The Sound of One Hand Bashing

Phil Jackson is being lambasted by the media, pundits, and talking heads who often aren't very knowledgeable.

The criticisms range from complaints about the -cough- "value" of trade assets could-have, should-have, would-have been.  In hindsight, everything is much easier to process than in the moment.

Fact of the matter is that Dallas seemed to be the only team willing to trade for Chandler AND Felton for what Jackson legitimately hoped would be value.  Calderon has been a disappointment thus far, Dalembert is long gone but the real prizes; second-round picks Early and Tenacious won't begin to realize their potential until next season.  The short-sighted fan view is that the Knicks were short-changed in this trade.  By next year, the opposite may likely be realized.

The trading of Shumpert and Smith also draws the ire of certain disgruntled fans.  Shumpert and Smith are a better fit in Cleveland than the were here.  Critics assume Amundson and Lance Thomas are inadequate compensation, yet both look to be long-term investments for a solid bench.  The additional cap space will come in handy and the second-round pick is yet to be exercised.  JR is a mercurial talent whose dark side troubled potential trading partners and Shumpert was not being resigned nor was there a eager market for him.

In retrospect many, many things coulda, shoulda, woulda been different.  But the fact of the matter is that Jackson and his staff knew they were heading for a summer of housecleaning and signing of free agents.  Whether or not Jackson had planned on competing is irrelevant.  He's no fool and could see early in the season that this team may as well play to secure as good a draft position as is possible.

Fans and pundits who ridicule Fisher are equally wrong-headed.  Fisher has been a breath of fresh air when he's interviewed and he has conditioned his players to keep their eye on the bigger picture - be professionals, keep your head up, play hard - the losing is not about you.

Finally, the miserable commentators on ESPN and TNT are a bunch of grade A bastards.  They ridicule the players we have and treat them like dirt.  There is no end to their disrespect or cruelty - after all this is NY and anything goes.

In a few years when the Knicks are winning, these same assholes will be telling their audiences that they knew all along that Jackson would succeed, that Fisher was a much better coach than those first years indicated and that many of the players who they bashed so mercilessly were in fact ballers whose trial by fire made them special.

Anyone who buys into the idea that the roster cannot win games is a fool.  They can and if they did so would prove nothing.  Having a mediocre record or even a respectable record is more meaningless than being called incompetent, a terrible coach ora D-Leaguer.

The current Knicks organization gets this, Anthony gets this, and the players get this.  This is called the school of hard knocks.  It won't be long.