Lenny, Lenny, Lenny

Click here (it's in Japanese but worth the watch).

I Miss Jim Carroll

Cablevision wants to Give LeBron a 'Channel'

Kinda like Stephon Marbury. Baby powder manufacturers are lining up as sponsors.

There's even talk of Oprah retiring.

Let's Get Optimistic

That's right. Let's get downright loopy.

While most of us remain dazed and confused by the bottomless void this summer has produced for the Knicks, let's dream the impossible dream before the season opens and stamps out any embers of hope we may have.

Marvel comics used to produce a series called, What If?

Let's borrow the concept and see what a dream season might look like.

Eddie Curry has long intrigued fans because of his sheer size and background as a gymnast. The perennial disappointment of watching him demonstarte apathy and indifference has long driven us all to just want him out of here.

But what if, Eddie Curry has an epiphany and suddenly becomes a low post presence? Even if he simply plays up to his best season performances, this would be a major improvement at the center position. In a realistic dream scenario Curry would become a scoring center, not much D and not many rebounds but a body to be contended with down low, five hard fouls.

That brings us to Milicic. Darko was drafted high for potential that came and went. He will never be a superstar. But in a dream season, could Darko become a Mutumbo-like presence who can tag-team with Curry on a situational basis? In other words can Darko bring rebounds, blocked shots, passing and just a little offense to the center position?

In a dream season he can and does.

Jordan Hill. You can't teach size. But in a D'Antoni playbook it may be Hill's athleticism combined with size that is the secret sauce to exhausting the other team's front-court. In a dream season, Curry would be the physical presence, Darko the defender, and Hill the pestering Rodman-like gnat who would be used against teams already tired by schedule or injury, a guy would draws fouls and dismantles the opposing team's starting front-court.

In a dream season, D'Antoni acquires some of the satistical smarts of JVG and wins not only with a system but with an attention to the details of how the opposing team fails. Are they tired, who's hurt, who's hot or cold - push the buttons.

At PG, Duhon will need to play in top form all season. He'll have to dry out and party a lot less often for that to happen. But it could. In a dream season, he is mentioned as a most improved player - let's not assume an elite PG but a steady, dependable one.

Nate Robinson simply needs to continue being N8 without the self-destructive antics that lose games, cast doubt on his maturity, or lose games.

Toney by virtue of Walsh's inaction may already be a backup PG. In a dream season, he realizes his value is in defense and is utilized to hold leads or shut-down opposing team's scoring runs. In a dream season he will have to be a reliable backup PG, no more no less.

The glut at the PF position will settle itself into David Lee starting and providing the bulk of minutes backed by Jeffries and Chandler. In a dream season Lee's offense continues it's pattern but david learns to be a effective defender. Chandler becomes an energy booster off the bench and Jeffries provides lock-down defense as needed.

At SF, Al Harrington finally proves he is a consistent day-to-day starter, Gallinari becomes an up-and-coming start and Chandler backs them both with continued growth.

At SG, Larry Hughes has a great year both as a scorer, passer, and defender. Situationally, he sits for Chandler who plays against the league's bigger guards.

All that speculation leads to the key question... How many wins does that team produce? Vote in our poll on the left.

Community Hard-on for Rubio?

When Ricky Rubio signed with Barcelona, a strange thing started to happen in the local community. Impulsively the entire community began creating, um, erections. Human erections.

It is unclear if Ricky's signing with Barcelona triggered some kind of heretofore unknown ritualistic response or if this is just an attempt to change very high light bulbs without the use of a ladder. Click the link to see more.



Imagine what could happen in New York! Maybe that's why Walsh is hesitant.

Loyalty

The Washington Post reports the state of affairs in pro sports:

Hill says, her beloved Redskins are forcing her into bankruptcy.

Last year, Hill's real estate sales were hit hard by the housing market crash, and she told the team that she could no longer afford her $5,300-a-year contract for two loge seats behind the end zone. Hill said she asked the Redskins to waive her contract for a year or two.

The sales office declined.

On Oct. 8, the Redskins sued Hill in Prince George's County Circuit Court for backing out of a 10-year ticket-renewal agreement after the first year. The team sought payment for every season through 2017, plus interest, attorneys' fees and court costs.

Hill couldn't afford a lawyer. She did not fight the lawsuit or even respond to it because, she said, she believes that the Bible says that it is morally wrong not to pay your debts. The team won a default judgment of $66,364.

"It really breaks my heart," Hill said, her voice cracking as the tears well and spill. "I don't even believe in bankruptcy.

"We are supposed to pay our bills. I ain't trying to get out of anything."

Hill is one of 125 season ticket holders who asked to be released from multiyear contracts and were sued by the Redskins in the past five years. The Washington Post interviewed about two dozen of them. Most said that they were victims of the economic downturn, having lost a job or experiencing some other financial hardship.

from John Grimaldi's, For Redskins Fans, Hard Luck Runs Into Team's Hard Line.

The fan? A 72-year old grandmother. Redskins fan since 1960.

Nice.

Deja Rubio

It has become abundantly clear this summer that the lost opportunity to sign Ricky Rubio is the biggest Knick blunder since over-paying Allan Houston.

Minnesota sportswriters are already speculating that both Walsh and Kahn can save face bu scratching each others backs. Rubio continues to be a perfect fit in NY and even Europeans are advocating such an obvious match.

While local sportswriters continue to scoff at the idea, the acquisition of Rubio takes enormous pressure off Walsh and the Knicks should "the plan" implode in the coming year. With Rubio in tow, Walsh would need but one major signing and still have change in his pocket.

A resigned Nate Robinson and Jordan Hill should do it.

Breath of Fresh Air

Brooklyn judge actually follows the law when it comes to foreclosures!

From Michael Powell, the NYTimes, A ‘Little Judge’ Who Rejects Foreclosures, Brooklyn Style:

Every week, the nation’s mightiest banks come to his court seeking to take the homes of New Yorkers who cannot pay their mortgages. And nearly as often, the judge says, they file foreclosure papers speckled with errors.

He plucks out one motion and leafs through: a Deutsche Bank representative signed an affidavit claiming to be the vice president of two different banks. His office was in Kansas City, Mo., but the signature was notarized in Texas. And the bank did not even own the mortgage when it began to foreclose on the homeowner.

The judge’s lips pucker as if he had inhaled a pickle; he rejected this one.

“I’m a little guy in Brooklyn who doesn’t belong to their country clubs, what can I tell you?” he says, adding a shrug for punctuation. “I won’t accept their comedy of errors.”

The judge, Arthur M. Schack, 64, fashions himself a judicial Don Quixote, tilting at the phalanxes of bankers, foreclosure facilitators and lawyers who file motions by the bale. While national debate focuses on bank bailouts and federal aid for homeowners that has been slow in coming, the hard reckonings of the foreclosure crisis are being made in courts like his, and Justice Schack’s sympathies are clear.

He has tossed out 46 of the 102 foreclosure motions that have come before him in the last two years. And his often scathing decisions, peppered with allusions to the Croesus-like wealth of bank presidents, have attracted the respectful attention of judges and lawyers from Florida to Ohio to California. At recent judicial conferences in Chicago and Arizona, several panelists praised his rulings as a possible national model.

His opinions, too, have been greeted by a cry of affront from a bank official or two, who say this judge stands in the way of what is rightfully theirs. HSBC bank appealed a recent ruling, saying he had set a “dangerous precedent” by acting as “both judge and jury,” throwing out cases even when homeowners had not responded to foreclosure motions.

Justice Schack, like a handful of state and federal judges, has taken a magnifying glass to the mortgage industry. In the gilded haste of the past decade, bankers handed out millions of mortgages — with terms good, bad and exotically ugly — then repackaged those loans for sale to investors from Connecticut to Singapore. Sloppiness reigned. So many papers have been lost, signatures misplaced and documents dated inaccurately that it is often not clear which bank owns the mortgage.

Justice Schack’s take is straightforward, and sends a tremor through some bank suites: If a bank cannot prove ownership, it cannot foreclose.

“If you are going to take away someone’s house, everything should be legal and correct,” he said. “I’m a strange guy — I don’t want to put a family on the street unless it’s legitimate.”

Insulting

Bruce Jennings in his SF Chronicle blog has nothing good to say about the Knicks in analyzing Stephen Jackson's remarks:

So Stephen Jackson wants out of Oakland. There's a story to that effect on the wire this morning, quoting Jackson in Dime Magazine, generally a decent source for NBA gossip. Jackson said he "loved" playing in Don Nelson's system, because "it gave me a chance to show everything I could do on the court. It was great for me, but at this point, I'm 31 years old. I have four or five years left. I want to be in a situation where I can continually be in the playoffs and get another ring [he won one with San Antonio in 2003]. So that's where my mind is at right now."

Jackson didn't want to take it much further than that. "It's not about a decision I made, it's just things are in the air right now. I really can't get too much into it right now."

(Update: On his "Inside the Warriors" blog, Bay Area News Group writer Marcus Thompson II said a club source confirmed Jackson's demand, and that Jackson has hired an agent to help find him a deal.)

I have no doubt Jackson is exasperated with the Warriors' recent malaise, but I'd also bet he gives an entirely different interview the next time around. Jackson speaks from the heart, and he does it honestly, but his opinions often depend on his mood. When Jackson appeared on KNBR a few weeks ago, he sounded excited to get back with Monta Ellis and the rest of his teammates. Now he wants out? Oakland became a safe haven for Jackson when he arrived from Indiana, the place where he resurrected an unsavory reputation. He should take a moment to realize that without Nelson, Baron Davis and the enviable mood surrounding the 2006-07 Warriors, his career might have continued to spiral downhill.

Jackson spoke with the magazine during a visit to New York for a promotional event, and he was hanging out with former Warrior teammate Al Harrington. Later, as Jackson mingled with fans, someone asked him about the Warriors' playoff chances. "I don't think I'll be a Warrior next year," he responded. "I'm looking to leave."

According to the wire report, Jackson said he would welcome a trade to Cleveland, Dallas or Houston, and with Harrington standing by, he also mentioned the New York Knicks. "I'm just looking to go somewhere where I can go and win a championship."

As valuable as Jackson is to the Warriors, his absurd contract ($36 million owed through 2013) is a burden to their salary-cap situation and a testament to unbelievably rockheaded strategy. In these difficult financial times, other teams are looking to acquire expiring contracts (readily dismissed from the books), not anything in Jackson's range. So I'm not sure a trade could be worked out with anyone. Tell you one thing, though: If Jackson wants out, the Warriors should try to accommodate him. We've all seen what a tough-minded player he is, but if you get on his bad side, you're in for a nightmare.

I'm sure Harrington got in Jackson's ear about getting as far away from Nelson as he could. The two of them probably talked about building a championship team in New York, a comically misguided prospect just now. Harrington seems to think he's a lock to survive the summer of 2010, when the Knicks attempt to clear the decks to make room for a high-priced free agent, but he's no favorite of coach Mike D'Antoni. The ugly financial climate, in tandem with a major drop in the salary-cap limit, is likely to restrict the Knicks' flexibility. There's no way they would take on a player with Jackson's contract, and the way their roster stands right now, the big available stars -- LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh -- would be crazy to go there.

All in all, it's just another ugly episode along the road for the Golden State Warriors. Given that Jackson and Ellis are so close, you wonder what Monta's feeling right now. None of it bodes well for the coming season.

*This* Is Dribbling!