apply to most of the roster now that Brown is in charge.
"If you know the locker room the way I do, sometimes basketball is not the No. 1 priority until you step on the floor at 7:30," forward Jerome Williams said Wednesday.
From that 7:30PM tip-off until the final buzzer, Williams said, the Knicks do work hard. It is the hours between games that have been an issue.
"And one thing that he's going to stress," Williams said of Brown, "is he's going to get some of those fill-in hours as being the most important thing. And that's the difference. Don't get me wrong, everybody's here to be a professional, everybody's here to play, to work hard and do the things that they think are going to win games. With Larry Brown, the difference is the mind-set of the players will have to go up a few notches.
"They might have thought they were trying to be about the game during those other hours, but now they'll reach a new level of understanding," Williams said. "That only comes with a coach like a Larry Brown."
Asked whether the Knicks would respond well to Brown's demanding style, Williams said, "There might be a lot of soul-searching."
But some of the Knicks already fit the Brown mold.
SSC Napoli will have to wait one more week to seal the Serie A title after on Sunday being held to a goalless draw at Parma, while closest rivals Inter drew 2-2 in a dramatic game with SS Lazio. Antonio Conte’s team stayed one point ahead of Inter and were unfortunate not to win after twice striking the woodwork through Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Matteo Politano, while Scott McTominay also had a free-kick tipped onto the crossbar. The away side thought they would be handed a chance to take the points from the penalty spot in the 96th minute when David Neres
Omar Marmoush’s stunning long-range strike on Tuesday upstaged Kevin de Bruyne on the Manchester City great’s Etihad farewell. Marmoush let fly from about 30m to put City ahead in their 3-1 win against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League. The victory moved Pep Guardiola’s team up to third in the standings and left qualification for the UEFA Champions League in their own hands heading into the last round of the season. “It’s really important. To be in the Champions League after what happened [this season] will be really nice,” the City manager said. De Bruyne was making his final home appearance for City before
TIGHT FINISH: Napoli only needed to do the same as or better than Inter, who won their game against Como 2-0 on the same day, leaving Napoli with a one-point lead The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli their second Serie A title in three years on Friday. Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari. Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams. “Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.” Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won
The journey of Taiwan’s badminton mixed doubles duo Ye Hong-wei and Nicole Chan at the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur came to an end in the semi-finals yesterday after they suffered a 2-0 loss to China’s Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Ye, 25, and Chan, 20, teamed up last year and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world. The Taiwanese shuttlers took on China’s second seeds in the mixed doubles event, but proved no match for Feng and Huang, losing the match 10-21, 7-21. In the first half of the first game, the pairings were neck and neck at 6-7 until Ye
RSS